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"Shoeless" Joseph Jefferson Jackson Essay

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Born on July 16, 1887 in Pickens County, South Carolina, “Shoeless” Joseph Jefferson Jackson is frequently regarded as one of the best baseball players of all time. Joe's career as a baseball player was punctuated with a (then) all time high batting average of .356 (currently the third highest batting average on record); “Shoeless Joe's” influence was so substantial that baseball legend Babe Ruth “"... copied [“Shoeless” Joe] Jackson's style because [he] thought [“Shoeless” Joe] was the greatest hitter [He] had ever seen...”. Though his name was obscured by the “Black Socks” scandal of 1920, Joe Jackson managed to surmount his inferior circumstances, chief among which were poverty and illiteracy, to be considered a Baseball Legend. Due to …show more content…

By 1905, his experience playing baseball in the Mills would earn the eighteen year old Joe enough of a name to be hired by the Green-ville Spinners of the Carolina Association. After a brief stint with the Spinners, Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics drafted “Shoeless” to play on his team. It wasn't until 1911 when Joe Jackson signed with the pelicans that he completed his first full season, setting a record .408 batting average for any other rookie to date. “Shoeless” Joe's need to support his family with what little money he could scrounge through various means opened a career opportunity for him to excel in baseball. Shoeless Joe traversed a long way from the vicinity of poverty, evolving into a famous figure in the field of baseball. Quite clearly, “Shoeless” Joe's involvement with the Mill Baseball teams allowed him to acquire an interest in baseball in the first place. However, to pursue both wealth and his interests, Jackson needed to make sacrifices, in this instance, he sacrificed literacy. Later on in his life, “Shoeless” “...[Reckoned he would] live up [in the north] all the time” “If all [his] business interests were not down South...”(Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball, 68). Jackson's illiteracy proved to be a mild inhibition, which “Shoeless” Joe would attempt to mask by “reading” his menus and ordering based on what other people in the restaurant ordered. This

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