2001 SP Legendary Cuts Debut Bat Joe Jackson #D-JJ
2001 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts "Debut Game Bat" insert #D-JJ — Hobby-only product (18 packs per box), with Debut Game Bat cards inserted about 1:18. The 35-card Debut Bat checklist was built for players who had never had an Upper Deck game-used bat card before; Jackson's is widely treated as the first major-manufacturer Shoeless Joe memorabilia card, with a sizable bat piece beside a black-and-white batting photo. (A separate Game Bat Combo with Paul Waner was hand-numbered to 25.)
- Issue
- Modern Joe Jackson Issues
- Year
- 2001
- Number
- #D-JJ
- Subject
- "Shoeless" Joe Jackson
- Grade
- Raw (ungraded)
Modern Joe Jackson Issues
More than a century after his last game, card makers keep returning to Jackson in insert, parallel and retro sets. These modern pieces sit beside the vintage because his story still pulls people in.
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 →