Shoeless Joe Jacksonand the

1919 Black Sox Scandal

byCynthia C. Atwell

LIS 620Dr. James CarmichaelNovember 22, 2006

Table of Contents I. Key Terms P. 3

II. Scope P. 4

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III. Introduction P. 5

IV. Subject Headings P. 18

V. Classification Statement P. 19

VI. Subject Encyclopedias

1. General Information P. 20

2. Biographical Information P. 21

VII. Monographs P. 22

VIII. Dissertation P. 25

IX. Magazine and Journal Articles P. 26

X. Serials P. 29

XI. Web Sites P. 30

XII. Nonprint Media P. 31

XIII. Associations P. 32

XIV. Publishers P. 33

Key Termsbatting average: shows the percentage of times that a player gets a base hit. To find a player’s batting average, divide the number of hits by the number of official times that the player has been at bat. Carry the answer to three decimal places.

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bookmaker: one that determines odds and receives and pays off bets.

conspiracy: a combination of persons banded secretly together and resolved to accomplish an evil or unlawful end.

fix: An instance of collusion or private agreement that gives special or unfair advantage to one of the parties; a sports contest whose outcome is prearranged (virtually impossible for a spectator to recognize).

Grand Jury: in the United States, a group of people who decide whether a person who has been charged with a crime should be given a trial in a court of law.

National Baseball Hall of Fame: museum and library in Cooperstown, NY founded in 1935 to honor and preserve baseball history. Inductees are chosen by ballot by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. In order to qualify for inclusion on the ballot for possible election into the Hall of Fame, a player must not be on Baseball’s ineligible list. A lifetime ban from baseball places a player on the ineligible list.

odds: The ration assumed to exist or actually arrived at with regard to the probabilities of winning or losing and used as a basis for placing bets.

waiver of immunity: a means authorized by statute by which a witness, before testifying or producing evidence, may relinquish the right to refuse to testify against himself or herself, thereby making it possible for his or her testimony to be used against him or her in future proceedings.

World Series: championship played between the pennant winners of the American and National leagues. Series consists of up to seven games with the winner having to win four of the seven games.

ScopeThis bibliography is designed for those interested generally in the scandal

associated with the 1919 World Series and, more specifically, with Joe Jackson’s

possible participation in the scandal. It will provide subject headings, library

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classifications, and annotated listings of materials from the general information

about baseball history and how that made the “fixing” of the World Series possible

to more specific baseball and biographical information on Joe Jackson. The goal is

to allow the lay researcher to decide of Shoeless Joe Jackson was guilty or

innocent of participating in the plot to intentionally lose games in the 1919 World

Series.

IntroductionMuch has been written about Shoeless Joe Jackson and his possible

involvement in the 1919 World Series scandal. Was he guilty of taking the

bribe money of $5000 to participate in the fix of the World Series so that the

Cincinnati Reds would win? Or was he just an innocent, illiterate ballplayer

who went along with the gang because of peer pressure? Maybe the truth

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combines a little of both scenarios. In any case, any investigation of his

involvement would need to start with his background.

Joseph Jefferson Jackson was born July 16, 1888 in Dickens County,

South Carolina. Because times were difficult for his family, he went to work

in the mills as a child, which provided him with no opportunity for schooling

of any kind. The only good thing he had going for him was his ability to

play baseball. At the age of 12, he was already the star on the mill’s

baseball team. He became such a phenomenal hitter that Babe Ruth later

commented that he copied Jackson’s copied his stance and Ty Cobb

commented that Jackson was the best natural hitter.

Joe got his famous nickname in 1908 when he was playing for his

hometown team. He bought a new pair of baseball shoes, called spikes,

and wore them during the game. As new shoes will sometimes fit tightly,

he ended up with blisters on his feet, which made wearing shoes very

uncomfortable. The next day when his team was playing in Anderson,

South Carolina, Joe asked to be benched so he could rest his feet.

Unfortunately, his team was short of players and really needed him to play.

He tried to play in the new shoes, but they hurt his feet so badly that he

took them off and went out to hit in wearing his socks. He hit a triple and

as he was pulling into third base a fan called out, “You shoeless Son of a

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Bitch, you!” That was the only game where Joe played in his socks, but the

nickname, Shoeless Joe, stuck with him forever.

