Should We Let Shoeless Joe Into Cooperstown?
November 17th, 2009 by Andy Starr
It’s amazingly been over 90 years since it occurred, but the legendary’19 World Series scandal most definitely lives on with baseball historians and any enthusiasts of the game. With much controversy these days about Pete Rose and his possible place in Cooperstown, another figure with parallels to Rose is Shoeless Joe Jackson, who played for the’19 White Sox (also known as the “Black Sox”) for their role in throwing the’19 World Series against the Reds.
Shoeless Joe has some very impressive stats over his- year career. He is known for playing with the White Sox, but played with a total of 3 other teams, having played with ith the Athletics, Naps, and Indians for half a season. He posted very good standard stats that should alone be hall of fame worthy.
Some of these numbers include a .356 career batting average, 785 RBIs, and 168 career triples. The power was low, but this came in an era where lower home run totals were more commonplace.
This may not scream out obvious hall of fame, however, the .356 batting average would easily clear those standards in today’s game. Here are some more impressive stats we can deduce by taking a closer look at his numbers.
If we take a further look at some of his stats, we’ll see that Jackson had an extremely low strikeout ratio, going down on strikes only once every 24 at bats. Additionally, his on base percentage was .423 and his OPS was .540. All great statistics.
Now let’s get into the Black Sox scandal of’19. The White Sox faced the Reds in the World Series. The White Sox lost the series and Joe Jackson, and eight other players were accused of throwing the series. But Shoeless Joe stats show he did not play poorly. Do you think a .375 average and 12 hits (a world series record) is throwing the series? His fielding percentage in the series was 1.000, having made no errors.
I have researched that many say the Reds triples were hit to left field. Most of them anyway, and Joe Jackson was the left fielder. This is actually false. It is a fact that no triples were hit to left field in the World Series vs. the Reds. Now the only flaw in my thinking is that he received a $5,000 payment.
This begs the question: does Shoeless Joe belong in the hall?
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