Hello and welcome to Issue 008 of Shoeless Notes, the email newsletter for the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Baseball Library in Greenville, South Carolina.
A quick note before we get to the goods: thank you so much to everyone who ordered our new Black Betsy t-shirt after the last newsletter. If you have placed your order already, your shirts are on their way to you and should be there before the holidays. If you haven’t placed your order yet, believe me when I say they look incredible in person. Knowing the story behind them (which I detailed in Issue 007 of Shoeless Notes) makes it even better. If you’d like to order yours, or anything else from our gift shop, you can do that HERE.
If you need a last-minute gift for the baseball fan in your life, a donation in someone’s name is another great idea to keep in mind. As the year comes to a close, remember that all donations made to the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Baseball Library are tax-deductible. We’ll send you a letter stating you made a donation, and even if it’s only $10, every little bit helps. If every single person who reads this newsletter donated just $1, we would have our biggest month of the year. If you would like to make a donation before the year ends, you can do that HERE. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming!
As many of you know, especially if you’re following us on any of our social media accounts, last week was the anniversary of Joe’s death. He passed away December 5, 1951 at his home in Greenville. Nearly 70 years later, that home is a museum dedicated to preserving his memory. That is an idea I’m sure Joe would have found insane if you pitched it to him while he was alive, but that tells you a lot about Joe. He was certainly a proud man, but he was even more humble.
A vintage postcard of the entrance to the cemetery where Joe and Katie Jackson are buried.
Last week, I went to Joe’s grave to pay my respects. It’s something I’ve done many times over the course of the last 12 years, but this was the first time I was able to do it on the anniversary of his passing. Joe and Katie are buried in Section V at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Greenville. I don’t need to give you any more description of how to look for their marker once you’re there, because you’ll see it. I promise. It’s always surrounded by baseballs, bats, and, of course, shoes which have been left there by adoring fans. I brought some flowers for Joe and Katie when I visited last week, and sat with them for a while. Just thinking. Thinking about how different things could have been.
I took this photo at 3:56 PM on December 5, 2020, in honor of Joe.
A few months before Joe passed, on September 2, 1951, he was elected to the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame along with ten other greats of the franchise. Joe had suffered a heart attack a few years before that, and his health wasn’t what it used to be. It seemed like as Joe’s death was getting nearer, the public cries for his reinstatement were getting louder. The legislature of South Carolina officially asked Major League Baseball to reinstate Joe in February of 1951, and, while that measure failed, it got people talking.
It got them talking even more so than they were after the October, 1949 issue of Sport Magazine came out. On the 30th anniversary of the infamous 1919 World Series, an interview and article about Joe by legendary sports writer Furman Bisher was published. Joe proclaimed his innocence, yet again, and made a compelling argument by listing his stats from the series, as well as telling some stories regarding what happened before, during, and after those eight games against the Reds. If you’d like to read that whole article, you can do it if you CLICK HERE. In case you don’t, let me spoil the ending for you:
Joe sits in his front yard with the legendary Furman Bisher in the summer of 1949, during Bisher’s visit to Greenville in preparation of his feature article which would appear in Sport Magazine in October of that year.
“I repeat what I said when I started out – that I have no axe to grind, that I’m not asking anybody for anything. It’s all water over the dam as far as I’m concerned. I can say that my conscience is clear and that I’ll stand on my record in that World Series… I have asked the Lord for guidance before, and I am sure He gave it to me. I’m willing to let the Lord be my judge.”
Those don’t sound like the words of a guilty man to me, and many people around the country felt the same. Joe was late in his life at this point and had stopped playing even semi-professional ball. What could the harm have been in reinstating him now? He had lost at least five good years at the end of his Major League career by being banned, and it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he would have played another 10 seasons had he been allowed to end his career on his own terms. Imagine the numbers Joe could have put up…
Fans leave everything from pennies to baseballs on Joe and Katie’s grave to honor their hero.
The people of Greenville had been supporting their local hero all along, having known in their hearts the type of man Joe was. They saw him in the community. They grew up with him, or around him, or having heard stories about him. But now, the country’s stance on Joe was softening. People all over America were taking a second look at his sentence, and wondering if it had been long enough already.
Joe’s reemergence into the public consciousness after having spent the previous three decades leading a low-profile life in the South led to some national attention. In addition to being recognized by the Cleveland Indians by being inducted into their Hall of Fame, Joe was invited to be a guest of honor for the December 16, 1951 episode of Toast Of The Town (which would later be retitled The Ed Sullivan Show). That appearance would have given Joe a platform to tell his story to nearly 4 million viewers. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, Toast Of The Town was the 15th highest rated show in all of television at the time, and barely over 10 million households in America had televisions. Reaching nearly 40% of them was a huge opportunity.
