Shoeless Joe Jackson and His Obstacles to Cooperstown

Shoeless Joe Jackson and His Obstacles to Cooperstown

Cooperstown in New York is a shrine where every great player, coach and umpire dreams to get voted in for the baseball hall of fame. The prestige of Cooperstown is insurmountable because it holds all the artifacts and memories of game which is considered America's pastime. To be able to get voted into the hall of fame would mean that one would live eternally in the eyes of baseball fans and Americans everywhere. The problem with the hall of fame in Cooperstown is that there are missing pieces. There is a player who ranks extremely high and has all the credentials to be cherished in the hall of fame but is not represented there. This man is Joe Jackson or more commonly known as Shoeless Joe Jackson. He was one of the eight accused conspirators during the 1919 Black Sox World Series scandal. Joe Jackson with teammates was all banned from major league baseball after the accusations were made by an overzealous baseball commissioner. Jackson's hall of fame career which could have contributed so much more to baseball was cut short and he is now unable to be elected to the hall of fame. Through statistics, trial testimony and clear miscommunications by poor legal representation prove Jackson was innocent of the 1919 World Series scandal.

Joe Jackson was born to play baseball. He never really received a formal education when he grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. He lived in a town where everyone worked in a cotton mill and that is where Joe found himself working as a boy (Gropman, p.7). "In order for cotton mill owners to keep employees working at the mill, they formed baseball teams for employees to play on" (Thompson p.11). This is where Jackson started his baseball playing career at the age of thirteen. This was even where Jackson notoriously got his nickname. He removed his new cleats before an at bat because of a blister. Soon a fan was heckling him from the grand stands calling him a 'shoeless son of a gun.' The nick-name would stick with him the rest of his life.

By the age of sixteen Jackson became local folklore in his area for his ball playing abilities. He could hit, run, catch and throw better than anyone else in the entire league he was playing in. Soon enough Jackson found himself playing in professional baseball (Gropman, p.23). Jackson started playing professionally in 1908 with the Philadelphia Athletics and was traded to the Cleveland Indians. Jackson had very successful stints with both organizations and fans beloved him as well as missed him when he was traded. After playing with Cleveland, Jackson was traded again to the Chicago Black Sox in 1915 (The Baseball Page, 2006). It was not any of the successful seasons which we remember Jackson today with which he had lead the league in many offensive categories for the Cleveland Indians or the Chicago Black Sox. What overshadows Shoeless Joe Jacksons great baseball playing legacy was his alleged role in taking part of the scandal which tainted the 1919 World Series.

The primary root of the scandal was based among two men. One by the name of William Thomas "Sleepy" Burns who was an ex-major league pitcher and had connections with those on the Black Sox. The other one in charge was named Billy Maharg and he was a big gambler and was able to place bets with several bookies. "With big money and even bigger dreams, those two men approached two of the White Sox players, Pitcher Ed Cicotte and First Baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil, about fixing the Series" (Everstine 1998). To ensure that the Black Sox would definitely lose the 1919 World Series, Cicotte and Gandil recruited other players on the team