He began his professional baseball career with the Philadelphia

Athletics in 1908 and spent the next two years going back and forth from

the minor leagues to the major leagues. Because he was illiterate, he

found that fitting in with the members of the team to be very difficult and

often relished being sent back to the minors where he didn’t experience

those pressures. When he was with the parent club, he found himself the

victim of jokes played upon him by some of the other players on the team

as well as having to deal with the nasty remarks about his background

made by people in the stands. To his credit, Connie Mack, the owner of

the Athletics, offered to hire a tutor for Joe, but he refused because of the

potential embarrassment he felt he would have to endure. Mack did make

sure that Joe had a younger player around to read menus and accounts of

the games to him. Joe’s wife, Katie, also helped him by reading to him and

signing his name when a signature was necessary. Although he was a

good hitter and fielder, the Athletics traded him to the Cleveland Naps in

1911. Joe played his first full season as a member of a major league team

that year and had an outstanding rookie season. His batting average

of .405 still stands as the benchmark for rookies. The next year he led the

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American League in triples and had a batting average of .395. His success

continued with the Naps, who became the Indians in 1915. The Indians

began to experience financial problems and felt they had to trade Joe to the

Chicago White Sox in August of 1915 for $31,500 and three unknown

players.

The owner of the White Sox, Charles Comiskey, was known as a

man who cut corners wherever he could so he could make a bigger profit.

Although Joe was one of the bigger stars in the American League,

Comiskey paid him less than $6,000 a year to play. Joe continued to play

well, just not as well as he did in Cleveland. In 1917, when the Sox won

the Series, he hit an uncharacteristically low batting average of .305. He

had rebounded by 1919 and helped lead the Sox to the pennant with a

stellar .351 batting average with 96 runs batted in.

By the time the World Series was about to begin, the climate

surrounding baseball had changed. Gamblers were operating in big league

cities with the owners looking the other way. Fixed games were not a rarity

in the early century and the Reds may have indirectly benefited from the

exposure of Hal Chase, a player for the New York Giants. When he played

with the Reds, he became involved with a Boston gambler who fixed

games. Evidence was presented to his present team, the Giants, and the

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first baseman was suspended. This was very bad news for the Giants as

they were involved in a very close pennant chase with the Reds. Without

Hal Chase, the Reds easily beat the Giants and claimed the pennant.

With gambling so prevalently involved with baseball, it’s a wonder

that an attempt to fix the World Series had not been tried earlier. However,

this particular series had factors that made it an easy target. The White

Sox were stronger than the Reds and were expected to sweep the series in

five games. In 1919, the World Series was decided with the champion

having to win five games out of nine. This was done to take advantage of

the new interest in baseball. After that, the World Series winner had to win

four out of seven games, which is the case at the present time.

There were other factors that would assist the gamblers in their

quest. Because Comiskey was such a tightwad, he greatly underpaid his

players. In 1919 Jackson was making $6,000. Compared with other

players of his caliber, his salary was not even close to what a reasonable

owner would have paid for his services. Ty Cobb was making $20,000,

Walter Johnson was making $15,000, and the newest star of the league,

Babe Ruth, was making $10,000 as a rookie. Underpaying the salaries

was just the beginning of Comiskey’s cheapness. Unlike other team

owners who provided laundry services for their teams, Comiskey didn’t.

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The uniforms would go several days without being washed. During the

1919 season the team became so fed up with this that they wore they

uniforms for several weeks. Without being washed, they progressively

became dirtier and dirtier, and the team became known as the Black Sox.

Another factor may have been the dissension of the White Sox.

Because Comiskey continued to cut corners, players were often unable to

meet certain goals to get big bonuses. One such person was pitcher

Chuck Cicotte. Comiskey had promised him a $10,000 bonus if he could

win 30 games in a season. After Cicotte won his 29th game, Comiskey had

him benched for the rest of the season so that he didn’t have the

opportunity to get the 30th win. Comiskey said that Cicotte had to rest his

arm so that he would be ready for the World Series. In reality, he didn’t

want to part with the money.

