Column: ‘Shoeless' Joe Jackson's saga is an essential part of baseball history — and could finally come to an end

Chicago Tribune

14-05-2025

'Shoeless' Joe Jackson was a tragic real-life figure from over a century ago whose legend grew in time thanks to the fictional ghost of Shoeless Joe played by actor Ray Liotta in the classic baseball movie, 'Field of Dreams.'
The National Baseball Hall of Fame was created in 1936 in Cooperstown, N.Y. and celebrates the American pastime in all its glory.
While Jackson is acknowledged as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, ranking fourth all-time with a .356 career batting average, he was never voted into the Hall of Fame after being banned by baseball in 1921 for conspiring to throw the 1919 World Series with seven of his Black Sox teammates.
That all changed Tuesday when MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred lifted the bans of deceased players, suddenly making Jackson eligible via a future Hall of Fame Board-appointed, 16-member committee.
Will Jackson finally make it? Or will his involvement in one of baseball's biggest scandals preclude those voters from checking his name if it gets on a ballot?
Shoeless Joe's saga got second billing Tuesday after Pete Rose's reinstatement from his long and storied battle to get into the Hall. Recency bias was no doubt at play, but Jackson's story is one that all true fans should learn.
Here's an abbreviated version of how it played out in the Chicago Tribune, and in this particular column, 'In the Wake of the News.'
Jackson's major-league career abruptly ended on March 16, 1921, when White Sox owner Charles Comiskey released seven of the eight indicted Black Sox players before the start of the 1921 season and the Black Sox trial in Chicago. (First baseman Arnold 'Chick' Gandil had been on the ineligible list in 1920 after refusing to report.)
The Tribune article on Comiskey's decision said the document he penned 'sets at rest all reports that there was a chance any of them would prance around the south side lot next summer if not convicted in court under the indictments voted against them by the October grand jury.'
The Tribune's 'In the Wake of the News' column, which was then written without a byline, had little to say about the news. Under the subhead, 'Those Black Sox,' the column said: 'We fail to get any particular thrill out of the criminal charges against eight Black Sox or whether the hearing will be held at once or postponed. We would have been impressed if the trial had been held a little more than 12 months ago.'
That, of course, was a reference to the 1920 season, where the Sox finished 96-58 and in second place in the American League with seven of the eight players (minus Gandil) who eventually would be indicted. Comiskey had already completed an investigation into the alleged fixing of the '19 World Series and was convinced his players were guilty, but kept it quiet and re-signed the suspected players, giving five of them, including Jackson, raises.
Jackson hit .382 that 1920 season with a 1.033 OPS, and the Sox finished two games behind Cleveland. They were involved in a three-way race with Cleveland and the New York Yankees, were tied for first as late as Sept. 10, and were only a half game out on Sept. 27 with three games remaining.
Imagine if the Black Sox won the 1920 pennant and got back to the World Series with a chance to redeem themselves? We'll never know what would've happened, but it's reasonable to wonder if a grand jury investigation into the 1919 Series was on the players' minds that September.
The grand jury's probe on the alleged conspiracy to fix the '19 World Series for $100,000 began that September, spurred on by a rumor that a Cubs-Philadelphia Phillies game was fixed in favor of the Phillies. At that point, 'In the Wake of the News' grew much more interested in the story. On Sept. 28, 1920, Jackson and Eddie Cicotte confessed their involvement to the grand jury. 'Baseball's Black Day' was the Wake's headline the next day.
'Even those of us who were loath to believe the ugly stories, but were forced reluctantly to a conviction the world series was 'wrong' months before the grand jury investigation, would not have believed such conditions possible several years ago,' the column stated.
The brief item ended by noting: 'The Wake refrains from comment upon the effect the scandal will have on baseball until a twenty-four hours' reflection have matured that opinion.' As the current occupier of the column, I can only say thank goodness 'the Wake' no longer follows the '24 hours of reflection' rule before allowing the writer to toss out opinions.
The grand jury indictments came on Oct. 29, 1920, and the trial played out in the summer of 1921. Meanwhile, without Shoeless Joe or the others 'prancing around' Comiskey Park in '21, the Sox fell to 62-92, a 34-game drop-off, and wound up in seventh place.
The eight Black Sox players were acquitted on Aug. 2, 1921, after the jury convened for a mere two hours, 47 minutes. In the courtroom, Cicotte jumped up and slapped Jackson on the back, the Tribune reported. Cicotte then headed to the jury box and told the foreman: 'Thanks, I knew you'd do it.'
The verdict was read at 11 p.m., and afterward Jackson and the players celebrated in an Italian restaurant on the West Side. Twelve jurors showed up to join the party, and reportedly sang 'Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here' with the players while leaving, according to SABR research.
Our kind of town, Chicago is.
The Tribune's article on the players' acquittals reported Jackson told reporters after the trial's end that he would not return to the major leagues.
'I'm through with organized baseball,' Jackson said. 'I've got a store here in Chicago. This will be my home.' He also said he'd play some ball in Oklahoma and perhaps coach for a university in Japan, adding that he had an offer to 'go before the footlights,' meaning become a stage actor.
But the next day, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis declared, 'regardless of the verdict of juries,' no players who throw a game or listen to a proposal to throw a game 'will ever play professional baseball.' They were banned for life.
Jackson, only 32, was said to have been broken upon the announcement and spent the rest of his life maintaining his innocence. He'd hit the only home run of the '19 Series, went errorless and set a mark for total World Series hits that lasted until 1964. If he was throwing games, he argued, why did he play so well?
But 'In the Wake of the News' opined that Landis was correct in his ruling, adding: 'The accused players are out of baseball. The case is closed so far as the rank and file of fans are concerned.'
The case was closed, but the debate over whether Jackson deserved induction into the Hall of Fame continued for years after his death in 1951. In 1998, Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bob Feller spearheaded a campaign to get Jackson inducted into Cooperstown.
'He was never convicted in court of anything wrong,' Williams said. 'His record in the Series would definitely prove he didn't play to lose that Series. My only great concern is — and I never met Joe Jackson — that I love this game so much that I can't believe baseball would have done anything wrong in any way. But maybe, in Jackson's case, judging a man who was never proven guilty in a court of law, it has done something unfair.''
Chicago attorney Louis Hegeman was hired by Williams and Feller to petition MLB acting Commissioner Bud Selig with a 28-page memo on why Jackson should be enshrined. The Tribune reported they 'put forth a novel argument for ending Jackson's banishment from the Hall of Fame: Jackson's lifetime ban should have ended with his death.'
Selig, however, wouldn't budge.
But that ban shockingly ended Tuesday with Manfred's announcement and the Hall of Fame's follow-up statement that the reinstated players were now eligible. It took 104 years after Comiskey released him, but Jackson finally figures to get an opportunity to at least get on a ballot. Whether the voters end the story on a positive note is anyone's guess.
We can only hope they acknowledge the Shoeless Joe story has captured fans' attention for over a century and added to the game's lore in novels and films like 'Eight Men Out' and 'Field of Dreams,' which directly led to the immensely popular MLB Field of Dreams game near the movie site in Dyersville, Iowa.
That alone should be enough for inclusion in a museum that was created to celebrate baseball.