Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Hall of Fame Debate
It’s amazingly been over 90 years since it occurred, but the legendary’19 World Series scandal most definitely lives on with baseball historians and any enthusiasts of the game. With much controversy these days about Pete Rose and his possible place in Cooperstown, another figure with parallels to Rose is Shoeless Joe Jackson, who played for the’19 White Sox (also known as the “Black Sox”) for their role in throwing the’19 World Series against the Reds.
Jackson had a career that spanned thirteen years, and played with four teams in all. Most notable was his tenure in Chicago, but he also played for the Indians, Athletics, and Naps. His numbers as a professional ballplayer were very impressive.
Some of Jackson’s career numbers include 1,772 hits, 54 home runs, 785 RBI, and a career batting average of .356. Jackson lacked in the power department, but his averages were clearly impressive.
Well maybe not H.O.F. worthy from looking at those right away, but he seemingly hit for average. Now I’ll post his advanced numbers, which are pretty impressive.
Jackson had an OPS of .940, an on base percentage of .423, and struck out just once every 24 times at the plate. These numbers are very impressive in their own right, and make a stronger case for Shoeless Joe.
Aside from the numbers, his biggest roadblock is the’19 World Series incident. Jackson’s team, opposing the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series, lost, and Jackson and all of his teammates were accused of intentionally throwing the World Series in what became known as the “Black Sox scandal”. Despite these accusations, Jackson batted .375 with a World Series record 12 hits. Never made any errors either. One could easily argue that Jackson didn’t throw the series.
I have researched that many say the Reds triples were hit to left field. Most of them anyway, and Joe Jackson was the left fielder. This is actually false. It is a fact that no triples were hit to left field in the World Series vs. the Reds. Now the only flaw in my thinking is that he received a $5,000 payment.
This begs the question: does Shoeless Joe belong in the hall?
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