Joseph "Shoeless Joe" Jackson Biography

1888-1951

American baseball player

Joseph Jefferson "Shoeless Joe" Jackson was one of the most talented baseball players of all time. Babe Ruth, who acknowledged that Jackson "was the greatest hitter I'd ever seen," copied his style, and Ty Cobb once called Jackson "the greatest natural hitter I ever saw." In a still-contested decision, Jackson was barred forever from baseball by commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis over the "Black Sox" scandal of 1920, when Jackson and seven teammates from the 1919 Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Evidence that was to be presented to the grand jury in September 1920 mysteriously disappeared, and he was not prosecuted, but Jackson has never been honored by induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame because of

Shoeless Joe Jackson

the charge. However, sports figures and fans who believe him innocent, or at least not guilty enough to warrant the exclusion, continue to campaign to so honor Jackson.