Unfortunately, Joe never made that appearance. He passed away 11 days before it was set to happen. Some people posit that had Joe been able to broadcast his story to the nation, and had everyone seen the type of man Joe truly was, his chances for reinstatement would have skyrocketed. Had they seen him speaking, people would have seen him as the intelligent, successful businessman he actually was. As the kind, warm, genuine person he actually was. Instead, Joe’s story for so many years was left in the hands of writers and producers, who turned Joe into a dim-witted character.
A write up about Joe in a Greenville newspaper after his passing.
In 1963, Elliot Asinof wrote Eight Men Out, which fictionalized and dramatized a decent amount of the story of the 1919 World Series. Twenty-five years later, in 1988, it was turned into a feature film, which was dramatized even more than the book. Field of Dreams came out the following year, and by that time, Joe’s status had become almost-mythical. The amount of support for Joe, who was seen as somebody who was done wrong and had paid the ultimate price, was at an all-time high. There was again a very real chance for reinstatement. Unfortunately, it was at that time when something else happened in Cincinnati which kept Joe from his rightful place in the Hall of Fame.
Each newsletter, we’re going to spotlight one new member as a token of our appreciation. This issue, we’d like to tell you a little bit about Ben Shorb, who recently became a member.
New member, but longtime supporter, Ben Shorb, getting ready to throw somebody out at First Base after successfully fielding a ground ball barehanded during our annual Vintage Games against the Ty Cobb Museum.
Ben was raised in a baseball household and his father instilled in him an appreciation for not only baseball, but also for books, history, and data. He and his dad would play games with the data they found in "The Baseball Encyclopedia" or "Total baseball" by trying to build the best teams within certain constraints (such as the best team comprised only of players who played for the Cubs, the best team of players who served in WWII, or the best team of players from the 1970s), and, of course, the best team of all time. Those games and mental exercises brought them closer together, and also spawned arguments which rage to this day. During the offseason, when there were no actual games to watch, they would spend their time watching the classic baseball movies. Ben’s first introduction to the tragic tale of Joe Jackson came when we saw Eight Men Out.
Ben moved to Greenville in 2009 for work. The following year, his parents came to visit, so they decided to stop in to the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum, which had opened in 2008. Ben remembers it being a very intimate look at the life of Joe Jackson, brought to life by the curator at the time, Arlene Marcley. Arlene told the Shorbs many tales about Joe's life both in and out of baseball. She also struck up several conversations with Ben’s mother.
On the way out, Arlene looked Ben over and said "I bet you play ball," which Ben did in high school. She invited him to come to the Vintage Games that October. Ben smiled and agreed, not really sure what the game would be or entail. Later, his mother insisted that he go to the practices and the game, in that way only a mother can. He has attended and loved every game since, despite now living out of state. Ben has great hands and an incredibly strong and accurate arm, which has made him our team’s starting Third Baseman for a decade.
While we were unable to play the official games in 2020, we still held our practice. Ben asked if his girlfriend, Sabina, could come along and play, too, even though she had never stepped foot on a baseball diamond before. Of course, I said yes, because the true spirit of these games is bringing people together to have fun, so they drove all the way from Virginia to hang out for two hours and drive right back. As it turned out, Sabina was amazing, and she is super excited to play with us again.
As an adult, Ben has realized that many of his greatest life lessons were learned from baseball. Deep skills like patience, preparation, and the value of hard work. His high school baseball coach was Kevin Maris, the son of Roger Maris. Coach Maris taught Ben and scores of other high school kids how to be mature, respectful, dignified, and how to work harder than the competition, both on and off the field. Ben’s family, his coaches, and the game of baseball have molded him in to who he is to this day, and many of his successes in life can be attributed to things learned on the diamond.
Ben and Sabina can’t wait until next October for their annual trip to Greenville for our Vintage Games, and so they can see our renovated museum in person. Neither can we. Ben and his family have not only been longtime supporters of our museum, but Ben has become a great personal friend over the many years playing in the Vintage Games together. You’ll be hard-pressed to meet a more selfless individual.
If you want to have a chance to be the new member we spotlight in our next newsletter, you can BECOME A MEMBER of our museum at whichever level best fits your current budget.
As always, thanks for being here. Until next time…
-dan
Another great article about our Hometown Hero!