Shoeless

"e;Shoeless"e; Joe Jackson was one of baseball's greatest hitters and most colorful players. Born in rural South Carolina, Jackson never went to school and never learned to read or write. He went to work in a textile mill when he was around six years old, and got his start in baseball playing for a mill team at the age of 13, earning $2.50 a game. He emerged as a star and a favorite of fans with his hitting and throwing abilities, and moved into professional ball, where he received his nickname "e;Shoeless"e; because the blisters on his feet forced him to play in his stockings. He then made his move to the major leagues, signing with the Philadelphia Athletics and rising to fame with Cleveland and then with the Chicago White Sox. His brilliant career was cut short due to his involvement in the scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series, when he was banished from the game he loved. This acclaimed biography, now revised with substantial information from a quarter century's continued research, chronicles Jackson's life from his poor beginnings to his life after baseball, his death on December 5, 1951, and his posthumous reinstatement to baseball's good graces in 2025.