Shoeless Joe Jackson one of the greatest hitters in baseball history was born on this day in 1887. He was one of the eight players involved in the conspiracy to throw the 1919 World Series for the Chicago White Sox. He had an outstanding series hitting .375. He made no errors in the field. A great book on the Black Sox is “Eight Men Out” by Eliot Asinof. The movie of the same name is one of my favourite sports movies it came out in the late 1980’s. Shoeless Joe was also immortalized as a key figure in “Field of Dreams” He and the seven other “Black Sox” would be banned from baseball by Commissioner Landis. The Black Sox Scandal was the low point in baseball history. Baseball recovered like it always does.
Joe Jackson was a career .354 hitter which is the third highest average of all time. In 1999 The Sporting News listed their 100 greatest players and Jackson was ranked 35th.
I”ve always thought the Shoeless Joe story was a sad one. He was illiterate and took a lot of abuse for it. There is dispute over Jackson being involved in the scandal. He died at age 64 in 1951.
Below is Jackson and Ty Cobb.
slicethelife 
always liked the scene at the end of ‘eight men out’ with john cusack as buck weaver attending a game and the fans speculating if it was shoeless joe or not.
sad story. great hitter
We here in Greenville are sure he was not involved in t he scandal. He was not found guilty by a court. We want him re-instated.