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If they would only have built it sooner… (Shoeless) Joe Jackson…
October 27, 2023 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Even if you are not a fan of baseball, in case you haven’t done so already, the movie “Field of Dreams” is winner. The themes of perseverance, worthwhile priorities, and personal sacrifice are masterfully woven together to create one of the more inspiring movies of the 1980-1990’s. Steering clear of spoilers for those who have yet to see it, I’ll just restate that which is already included in the movie’s trailer: “If you build it, they will come!” Without being overly sappy… honestly, you really need to see it.
So, how does this relate to Rare & Early Newspapers? A few days ago one of our staff found an article from 1913 featuring one of the three main characters – “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (of Black Sox scandal fame), who was given a “2nd chance” at playing baseball – the assumption being he would have jumped at the chance to reengage at the professional level had he been given the opportunity to do so. Without saying more, I’ll let the heading and the 1st few paragraphs of the article do the talking (see below). Oh, and for the record, post-baseball, Joe and his wife (who were a team of their own until his death) eventually moved on from baseball, opened a BBQ restaurant, then “Joe Jackson’s Liquor Store”, and along the way co-raised two of his nephews. For better or worse, even if someone would have built it, I’m not sure he really would have come.
I hope you enjoy a portion of the article:
They put it in print… Cheating in baseball predates the “Black Sox” scandal of 1919…
May 29, 2015 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
Cheating in baseball may be as old as the the sport itself, but it was most notably brought to national attention with the infamous “Black Sox” scandal of 1919, when several players of the Chicago White Sox were 
accused of throwing the World Series that year for financial gain.
As newspaper report from shortly after the end of the Civil War gives evidence that it happened much earlier as well. The “New York Times” issue of Sept. 29, 1865 reports on a game between the Mutuals and Eckford teams, ultimately won by the latter with a score of 23-11. Excellence in play was reported with: “…Some of the fly tips taken by Mills surpassed, anything we ever saw in that line of business, while their pitching came nearer to the Creighton mark in accuracy of delivery than any we have seen since his death…”. But records show that several Mutual players were later charged for accepting money to deliberately toss this game (see this hyperlink for the details). Ironically the summary mentions the poor play of the Mutuals marked by “…over-pitched balls, wild throws, passed balls, and failures to stop them…”. Interesting evidence that all was “not well” with the game.
Although the 1919 World Series remains prominent in sports history, this obscure game from 54 years earlier gives evidence to a a rather lengthy history of cheating in baseball.