Dissension among the White Sox players also may have contributed

to their being willing to throw the games. There were many players who

didn’t even talk to each other the whole year. In fact, when first baseman

Chick Gandil was approached by bookmaker Joseph “Sport” Sullivan to

enlist other players to help fix the games, Gandil had a difficult time

deciding who he disliked the worst so he could have enough players to

actually accomplish the fix. He asked seven other players: pitcher Chick

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Cicotte, centerfielder Oscar “Happy” Felsch, utility infielder Fred McMullen,

shortstop Charles “Swede” Risberg, third baseman George “Buck” Weaver,

pitcher Claude “Lefty” Williams, and Jackson. Most of these players

agreed in the beginning. When Jackson was first approached with an offer

of $10,000 to participate, he turned them down cold. When the offer was

raised to $20,000, Chick Gandil told Jackson that the fix was going to

happen whether he participated or not. Reports have Gandil throwing an

envelope with $5,000 on Jackson’s bed and leaving the room.

The plot began to unravel almost as soon as it was hatched.

Because so much money was being bet on the Reds, the odds began to

change. This heavy betting was the first sign that something was very

wrong with this World Series. The plot itself was full of holes as there had

never been a plan as to how the Sox were going to lose the games. Also,

rumors began to surface that the White Sox were going to lose the Series

on purpose. Sportswriters were becoming a little suspicious, but kept their

thoughts to themselves to keep the public interested in the game.

During the first game of the Series, Cicotte pitched the worst game of

his career. He hit one batter in the first inning and then proceeded to give

up six of the nine runs scored by the Reds. He wasn’t the only one playing

poorly. Gandil’s fielding left much to be desired which allowed runners that

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shouldn’t have to advance to the next base. Jackson had no hits that game

but did score one run after reaching first base on a throwing error by the

Reds and then advanced as his team got hits. Eventually, the Reds won

9-1.

Lefty Williams, who was known for his pinpoint accuracy, was the

pitcher for the second game. He ended up walking five batters in a 4-2 loss

to the Reds. In the second game, Joe hit .750 with a double and two

singles.

By the third game, those going along with the scam were becoming

frightened about the prospects of being discovered. They asked for more

money. Having been turned down by the gamblers, the team decided to

really play. The White Sox won the third game 3-0. The Reds were only

able to muster three hits that day.

Cicotte was pitching for the fourth game. After hearing that the

gamblers would come through with more money, his fielding allowed the

Reds to score the runs they needed to win the game. The final score was

2-0. Jackson went one for four that day with a batting average of .250. His

lone hit was a double.

For the fifth game, Lefty Williams got the call to pitch. Once again his

accuracy seemed to disappear in the sixth inning with the Reds scoring

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four runs on three hits. It wasn’t just Williams who had a difficult game.

Gandil also contributed to the loss with some very sloppy fielding. Jackson

once again went hitless.

Game six was the one game that proved to be worth the price of

admission. Both teams played well. The White Sox players were cheated

by the gamblers who didn’t pay the expected amounts to the players. This

time the players decided to get even. They were going to do what they

could to win the Series. The game went scoreless until the third inning

when the Red scored two runs. They also scored two more in the fourth.

Chicago scored one in the fifth and added three more in the sixth.

That left the scored tied 4-4 after nine innings. In the tenth inning, the Sox

scored the one run necessary to win the game and held the Red hitless

their half of the inning. The Sox won 5-4, with Jackson hitting .500 with two

singles and a run batted in.

Cicotte pitched the seventh game of the series, and this time he really

pitched. The Sox won 4-1. This time Jackson hit two singles out of four

attempts for an average of .500. He also had a run batted in.

Game eight would be the deciding game of the series. Although the

Sox had decided that they would play to win, they hadn’t counted on the

ruthlessness of the gamblers. Lefty Williams was to be the pitcher. The

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night before the game, he was threatened by a hitman sent by the

gamblers. He was told that he would be killed right there on the mound if

he didn’t get pulled from the game during the first inning. The gunman also

threatened to hurt Lefty’s wife. Needless to say, he got the message. He

didn’t say anything to his teammates that day, but they could tell that

something wasn’t right. Williams allowed three runs to score in the first

inning and was promptly pulled from the game. Cincinnati went on to win

10-5. Jackson had his best game yet with his only homerun of the series.

He also had a single, going two for five with an average of .400. His three

runs batted in helped, but was not nearly enough.

Throughout the eight games Joe batted .375, the best average of all

the players, and hit the only homer.

