The Gibbs Ballparks Page
Tribute to
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson
--- Babe Ruth, on White Sox slugger 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson
There's a lot of sentiment regarding the infamous "Black Sox Scandal" in which an investigation disclosed certain members of the Chicago White Sox were involved with throwing the 1919 World Series in favor of the Cincinnati Reds. The ballplayers in question are commonly referred to as the "Eight Men Out" (also the title of the movie which depicts this dark bit of baseball history).
First-baseman Chick Gandil, a team member primarily involved with the fixers, realized it would be nearly impossible to pull off the fix without the participation of outfielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, one of the greatest players to ever step onto a diamond. Jackson became entangled in the mess when he was given a portion of a sum of money that was promised to him in exchange for contributing to the White Sox purposely losing certain of the World Series games. He tried to give the money back and also tried to notify team owner Charles Comiskey that a fix was in the works, but he was unsuccessful at both. He most certainly did not contribute to the fix and his statistics also show this.
In the left column of this page there is a link to Jackson's career statistics (both regular season and World Series). There is also a link to an excellent explanation as to the sequence of events which point squarely to the conclusion that Jackson is innocent of any wrongdoing in the 1919 World Series. Links to four websites about Shoeless Joe are also provided to the left, the fourth of which is from fellow ballpark collector Charlie O'Reilly (you can connect to his ballparks page on my Links Page).
Incidently, infielder George "Buck" Weaver was involved with this affair by the simple fact that he knew about the fix but didn't speak up about it. Weaver also most certainly did not contribute to the fix and there is also a link to his statistics shown at left. Both of these ballplayers' names should be permanently cleared from the 1919 Black Sox Scandal and it should be "Six Men Out" instead of eight.
A photo from the legal procedings appears in my memorial page to the original Comiskey Park in Chicago. Please visit this page for a look at the White Sox players from this unfortunate baseball event.
'Shoeless' Joe Jackson -- Innocent Of Any
Wrongdoing In The 1919 World Series
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