Should they lift his ban even after his death? If so will they let him into the hall of fame? So many questions surround this possibly misunderstood baseball legend. Shoeless Joe got his name from what is believed to a blister on his feet from a new pair of cleats. So he took them off and played in his socks throughout the ball game, resulting in Shoeless Joe Jackson. A man who just wanted to play the game of baseball and was banned from it.

Jackson had a career that spanned thirteen years, and played with four teams in all. Most notable was his tenure in Chicago, but he also played for the Indians, Athletics, and Naps. His numbers as a professional ballplayer were very impressive.

Some of these numbers include a .356 career batting average, 785 RBIs, and 168 career triples. The power was low, but this came in an era where lower home run totals were more commonplace.

Well maybe not H.O.F. worthy from looking at those right away, but he seemingly hit for average. Now I’ll post his advanced numbers, which are pretty impressive.

If we take a further look at some of his stats, we’ll see that Jackson had an extremely low strikeout ratio, going down on strikes only once every 24 at bats. Additionally, his on base percentage was .423 and his OPS was .540. All great statistics.

Now let’s get into the Black Sox scandal of’19. The White Sox faced the Reds in the World Series. The White Sox lost the series and Joe Jackson, and eight other players were accused of throwing the series. But Shoeless Joe stats show he did not play poorly. Do you think a .375 average and 12 hits (a world series record) is throwing the series? His fielding percentage in the series was 1.000, having made no errors.

Some have pointed out an abnormally high number of triples the Reds hit to left field (where Jackson played), but research shows this to be inaccurate, as the Reds hit no triples to left field that series. Contradicting his numbers is the fact that Jackson did accept a $5,000 check. It would seem that Jackson reluctantly accepted the money with his teammates, but most likely didn’t want to actually throw the series.

This begs the question: does Shoeless Joe belong in the hall?

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