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Joseph
Jefferson Jackson (July 16, 1888 – December 5, 1951), nicknamed "Shoeless
Joe", was an American baseball player who played Major League Baseball in the early
part of the 20th century. He is remembered for his performance on the field and for his
association with the Black Sox Scandal, when members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox
participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series. As a result of Jackson's association
with the scandal, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Major League Baseball's first commissioner,
banned Jackson from playing after the 1920 season.
Jackson played for three different Major League teams during his twelve-year career. He
spent 1908-09 as a member of the Philadelphia Athletics; 1910 through the first part of
the 1915 with the Cleveland Naps/Indians; and the remainder of the 1915 season through
1920 with the Chicago White Sox.
Jackson, who played left field for most of his career, currently has the third highest
career batting average. With his career having been cut short, the usual decline of a
batter's hitting skills toward the end of a career did not have a chance to occur. In
1911, Jackson hit for a .408 average. That average is still the sixth highest
single-season total since 1901, which marked the beginning of the modern era for the
sport. His average that year set the record for highest batting average in a single season
by a rookie. Babe Ruth claimed that he modeled his hitting technique after Jackson's.
Jackson still holds the White Sox franchise records for triples in a season and career
batting average. In 1999, he ranked Number 35 on The Sporting News' list of the 100
Greatest Baseball Players and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball
All-Century Team.
Jackson ranks 33rd on the all-time list for non-pitchers according to the win shares
formula developed by Bill James. |
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