As far as Joe’s fielding was concerned, there are those who say that

he positioned himself too shallowly in the outfield and allowed hits that

should have been outs to sail over his head. Others point out that Joe had

no errors during any of the games.

After the games were over, ugly rumors began to spread about

certain White Sox players who seemed to have played less well than their

potential. These rumors continued well into the off-season, with Major

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League executives and Comiskey denying that anything crooked took

place.

The gamblers ended up paying the players only $85,000 instead of

the $200,000 they were promised. Of that Gandil took $35,000 of the

money and retired to California. The rest was split among the other

players. Jackson only received his original $5,000.

All of this might have blown over had other players for other teams

not thrown games. One particular series of games between the Chicago

Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies caused suspicion. The Cook County

Grand Jury started a probe of that three game series which expanded to

include the 1919 World Series. Joe Jackson testified before the Grand Jury

after signing a waiver of immunity and admitted taking the $5,000. It

seems he was following the advice of Alfred Austrian, the lawyer for both

Comiskey and the White Sox. In all, eight ballplayers from the White Sox

plus several gamblers were indicted for conspiracy to defraud the public

and injure the business of Charles Comiskey and the American League.

Once the trial began, the prosecution was left with very little actual

evidence to present. The testimonies of the ballplayers who testified before

the Grand Jury disappeared right before the trial. Without the evidence,

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everyone was acquitted. What should have been one of Jackson’s

happiest days turned out to be his worst day.

Prior to the scandal following the 1919 World Series, Major League

Baseball had been governed by a committee. Once the scandal broke and

indictments were handed down, the owners got together and decided that

they needed to appoint a commissioner because it would be in their best

interests if baseball could return to its “purity” as the national pastime.

They ended up appointing Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a

grandstanding judge who had ruled in the owners’ favor when matters

concerning baseball had tried in his court. Judge Landis was determined to

single handedly clean up baseball, no matter what the consequences to

others would be. He also wanted to make himself the hero in this mess.

Once the verdict came down and the players were all acquitted, Judge

Landis ruled that all of the players who were indicted would never play

professional baseball again. They were all given a lifetime ban from the

game. The court ruling meant nothing to him because he still saw those

players as being detrimental to the sport of baseball. As long as they were

around, the stigma of the scandal would remain.

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This ban would mean more than just being able to play baseball, it

meant that none of the players would ever be eligible to enter the National

Baseball Hall of Fame.

There are still questions about Jackson’s really being a willing

participant in the plot. Some writers say that he only half-heartedly went

along because of peer pressure. Also, Jackson was known to be a heavy

drinker and maybe his judgment was clouded that day. Some accounts

suggest that Jackson went to Comiskey after the World Series to try to tell

him what had happened only to be rebuffed by Comiskey’s secretary.

Jackson also had his wife write letters to Comiskey that went unanswered.

There are those who suggest that Jackson was smarter than he

wanted others to know and point to his business success after leaving

baseball. It has been written that his love of baseball was only exceeded

by his greed for money.

For his part, Shoeless Joe has always maintained that he played his

best during the 1919 World Series and was not involved with the plot.

Major League Baseball commissioners following Judge Landis have

all refused to lift the lifetime ban against Joe Jackson. He continues to be

ineligible for inclusion in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

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It will now be left up to the curious baseball loving researcher to comb

through the resources here and form his or her own conclusion about

Shoeless Joe Jackson’s guilt or innocence and whether or not he belongs

in the Hall of Fame.

Subject HeadingsUsing WorldCat, I found three different search phrases that would

assist the researcher in obtaining information about Joe Jackson, the 1919

World Series, and the scandal surrounding the World Series.

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Because this is more than a biography, I found that the results from

all three subject headings to be very useful for obtaining the information

necessary for all parts of the story.

Subject Heading Number of RecordsJackson, Joe, 1888-1951 88Baseball—Corrupt Practices—United States—History 18Chicago White Sox(Baseball Team—Trials, Litigations, etc. 5

Classification StatementA search in WorldCat provided the Library of Congress and Dewey

Classification for the 1919 World Series scandal and information on Joe

Jackson’s participation. The following are the classification areas most

suitable for browsing for this subject:

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Library of Congress Classification: GV/KF

Dewey Classification: 796.357/B

Within the Library of Congress classification, there were two sets of

numbers added to the GV to narrow down the categories. The GV875.C58

covered the corrupt practices within baseball while GV875.J29 covered the

biographical information on Joe Jackson. The KF classification covered the

Grand Jury investigation and the trial.

