1915 Cracker Jack Joe Jackson #103
1915 Cracker Jack (E145-2) #103, issued by Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein with the caramel-coated popcorn snack and also available as a complete factory set by mail for coupons. The 176-card set reused most of the 1914 artwork on thicker stock, with backs printed upside-down for album mounting. Jackson's red-background batting portrait — still with Cleveland — is one of the set's three big keys with Cobb and Wagner, and among his most recognizable playing-days cards.
- Issue
- 1915 Cracker Jack (E145-2)
- Year
- 1915
- Number
- #103
- Variation
- Base
- Subject
- "Shoeless" Joe Jackson
- Grade
- PSA 2
- Cert #
- 105388928
- Population
- 18 at this grade (per Card Ladder)
1915 Cracker Jack (E145-2)
Cracker Jack's second baseball set expanded to 176 cards, one tucked in each box of the molasses-coated popcorn, and the box cards were stained just as the 1914s had been. The fix was a mail-in offer: 100 coupons, or one coupon and a quarter, brought a complete, clean set, likely one of the first factory sets in the hobby. The checklist spans the American, National and Federal Leagues and includes three future Black Sox: Gandil, Cicotte and, at #103, Joe Jackson, along with Rube Benton (#97).
More on this issue →"Shoeless" Joe Jackson
A South Carolina mill-town hitter with almost no schooling, Jackson became one of the purest hitters the game has ever seen: a .408 average in his first full season with Cleveland in 1911 and a .356 career mark, among the highest ever. Babe Ruth later said he had copied Jackson's style because he thought Jackson the greatest natural hitter he had ever seen — a widely repeated attribution, even as historians still argue how literally Ruth meant it. Jackson hit .375 and played errorless ball in the 1919 World Series, yet admitted to a grand jury in 1920 that he had taken gamblers' money. Acquitted by a Chicago jury in 1921, he was banned for life by Commissioner Landis anyway. The unresolved question of how guilty he really was is the reason this collection exists.
More on "Shoeless" Joe Jackson →