Shoeless Joe Jackson and Black Betsy

Baseball Treasures

4 min readAug 7, 2018

Shoeless Joe Jackson was a member of the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox. Jackson, along with seven others, were banned from playing professional baseball forever after they were caught accepting money to throw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Jackson was one of the best hitters of all time and in the midst his prime when he was banned forever after only a 13 year MLB career.

“Say it ain’t so, Joe”

Read the famous headline in the Chicago Daily News the day after the grand jury returned its indictments for the 1921 trial of the Black Sox. While all eight players were acquitted in court Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, placed them on the “ineligible list,” a decision that effectively left them suspended indefinitely from all of professional baseball.

While some player’s involvement in the scandal was quite obvious, Shoeless Joe Jackson’s was not. The extent of Jackson’s part in the conspiracy remains controversial. Jackson maintained his innocence until the day he died, and his performance in the series seemed to back up this claim. However, Jackson also signed a confession in 1920 stating that he was paid $5,000 (out of the $20,000 he was promised) for throwing the series. But it is difficult to tell if this confession is canon as Jackson never learned to read or write and some believed he was manipulated into signing this document. I’ll let you make up your own mind about whether or not you think Shoeless Joe was a part of the fix, but despite all the evidence and testimonials we’ll probably never know the truth.

Myself, I like to believe that Shoeless Joe was innocent. He got caught in the situation and didn’t know how to handle it. I find this one of the greatest injustices in baseball. Jackson’s was on a path to greatness when his career was abruptly halted in his prime and his potential wasted. Not only was Jackson banned from ever playing professional baseball again, he has remained on the MLB ineligible list ever since which means he cannot be inducted into the Hall of Fame even though he is considered a Hall of Famer by many. Despite many efforts to reinstate Jackson, the most recent in 2015, nothing has been successful.

When I saw a Shoeless Joe Jackson bat at an auction, I couldn’t help myself. Shoeless Joe’s bat, “Black Betsy” is a piece of baseball history from one of the best hitters of all time and it’s also a part of one of the fascinating baseball lore. Jackson named the bat for its darkened color. He used it for about a quarter of a century which is evident as the bat is covered with scars of game use: ball marks, cleat scratches, and a small handle crack. One of the bat’s most distinguishable elements is its slight bend, a very unique feature that well documented in newspapers throughout Jackson’s playing career.

Shoeless Joe’s “Black Betsy” bat is one of two known to survive from his career, and the only one with his full signature in script stamped into the barrel. The bat was Jackson’s primary choice of offensive weapon during the 1919 season. Supposedly, he lent to Babe Ruth when Ruth was on the Red Sox. Jackson was so good he was called one of the greatest hitters in the game by both Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. It is easy to see why they thought this of him as he still sits third in highest career batting average in MLB history (.356).

This bat is a pieces of baseball history. Where it represents a tragic story of Jackson’s career being cut short, it also represents the in game triumphs of one of the greatest hitters of all time.