During my research I found it interesting that the Abner Library at the

National Baseball Hall of Fame has five biographies about Joe Jackson in

its collection. It also holds the only copy of the serial.

Subject Encyclopedias

General Information

Asinov, Eliot. New Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. 6. Micropaedia, Ready Reference. Chicago, IL: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2005. 458-59.

When looking for basic information, Encyclopaedia Britannica is a good starting point. This article on Joe Jackson is very well written and easy to comprehend. It covers Jackson’s life from birth through the scandal and it’s

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aftermath. It also conveys the basic situation within organized baseball and its relationship with the gambling community.

Ward, Geoffery C. and Ken Burns. Baseball: An Illustrated History.New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. 133-145.

This book is the companion to the nine part video series on baseball produced by PBS. The coverage of the scandal is very thorough and includes information on the relationship between Charles Comiskey and the Chicago White Sox players, the influence of gamblers on baseball players, plus more personal information on Joe Jackson’s personality and problems.

Biographical InformationSmith, Ron. The Sporting News Selects Baseball’s Greatest Players: A

Celebration of the 20th Century’s Best. St. Louis, MO: The SportingNews Publishing Company, 1998. 80-81.

Although banned from being considered for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, other major baseball sources appreciate the on-field accomplishments of Joe Jackson. The Sporting News has the reputation of being the “bible” of professional baseball and inclusion in this selection would be considered an honor. This book contains a short biography of

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Joe Jackson, but its main focus is on his baseball feats and how they compare to other players of his era. The article does discuss briefly a possible reason why Jackson could have been involved with the others in the fixing of the series.

Blaisdell, Lowell L. American National Biography. Vol. 11. New York:Oxford University Press, 1999. 774-776

This entry into American National Biography covers the life of Joe Jackson from birth to death. It discusses reasons for Jackson’s illiteracy and why he came to depend on his wife for support when reading was involved. This article also supplies more information concerning the relationship between Jackson and Comiskey and why the relationship was strained.

Porter, David L., editor. Biographical Dictionary of American Sports – Baseball: Revised and Expanded Edition. Vol. G-P. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. 729-731.

Because this is a baseball dictionary, the information on Joe Jackson is biographical and statistical. It has more information relating to Jackson and his possible involvement with the scandal as well as his statistics for the World Series. It also discusses the possibility of a couple of questionable defensive gaffes made by him in the outfield. This article also discusses Jackson’s personality and how that related to his possibly being connected to the conspiracy.

MonographsAsinof, Eliot. Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World

Series. New York: Henry Holt, 1987.

With his construction of the scene-by-scene story of the scandal, Asinof has probably written the definitive book on the 1919 World Series. He describes the meetings, the plotting, the actual plays that would have affected the outcome of the Series, the grand jury indictment, and the trial. He discusses the conditions that would have made this plot to fix the series possible. This historical account includes background on the underworld of

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heavy gamblers, the shock of the sportswriters who uncovered the scheme, and the reactions of the public.

Carney, Gene. Burying the Black: How Baseball’s Cover-up of the1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded. Washington, DC:Potomac Books, Inc., 2006

Carney, a baseball historian, provides an interesting twist on the 1919 scandal. He feels there are two parts to the scandal: the one between the players, owners, and gamblers, and the one between Charles Comiskey and Judge Landis (baseball’s first Commissioner) to make the eight players scapegoats in order to preserve baseball’s clean public image. Despite the fact that this account is not as easy to read because of its shifts from narration to biography to bibliography, it serves as a good research source on the subject.

Fleitz, David L. Shoeless: The Life and Times of Joe Jackson. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2001.

In this scholarly yet readable baseball biography, Fleitz has researched the life of Joe Jackson in order to separate the myth from reality. He looks at both sides of the controversy of Jackson’s personality by showing him as the illiterate man who loved playing baseball and also as the shrewd business man who had a love for money. All in all this is a fairly well balanced account.

Frommer, Harvey. Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball. Dallax, TX: Taylor Publishing Company, 1992.

