Shoeless Joe Jackson In The 1919 World Series Scandal

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Though being rife with scandal throughout the 160 year history of Major League Baseball, the 1919 World Series fixing scandal stands out as the most controversial. This World Series was not just controversial for the gambling that was involved, but how the team was managed, and how some players were unjustly punished for their role in the scandal. “Shoeless” Joe Jackson; a player that to this day has the third highest batting average, and has maintained his innocence up to his death in 1951. Jackson has been barred from induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1920. This is a travesty considering Charles Comiskey; then owner of the Chicago White Sox, has been inducted, even though he also played a part in trying to cover up the scandal. …show more content…

Growing up in a southern mill town; Jackson, like many of this era, forgone education to work in the mills. At the age of six years old he was working twelve hour shifts in the mills to help his family out. Life in the mills were tough; many of the other employees would end up losing limbs, or even their lives to the heavy unguarded machinery. Jackson brother Davey was maimed for life from and accident in the mill. During a measles outbreak at age ten, Jackson became very ill and nearly lost his life. He was in bed for two months, paralyzed while he was nursed back to health by his mother. At the age of thirteen Joe Jackson mother was asked if he could play for the mills baseball team. Playing for the team mean Jackson would get lighter duties in the mill and time off to practice with the team. It …show more content…

The Spinners were a minor league club affiliated with the Philadelphia Athletics of Major League Baseball. Jackson signed a contract with the Athletics in 1908, and would only go on to play ten games with the big league club between 1908 and 1909. Jackson played in so few games due to hazing from his team mates, and missing home. Jackson would often leave the team and head home for Greenville. Having trouble adjusting to life in the big city, the Athletics gave up on Jackson, and he was traded to the Cleveland Naps in 1910. He spent most of the 1910 season playing for a minor league club in New Orleans, where he would win the batting title and lead that team to the pennant. Late in that season, Jackson would be called up to the big league club. He went on to play twenty games and had a .387 batting average for that season in the majors. The 1911 season would be Jackson’s first full season, he would go on to set a number of records by a rookie player that year. He set the record batting average by a rookie with a .408 average. This is a record that still stands one hundred and two years later; it was second in the league that year with Hall of Fame player Ty Cobb winning the batting title. That same year Jackson had a .468 on base percentage. The 1912 season Jackson posted a .395 batting average and lead the American League in hits, triples, and bases. Early

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