Myths and legends The nickname "Shoeless" was bestowed on Jackson, not because he didn't wear shoes - he owned an average number of pairs for the day. He did, however, play in a game in which he was trying to break in a new pair of baseball cleats. The new pair of spikes caused some blisters, so Jackson played without them in the next game. When he tripled and pulled into third, a fan in the stands yelled, "You shoeless sonofagun, you!
Jackson carried on a "love affair" with his bats. He believed a bat had only so many hits in it, and when he went into a slump, he discarded the bat and went to a new one - with one notable exception: "Black Betsy," a bat he credited with great powers, but wouldn't use except in dire situations, fearing he would use up the hits in "her.
Joe had a name for his other bats. He kept them in his uniform pocket until he went into a slump. Like the bats, he would throw the hairpins away and start a new collection. It is said, with some authority, that Babe Ruth wanted to improve his swing mechanics when he arrived in the Big Leagues.
After observing some styles, including eventual all-time leading hitter for average, Ty Cobb, Ruth opted for Jackson's smooth, natural stance and swing. Following the revelation of the Black Sox scandal, it has been purported that a kid in the neighborhood of the trial venue, rushed up to Jackson and blurted out the now-famous quote: "Say it ain't so, Joe. By his early teen years, however, the gangly Jackson was already a superb baseball player, dominating older players while playing for the mill team.
It was during this time that Jackson earned the nickname that would stick for life: Shoeless, for hitting a base clearing triple after forgoing a pair of baseball spikes that had started to irritate his feet. While a country boy at heart, Jackson, who was traded to the Cleveland franchise prior to the season, quickly grew accustomed to his new city life and playing in the big leagues.
In , his first season as a full-time player, Jackson, with his trusty bat, Black Betsy, slugged a. The next season it was much the same. Jackson's abilities were such that he drew praise from the mercurial Ty Cobb and even Babe Ruth , who gushed: "I copied Shoeless Joe Jackson's style because I thought he was the greatest hitter I had ever seen, the greatest natural hitter I ever saw.
He's the guy who made me a hitter. A little more than halfway through the season, Jackson was on the move again, this time courtesy of a trade from Cleveland to Chicago, where the outfielder suited up for the White Sox. In , Jackson helped lead his new club to a World Series title. During the season, it looked as though Jackson and the White Sox would again finish the season as champs.
The club steamrolled through the competition, with Jackson hitting. Forced by a broken leg to miss 35 games, Joe saw his average dip to.
Controversy swirled around Jackson during the season. He had spent the winter months headlining a vaudeville show that drew curious crowds throughout the South. Joe enjoyed the theatrical life so much that he refused to report for spring training, threatening to quit baseball and begin a new career on the stage.
Katie Jackson reacted poorly to that idea, and filed for divorce that March though she and Joe soon reconciled. Joe played 30 games at first, but the experiment ended when Joe left the lineup with a sore arm. In Somers, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, decided that he could not afford to keep his two best players, Jackson and Chapman.
He needed to trade one and rebuild the ballclub which was renamed the Indians after the team sold Lajoie to Philadelphia that spring around the other. Somers feared that Jackson would bolt for the new circuit, leaving the Indians with nothing in exchange, so the Cleveland owner solicited offers for his cleanup hitter. The Washington Senators offered a package of players for Jackson, but Somers rejected the bid to await a better one, which soon came from the Chicago White Sox.
On August 21, , Grabiner and Somers reached an agreement. Henry Edwards of the Plain Dealer criticized Jackson on his way out of town. However, he rebounded in , batting. Chicago finished second that season, but roared to the pennant with a win season in despite a subpar performance by Jackson, who was hobbled all year after he sprained an ankle in spring training.
With the pennant safely clinched, the White Sox sent Jackson and Buck Weaver to Boston for an all-star game to benefit the family of the popular player-turned-sportswriter Tim Murnane, who had died in February. Before the game, Jackson won a distance-throwing competition by heaving a ball feet, 8 inches, which was said to be a modern record for a big leaguer. Red Faber won three decisions as the White Sox defeated the Giants four games to two for their second World Series championship, and the last one they would win for more than eight decades.
Several Chicago players enlisted in the military, while others were drafted in the early months of Joe, as a married man, was granted a deferment by his hometown draft board in Greenville, but after he played 17 games with the White Sox the board reversed its decision and ordered him to report for induction. Jackson was the first prominent player to avoid the draft by opting for war work, for which he was severely criticized in the sporting press, especially in Chicago.
Jackson won the factory league batting title with a. He was healthy again, and led the club in batting as the White Sox grabbed first place and held it for most of the season. Joe finished fourth in the league in batting with a. On September 24 Jackson drove home the winning run in the pennant-clinching game against the St.
Louis Browns. The White Sox were considered the most talented team in baseball, but they were also one of the unhappiest. Jackson played barnstorming games for about a decade, and later ran a successful dry cleaning business, The Savannah Valet Service.
Banned Chicago Black Sox outfielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson is shown at left playing in a semi-pro game in South Carolina in and, at right, in AP photo. Shoeless Joe died on Dec. The movie revived debate over whether Jackson should be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame despite the Black Sox scandal. Universal Pictures photo.
But Jackson remains permanently banned from the game, even though his hitting records are still officially recognized. The novel "Shoeless Joe" by W. Kinsella was the inspiration for the film "Field of Dreams. The popularity of the movie has turned the Dyersville, Iowa site of the movie filming into a tourist attraction for baseball fans and a scene of major league games.
Orion Pictures photo. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
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