Did he or didn’t he conspire to fix the 1919 World Series? Over eighty years after the fact, there is still a sizable debate as to whether “Shoeless” Joe Jackson was involved in the “Black Sox” scandal that saw the Chicago White Sox throw the World Series for financial gain against the Cincinnati Reds.
Prior to his expulsion from baseball, Jackson had already proved himself Hall of Fame worthy. In ten full Major League seasons, Shoeless Joe had over 1,700 hits and had a career batting average of .356. The latter remains iconic as this puts him third all-time. Jackson was easily among the hardest workers in baseball, and his passion for the game was unequalled. He was in his prime when he was suspended, and he clearly had many more great seasons ahead of him.
Where it gets murky is his participation in throwing the Series. Evidence points to the fact that he was aware of it, but after his Grand Jury Testimony, in which he claimed involvement, he proclaimed his innocence for years thereafter. Jackson may have been a great player, but he was not an educated man and, by many accounts, naïve. It is very possible that he was unaware of the ramifications of testifying that he received $5,000 to help throw the Series.
As he claimed his innocence, he had the stats to back it up. He batted .375 in the Series and made no errors in the field. If anything, the box scores show the efforts of a man who played to win. As seen with Rose, Major League Baseball has a zero-tolerance policy for gambling, and there are many reasons to think that this will not change in the near or distant future. Saying that, Rose, Jackson, and all of the others who were associated with the “Black Sox” had the ban lifted, and this means Jackson is now eligible to appear on his first ballot (which will be the Veterans) since he was on the 1946 Nominating vote.
This does not guarantee that his name will appear, but now, it is possible
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