Shoeless Joe Comes To Montgomery

Joe Jackson, the shoeless White Sox outfielder banned for his knowledge of World Series game fixing, is an oft cited omission from the Hall of Fame.

The impression that most of us have of Joe after being banned from baseball is largely based on a single story - years after the Black Sox scandal, Ty Cobb found Joe running a small town liquor store and when Joe didn't acknowledge him Ty says "Joe, don't you know me?" to which Jackson replies "Of course I know you, Ty, but I wasn't sure if you wanted to know me".

Grantland Rice

Sportswriter Grantland Rice, known for his "elegant prose", knew how to spin a story. Not that this event didn't happen just as Rice wrote it, it could have. Probably. Sure it did, right?

That's the way much of Jackson's story goes, lots of stories spun into myth. With his career cut short, Joe Jackson left baseball wondering what could have been and trying to decide what actually had happened to one of the games greatest players.


LEADING OFF

Joe Jackson

The idea of Shoeless Joe walking away from the game entirely is a false one, just as much fiction as the "Say it ain't so, Joe" myth - also created by a sportswriter. The legends surrounding Jackson have become the larger part of his story, often implying that he sheepishly left baseball behind to slink back to the south and spent his days running shady pool halls and small town liquor stores while playing only under assumed names.


That Jackson himself appears to have thought Landis would readmit him is evident from every corner and seemed to be a foregone conclusion among most sportswriters of his era. He was acquitted of any crimes, of course.



WHAT THE HEADLINES SAY

Landis

Even after the Black Sox scandal, Shoeless Joe had opportunities to play in every league in the country and was often in articles on the verge of his next comeback. Joe Jackson would appear interested in joining teams, only to be disappointed when baseball commissioner Landis either refused to reinstate him or simply ignored Jacksons correspondence.


The southern press handles Jackson much differently than their fellow typesetters in the north, omitting the whole "banned from baseball" thing or portraying Jackson as on the verge of reinstatement. Jackson is mentioned often in articles connecting him with various clubs that have offered the star player a chance to stay in shape while waiting for the approval of Landis. In northern papers, Jackson is largely ignored and lumped with the other Sox conspirators.

PLAY BALL

Shoeless Joe Jackson at Cramton Bowl July 1924

  In fact, Shoeless Joe Jackson played often as an outfielder and manager for teams in Georgia and South Carolina. Unaffiliated and independent teams had no problem with improving their club and boosting attendance with a star such as Shoeless Joe. Commissioner Landis' ban had no reach to punish town teams, industrial leagues and barnstorming clubs. There Shoeless Joe Jackson easily found places to play ball.

By 1923, Jackson is with the Americus, Georgia semi-pro team. The Americus club is peppered with excellent talent of mostly southern players hired from area colleges, industrial leagues and smaller town teams. The addition of Shoeless Joe elevates Americus from being a good semi pro team to having a marketable product. They become barnstormers, making more money by playing exhibition games to larger crowds in bigger cities.

The 1923 Americus team with Joe Jackson

One of those cities is Montgomery.

In 1923 the Americus team came to town and faced off against a team from Blakely, Georgia. The game at Cramton Bowl was well promoted, with Shoeless Joe, the former Chicago White Sox outfielder billed as a star attraction. The city league game for that day was postponed so fans could watch Shoeless Joe Jackson on the field instead and the turnout was expected to be large.

The days game was so popular, it prompted a letter of complaint to the Bham News - someone was mad there weren't extra trains running to make sure all the fans in Birmingham could get to Montgomery to see Shoeless Joe Jackson play!

Cramton Bowl ca 1920s

SO NICE HAD TO PLAY AGAIN - TWICE!
The following year, 1924, Shoeless Joe Jackson was in Waycross Georgia with a railroad team called the Waycross Coast Liners when they played two games at Montgomery's Cramton Bowl.

1924 Waycross club with Joe Jackson

1924 game announcement

Again the games were billed with Shoeless Joe as the highlight, leading a southern All Star team playing local challengers. The games were held about six weeks apart, one being part of a doubleheader.

Regardless of the score or what action occurred on the field, Jackson's performance was what fans were watching. In one game at Montgomery, Jackson muffed a ball hit to him in centerfield and managed only a bloop single, yet observers all agreed he was a talented player who could return to the major leagues at any moment.

Nothing is said in any of the articles about the games about throwing games or accusations of any wrongdoing on Jackson's part.



JOE EXONERATED A SECOND TIME?

Shoeless Joe takes a swing at a game in 1922

Also in 1924, Joe Jackson sued White Sox owner Charlie Comisky for lost back pay in what was considered a re-trail of Jackson's part in the conspiracy to throw World Series games.

The jury sided with Jackson but the judge threw out the decision because Joe Jackson's testimony differed so greatly from his previous statements on the World Series fix. Jackson and Comisky settled out of court. 

ca 1926

SHOELESS JOE HIRED AS DOTHAN MANAGER

In 1926, Shoeless Joe was offered and accepted a job managing and playing first base for the Dothan team. Dothan was looking for a midseason boost and felt that bringing Jackson aboard would lift the clubs attendance as well as add power to the linup. Slated to take over for the July 4th homestand, Shoeless Joe was announced as the new skipper in the press.

First Jackson wired to say he would be late arriving, a day or two. Then he stopped replying to the teams cables. The Dothan team named a temporary replacement manager that eventually became permanent.

Later in the summer when it was learned that the club was seeking entry into a league that the Landis ban would be in effect, the Shoeless Joe in Dothan plan was scuttled entirely. What kept Joe Jackson from making that July 4th in Dothan is open to speculation.




HE WASN'T HIDING

Shoeless Joe with Savannah ca 1932

Joe Jackson moved to Savannah, GA with his wife immediately following the Black Sox scandal and stayed there off and on for the rest of their lives.

Shoeless Joe Jackson was known to be able to hit well into his fifties, though he put on weight as he aged, eventually moving from centerfield to first base. He appeared with many teams for local towns and companies, railroad teams and barnstorming All Star squads.

There was at least one instance of him playing under an assumed name that I found. It took exactly ten days for someone in a Texas bush league to recognize the guy hitting .485 as being the former Pale Hose batsman.
 

LATER

Joe Jackson at his store

 Joe also ran a dry cleaners and later, yes, a liquor store where the famous Ty Cobb meeting probably took place just as Grantland Rice told it. Jackson would occasionally give interviews but mostly stayed in town and enjoyed being a quiet part of the community over the next thirty years.

In 1951 the Cleveland Indians inducted Jackson into their team Hall of Fame. In December 1951 Shoeless Joe was invited to appear on Ed Sullivans "Toast of the Town" where many expected the announcement of Jackson's re-admittance to baseball. However, Joe Jackson passed away at home, two weeks before the event, at the age of sixty-four.