1887-1951
Baseball Player

Baseball's Tragic Hero.

One of the greatest and most tragic figures in the history of baseball, Joe Jackson was one of the eight Chicago White Sox players banished for life from major league baseball for accepting money to throw the 1919 World Series. Of the players indicted in the Black Sox Scandal, as it came to be known, Jackson was indeed the most tragic. Even though he took $5,000 after the completion of the Series, he had played exceptionally well and maintained that he played to win during the entire championship. His tragedy seems all the greater because of his rise from impoverished beginnings in the rural South and his status as one of the greatest ever to play the game. As a hitter Jackson was surpassed perhaps only by Babe Ruth, who adopted Jackson's batting stance and swing. Asked why he fashioned his style...