Frommer’s biography includes an appendix of Jackson’s testimony before the Chicago grand jury. He also includes information about the dissension between the team members of the White Sox. This title leans more towards the sympathetic view of Jackson and his involvement with the scandal.

Grant, Robert and Joseph Katz. The Great Trials of the Twenties: the Watershed Decade in America’s Courtrooms. New York: Sarpedon

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Publishers, 1998. 50-75.

The chapter detailing the Black Sox trial and the maneuverings behind the scenes provides the average researcher with details not contained in other sources. Grant and Katz detail the workings of the lawyers for the gamblers and Comiskey as they work to free themselves of the scandal and place the blame squarely on the players. Players who testified to the grand jury did so without immunity, blindly following the advice of Alfred Austrian, Comiskey’s lawyer and lawyer for the Chicago White Sox. This is detailed, but very readable, account.

Gropman, Donald. Say It Ain’t So, Joe!: The True Story of Shoeless JoeJackson. New York: Citadel Press/Kensington Publishing Company,2002.

In this update of his first biography of Joe Jackson, Gropman takes advantage of new information concerning the fix and Jackson’s alleged participation. He covers the life of Jackson, especially during his baseball years as well as his life following his ban from the sport.

Sagert, Kelly Boyer. Joe Jackson, a Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.

Kelly Sagert has written a very readable book covering Jackson’s ability and personal life. There are interviews with people who have had an influence on Jackson’s life as well as quotes from Jackson himself. She also provides in-depth information on the many debates as to whether Jackson should be eligible for inclusion in the Hall of Fame.

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DissertationNathan, Daniel Abraham. “Saying It’s So: A Cultural History of the Black

Sox Scandal of 1919 (Chicago White Sox, Illinois, Baseball).” Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Iowa, 1997.

Nathan’s dissertation examines the reasons why the scandal has stayed alive despite the passage of time. He looks at how the scandal has been treated in the different media outlets from the beginning to the present. He critiques three events that have helped to keep the memories alive: the baseball field in Dyersville, Iowa, that served as the ballfield created for the movie Field of Dreams, the 1994-95 Baseball strike, and the baseball documentary produced by Ken Burns for PBS. Nathan also examines the different versions of the scandal as the story keeps getting retold.

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Magazine and Journal ArticlesBennett, Jay. “Did Shoeless Joe Jackson Throw the 1919 World Series?”

American Statistician 47/4: 241-250.

Bennett examines the validity of Joe Jackson’s banishment from Major League Baseball with respect to his overall performance in the World Series. He uses Player Game Percentage, a statistic that measures a player’s contribution to team victory and clutch hitting.

Carlin, Peter Ames and Lorna Grisby. “Extra Innings.” People 54/1: 109-110.

This article provides a short but extensive biography of Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was restricted from playing baseball and being allowed

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membership in the Hall of Fame for allegedly being involved in a gamblers’ plot to throw the 1919 World Series. It follows Jackson’s life from his signing with the Philadelphia Athletics until his death in 1951.

Carter, Terry. “Talking a Good Game.” ABA Journal 84/4 (April 1998):34-35

A group of four lawyers have filed a brief with Major League Baseball to have Joe Jackson cleared for eligibility for the Hall of Fame. They are focusing on the ban for life by stating that the ban should be lifted now that Jackson is deceased. This brief was filed at the request of Ted Williams, the legendary Boston Red Sox hitter. With the ‘Pete Rose’ ruling, Williams and his lawyers feel it is time to revisit the Jackson ban.

Kaplan, David A. “The Other Shoe.” Newsweek 140/26: 8-10.

When Major League Baseball began discussing the possibility of reinstating Pete Rose, it also began to face another clemency conundrum: should Shoeless Joe Jackson also be granted eligibility for the Hall of Fame? This article looks at the possibility of eligibility from the standpoints of Jackson’s statistics as a player and the fact that Jackson is now deceased. If “banned for life” is taken literally, Jackson has already served out his sentence.

Lawren, Bill. “In Defense of Shoeless Joe.” Omni 16/2: 32-33.

A statistician, Jay Bennett, found that Jackson played fair in the games between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds in the 1919 World Series. He uses a statistical system called Player Game Percentage to figure Jackson’s batting average in the Series.

