"Shoeless" Joe Jackson, 7 other "Black Sox" reinstated by MLB; how they got banned for fixing 1919 World Series
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson and seven other members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox were reinstated by Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday, alongside former Cincinnati Reds star Pete Rose, making them eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Jackson was a .356 career hitter, ranking the fourth-highest career batting average of all time. He was among eight White Sox players banned by MLB for throwing the 1919 World Series in the infamous "Black Sox" scandal. He died in 1951, but he remains one of baseball's most recognizable names in part for his depiction by Ray Liotta in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams.
The other seven former White Sox players who have been removed from MLB's permanent ineligibility list include first baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil, pitcher Eddie Cicotte, center fielder Oscar "Happy" Felsch, infielder Fred McMullin, shortstop Charles "Swede" Risberg, third baseman George "Buck" Weaver, and pitcher Claude "Lefty" Williams.
They were accused of taking bribes from gambling concerns to intentionally lose the World Series that year against the Cincinnati Reds. The scandal ultimately led to the appointment of the first baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who banned the implicated White Sox players despite their acquittal on criminal charges.
"Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that entertains proposals or promises to throw a game, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball," Landis wrote.
While Jackson admitted to taking $5,000 cash from gamblers, he testified that he never did anything to throw any of the games in the World Series. While some of his teammates admitted to fixing games, Weaver denied any involvement, though admitted he knew about it. He unsuccessfully applied for reinstatement into MLB in 1922, to no avail.
Jackson batted .375 with the only home run for either team in the World Series, and Weaver batted .324, with neither committing any fielding errors, lending credence to their claims they weren't in on the fix.
Whether or not Landis' punishments were fair or reasonable has remained a debated issue. But, as SABR's Bill Lamb once noted, "Game-fixing virtually disappeared from the major-league landscape after that penalty was imposed on the Black Sox."
Rose's reinstatement comes eight months after his death, and a day before the Reds have planned to honor MLB's career hits leader with Pete Rose Night.
Manfred announced Tuesday that he was changing the league's policy on permanent ineligibility, saying bans would expire at death. Rose and the Black Sox were among 17 total players and executives reinstated.
Under the Hall of Fame's current rules, the earliest Rose or Jackson could be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame would be in 2028.
"The Trial of Shoeless Joe Jackson:" A 1981 CBS Chicago dramatic reenactment
In 1981, documentary producer Scott Craig produced an award-winning dramatic reenactment of Shoeless Joe Jackson's 1921 trial especially for CBS Chicago.
As seen in the reenactment, Jackson admitted to taking $5,000 from fellow White Sox player Lefty Williams. Prosecutors alleged Jackson took the money after the fourth game of the World Series and deliberately played poorly to throw the series and damage the finances of White Sox owner Charles Comiskey. But Jackson testified that he only took the money after the series was over, and only kept it after he tried to give the money to Comiskey.
Instead of bringing in actors to play a jury and read a verdict, the producers of "The Trial of Shoeless Joe Jackson" asked Channel 2 viewers to be the jury. Viewers called 1-900 numbers that Sunday night to weigh in on whether Jackson was innocent or guilty based on the testimony they'd seen in the drama, and the verdict was announced after that evening's 10 p.m. weekend newscast.
A published report said about 26,000 viewers called in, and the overwhelming majority thought Jackson was innocent.
Novelist Bill Brasher wrote the script for "The Trial of Shoeless Joe Jackson." Jonathan Fuller plays Shoeless Joe, revered Chicago stage actor Mike Nussbaum plays White Sox manager Kid Gleason, and Vince Viverito plays cigar-chomping gambler and narrator Abe Attell.
Photojournalist Steve Lasker, who recently died at the age of 94, was behind the camera for the production. A courtroom at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse — now the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse — was pressed into service for a set.
You can watch "The Trial of Shoeless Joe Jackson" below.
