Joseph Jefferson “Shoeless Joe” Jackson was a tragedy in his own time. A baseball legend—by most accounts, one of the greatest all-round players in history—he fell from honor during the “Black Sox” scandal. His Chicago White Sox team became infamous for throwing the 1919 World Series. Jackson and seven teammates were implicated. They were exonerated in court but banned from professional baseball. Jackson spent the rest of his life futilely trying to clear his name.
The poignant Jackson legacy was central to the 1989 movie Field of Dreams and has been a pivotal element in numerous films, novels, stories and poems through the years. Today, a new museum and library in his hometown, Greenville, South Carolina, has become the clearinghouse of Jackson history, photographs and memorabilia. It continues the struggle to clear his name.
Shoeless Joe’s First Job: Mill Room Worker
Jackson was born in 1888 to a large family in Pickens County, South Carolina. Life for untold thousands in the upstate at the time was impoverished. The new industrial boom, textile manufacturing, offered a living, but it paid meager wages for exhausting, long hours. Joe couldn’t attend school. At age 6, he was obliged to begin sweeping cotton mill floors to help his family survive.
Even the lowliest workers have to find pleasure. For southern textile shifts, it was baseball. They got off on Saturday afternoons and blissfully took to the fields in organized mill leagues. As an adolescent, Joe Jackson began to shine.
He got his famous nickname during this period. Oversized athletic shoes he was given rubbed blisters on his feet. In one game, the pain was so severe he chose to go to bat barefoot (and proceeded to hit a triple).
His mill league prowess caught the attention of pro scouts. At 20, he was signed by the Philadelphia Athletics. Two seasons later, he joined the Cleveland Napoleons (“Naps”). In 1915, he went to Chicago.
Fame & Disgrace for Shoeless Joe Jackson
The 1919 episode has been chronicled in great depth. Claims, anecdotes and theories about Jackson’s actual involvement in the conspiracy span the gamut. Officials alleged he took bribery money and fumbled plays, as did co-defendants (famous sports columnist Grantland Rice reached the same conclusion). Supporters believed (and continue to believe) he took no part at all in the scheme. Others surmise he accepted some of the bribery money initially, then reneged and played his heart out on the field.
Jackson hit the only homerun during the 1919 World Series, his 12 hits set a series record, his batting average of .375 was the highest of all players on both teams and he was charged with no official errors.
Joe Jackson Comes Home
After his professional exile, Jackson was loathe to relinquish his great love of baseball. He played in local leagues (reportedly under pseudonyms) but could not earn a living. In 1922, he and his wife Kate opened a dry-cleaning shop in Savannah, Georgia. Ten years later, they returned to their home area, Greenville, briefly to run a dinery, then opening a liquor store. He continued to play semi-professionally until World War II.
He died of a heart attack in 1951 at the tidy brick cottage that today houses the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Library. The facility opened in June 2008. Since its opening, the museum has received thousands of photographs and artifacts from Joe Jackson aficionados around the United States.
Volunteer-staffed, the museum is open free to the public (donations are accepted) on Saturdays, 10-2. Group tours can be scheduled. For details, visit the museum/library Web site or phone (864) 235-6820.
[Read about a modern sports nostalgia fad: vintage baseball games.]
Sources
- Fountain, Charles. Sportswriter: The Life and Times of Grantland Rice. Oxford University Press, (1993)
- Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Baseball Library
Daniel Harmon - Author of more than 70 books, mainly grade-level educational works for the library market. Topics include histories, biographies, ...