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Lidz, Franz. “Sweet Home, Chicago.” Sports Illustrated 103 (11/4/2005):68

This article discusses the history of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and several former players who played for the White Sox since its inception in 1901. It highlights briefly the career of Shoeless Joe Jackson from his August 21, 1915, arrival in Chicago through the trial and acquittal of attempting to ‘defraud the public’ and subsequent ban from Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

“Shoeless Joe Runs Again.” Economist 355/8164 (04/01/2000): 30-32.

Once Joe Jackson was banished from baseball, he eventually returned to West Greenville, South Carolina, his home since 1893. Although this article focuses on how the town has sought to capitalize on Jackson’s fame, there is solid information about the scandal. One should note that the town would naturally be concerned with Jackson’s side of the events and work to show him in a good light. This also gives the researcher a look at the appreciation the regular folk have for Jackson.

Ward, Geoffrey C. and Ken Burns. “Shoeless Joe Jackson.” U.S. News &World Report. 117/9: 70-72.

Ward and Burns call upon their work with the book Baseball: An Illustrated History along with their PBS presentation on baseball. This article on Joe Jackson brings to light some colorful details concerning his personal life, especially about the multicolored parrot with the limited vocabulary. It also contains the usual information about the role he played in accepting the money but playing up to his usual standards.

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SerialsShoeless Joe Jackson Times. Madison, WI: TAK Publishing

Magazine about Shoeless Joe Jackson issued sporadically from the Winter of 1992 through the Spring of 1997. All print issues are out of print, but can be downloaded free of charge at the following website:<http://www.blackbetsy.com/sjjtimes/index.html>. The only library to have print copies of the issues is the Abner Library at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

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Websites

Chicago Historical Society. The History Files. Internet on-line. Available from <http://www.chicagohs.org>. [10 Nov. 2006]

The Chicago Historical Society established this website in 2002. The site is based in Herndon, Virginia. Among the Chicago historical events is information about the Black Sox Scandal. The site gives a complete history of the Chicago White Sox from its inception through the Black Sox scandal. The information about the gamblers, players, the plot, and the trial are also complete. Information about each of the players following the ban from baseball is interesting. There is a separate section of Joe Jackson and his possible involvement along with bits of his testimony for the Grand Jury.

Nola Software Systems. Shoeless Joe Jackson Virtual Hall of Fame. Internet on-line. Available from <http://www.blackbetsy.com>.[3 Nov. 2006]

The Shoeless Joe Jackson Virtual Hall of Fame, established in 1996 and based in Tallahassee, Florida, is the official website of the Shoeless Joe Jackson Society and is devoted to the memory of Joe Jackson. It also

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seeks to have Major League Baseball withdraw its lifetime ban of Jackson so he can be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame. The site contains thorough information about each of the games in the 1919 World Series with complete play by play for each inning. It also gives a biographical sketch of the other players and gamblers involved with the scheme.

Varon, Eric. 1919 Blacksox. Internet on-line. Available from<http://www.1919blacksox.com>. [4 Nov. 2006]

This website, established in 2002 and is based in Anaheim, California, contains biographies of all of the alleged participants in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, the history of gambling in baseball, and information about the plot to fix the 1919 World Series. The bibliography on the website is extensive and includes newspapers, magazines, videos, and books. It also features a movie at the beginning about the scandal.

Nonprint Media

Feature FilmsEight Men Out. Directed by John Sayles. 120 min. Orion Pictures;

MGA Home Entertainment, Inc., 2001. Videodisc

Based on the book by the same title, this movie is a dramatization of the Black Sox scandal when the underpaid Chicago White Sox accepted bribes to deliberately lose the 1919 World Series. This is a film in which everyone loses: the players, the gamblers, and especially the fans.

TelevisionBaseball – Inning 3, The Faith of Fifty Million People (1910-1920). Hosted

and Produced by Ken Burns. PBS.

This third volume of the award winning series on baseball traces the sport when it would reach its lowest point. The Black Sox scandal is given special treatment as this was truly a black moment in baseball history.

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AssociationsThe Shoeless Joe Jackson Society

Founded in 1996 with the sole purpose of obtaining induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame for Shoeless Joe Jackson. Memberships can be obtained on the website of the Shoeless Joe Virtual Hall of Fame.

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PublishersA survey of the publication information in the resources cited in this

bibliography reveals a wide array of publishers on this subject. There really

is no one publisher of this type of information.

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