1917 Sporting News Record Book (Joe Jackson cover)
1917 Sporting News Record Book with Joe Jackson on the cover, published by Charles C. Spink & Son. The Record Book was the statistical bible of the game; putting Jackson on the cover two seasons before 1919 treated him as a national headliner in the hobby's own almanac.
- Issue
- 1917 Sporting News Record Book
- Year
- 1917
- Subject
- "Shoeless" Joe Jackson
- Grade
- Raw (ungraded)
1917 Sporting News Record Book
The Sporting News of St. Louis, published by Charles C. Spink & Son, issued annual record books packed with statistics and records. The 1917 edition carries Joe Jackson on the cover, shown running in stride, early in his White Sox years. These little guides were used and discarded, and the Jackson cover is a rarely offered piece.
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"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 →