Mellow Yellow Invades SC: Shoeless Joe Jackson's Museum

Saturday afternoon I spent some time at Shoeless Joe Jackson's final house, which is on the west side of Greenville, near the baseball stadium.

Joe Jackson was a left fielder from the Greenville area.  He was arguably the greatest hitter in baseball history in an era where home runs were few and far between. During his career, he achieved the highest batting average by a rookie (.408), led the American League (AL) in triples (26 in 1912, 21 in 1916, 20 in 1920), led the AL in doubles (39 in 1913) and hits (226 in 1912, 197 in 1913).  As a left fielder, he was known to have great range (said that balls hit near him were "a place where triples go to die") and arm (said to be able to throw the ball 400 feet on the fly).  

He got his nickname "Shoeless" in 1908 when in a game he played in new spikes that gave him many painful blisters on his feet.  So before he batted one time he decided to take his shoes off before he got to the plate.  He hit a triple during that at-bat and he was nicknamed "Shoeless" ever since.

What Jackson is most known for is the 1919 scandal where the team he played for, the Chicago White Sox, lost the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.  The White Sox were heavy favorites in the series and suspicions arose that they threw the series to conspire with sports bookies.  I'll tell you in a bit what I was told once I got into the house.

Here's a couple of the signs outside of the house.

Here's the house and what you see walking in the front door.

Once I got in the front door, a geriatric man, Bill, greeted me and asked me what I knew about Jackson.  I told him the scandal of 1919.  Bill raised his voice, saying that's not true. He went on to say that Jackson and the seven other players accused of throwing the series were victims of a mafia and media smear.  Jackson's stats during that World Series appear to give him proof that was the case.  Here are a few of Jackson's stats during that series:

• Batting average: .375
• Hit the only home run
• On base plus slugging: .956 (e.g. .800 is a very good offensive performance)

Eventually Jackson would get cleared of wrongdoing.  But his and fellow alleged teammates forever would be smeared by what Bill would call "Fake News" headline "WHITE SOX INDICTED!"  Here's a video link for a more complete explanation : Click Here

So here's Jackson's living room:

One of his bats, a bit heavier than what we see today.

The kitchen of his house, appliances were sold off, so these are replicas.

Finally, the bathroom area of his house, very cozy indeed:

All in all, this was another interesting experience.  Thanks to Bill, I learned something new as well.