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It is the aim of this site to bring forth the truth relating to Joe Jackson and his involvement in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. There have been many stories and versions of stories told over the years relating to Joe and his involvement, sadly though, most of these stories relating to Joe are untrue. Our aim is to give you the facts and just the facts, taken from court transcripts of the day, sworn testimonies of the other players, and the sworn testimonies of the gamblers involved in the fix. Granted, this site is devoted to Joe Jackson, however we will not lie for Joe, we don't have to, the truth speaks for itself, Joe is innocent of any wrong in connection with the throwing of the 1919 World Series. Here are some of the facts: FACT: Joe Jackson was approached by a teammate prior to the 1919 World Series and offered $10,000.00 to throw the World Series, he declined. FACT: Joe was later approached and offered $20,000.00 to throw the World Series, he refused again. FACT: The above statements are from Joe's own testimony before the Cook County Grand Jury, the very testimony that has, in garbled, twisted press accounts, been used as proof of Jackson's complicity. The facts listed here will more than prove Joe's innocence in the scandal. FACT: Joe asked to be benched for the Series to avoid any suspicion that he was involved, his request was refused. Joe knew about the fix (he had guilty knowledge of it), but he did not participate in throwing any games. It was common knowledge that something was wrong (that a fix was in), members of the press knew it, Kid Gleason had strong suspicion that one was in the making, Comiskey (according to Harry Grabiner's diary), knew about the fix after the first game and went to the National Commission with this knowledge. The Clean Sox suspected something was up......but not one of these folks tried hard to expose it......Why???? Because fixing a World Series couldn't be done, you would have been laughed off the face of the earth to suggest such a thing. Understanding that...and understanding how Joe felt about being uneducated......he simply did not push the matter.....for fear of being laughed out of baseball..... Comiskey didn't press the issue, the National Commission didn't believe him (one of the most respected men in baseball), Gleason wouldn't press the issue....and the members of the press wouldn't write about it.....what makes anyone in their right mind think the uneducated Joe Jackson would come forward and spill his guts. It is nothing against Joe Jackson.....but people would have thought......."he's just a ballplayer....an uneducated one at that........what does he know......" People would not have paid any attention to Joe in the least..... so Joe kept his mouth shut until the time was right. FACT: Several of Joe's teammates did conspire to throw the World Series and the White Sox did lose to the Reds five games to three. FACT: Joe knew about the fix, but again in our opinion did not participate in throwing any games (based on his statistics for the series). Joe should have been banned for a few years for his "guilty knowledge" of the affair, but should have been allowed back in the game once that sentence was done. On the same note......Comiskey should have been banned, Gleason and others should have been banned for the same time period......they all had "guilty knowledge" of the fix and did nothing to expose it. FACT: Jackson was the star of the Series, he hit the only homerun, fielded flawlessly, batted .375 to lead all players, and his twelve hits set a World Series record that stood until Pepper Martin tied it years later. Joe accounted for 11 of the Sox 20 runs in the Series, he led players on BOTH teams. FACT: On the evening after the fifth game of the Series, one of Joe's teammates (Lefty Williams) came to his hotel room and offered him an envelope containing cash. Joe refused to accept it, an argument ensued and Joe left his own room. Lefty threw the envelope down and left. This version of the crucial event in Joe's case was attested to, under oath, by the only two men who were there: Joe Jackson and Lefty Williams. Their accounts agree, Joe did not take the money, it was dumped on him. It must be noted, Lefty Williams had nothing to gain by lying for Joe Jackson, therefore....logic leads us to believe his testimony is the truth. FACT: Sometime over the next few days Joe took the envelope containing the $5,000.00 that Lefty had left in his room and went to see Comiskey. He was told by Comiskey's secretary Harry Garbiner that Comiskey was busy and could not see him. Joe waited for an hour and still was told that Comiskey could not see him, so he went home. Hindsight is always 20-20 and we all know Joe should have gone to Lefty Williams and threw the cash back in his face, sadly we all know he didn't do this.....but we also know that he tried to do the right thing....to tell what he knew.....but Comiskey was in the process of a cover up....and wanted to keep Joe Jackson quiet......truth be known.....Comiskey was afraid Joe would run his mouth to the press. FACT: Comiskey would not see Joe that morning, because he was in a secret meeting with two players hearing the story of the fix, however in reality, Comiskey already knew the story. Comiskey publicly proclaimed his commitment to "clean baseball", he privately spent the winter of 1919 and most of the 1920 season denying rumors about the 1919 Series and perpetrating a cover-up, in part to protect his valuable property, namely the guilty players. FACT: Once the fix was exposed, Comiskey's priority was to protect his own reputation. He would have looked bad if the public learned what he knew and when he knew it. FACT: Of the players that Comiskey fed to the Grand Jury, Joe was the most problematic. He had been the only one to warn Comiskey before the Series began. If Joe told all he knew, Comiskey's self-proclaimed integrity would be impugned and he would be revealed as a hypocrite (which he was), or worse. FACT: Joe was working under two misconceptions when he met with Comiskey's lawyer Alfred Austrian: One, he believed the truth would protect him and Two, he believed Austrian was his lawyer. Neither belief was true. FACT: Joe began his counseling with Austrian by protesting his innocence, but after a session that lasted more than an hour, Austrian convinced Joe that the truth would not be believed by the Grand Jury. Austrian admitted under oath that he had kept notes on pre-testimony meetings with the other players, however he kept no notes during his meeting with Joe, how convenient!!! FACT: In his Grand Jury testimony, Joe told two diametrically opposed stories, one confessing his guilt and the other protesting his innocence. Logic leads us to believe the first story was probably Austrian's and the second Joe's. FACT: Sleepy Bill Burns, the fixer who put the players and the gamblers in touch with each other, testified under oath that he had never talked to Joe about the fix. Instead he took the word of Lefty Williams, who claimed he was empowered to speak for Jackson. FACT: Lefty Williams, himself, also under oath, swore he never received Joe's permission to use his name with the fixers. This is perhaps the most compelling evidence we have, because it provides both motivation and means. The gamblers wanted a sure thing, and since Joe was capable of going on a hitting streak that could carry the White Sox to victory despite the fix, they wanted Joe in. FACT: The fixed players, in the person of Lefty Williams said Joe was in, in reality he was not. The means were equally simple, Williams and Burns wanted the scheme to work, one lied and the other took him at his word with no effort to substantiate his claim. FACT: Jackson was indicted, tried in criminal court, and acquitted, nevertheless, he was banished from organized baseball by Kennesaw Mountain Landis, the newly elected Commissioner of baseball. Landis used the same tactics he used on the Federal bench and banned Joe without even so much as a hearing before him. Landis ruled to suit himself and cared not what Joe Jackson might have had to say about the case. FACT: The jury in Joe's 1924 civil suit against Comiskey for back wages also found Joe not guilty of any culpable involvement in the Black Sox Scandal. This by the way was the second jury to hear Joe's story and find him not guilty. But the powers that be in organized baseball at the time, mainly Landis, again ignored the jury's verdict and refused to lift his banishment from professional baseball. FACT: Joe received shoddy treatment, but this probably would not happen today. A modern-day Jackson would have had his own lawyer from the very beginning. The shenanigans employed by Comiskey's lawyer would not be tolerated by the bar today. FACT: In today's justice system, you are innocent until proven guilty. You have to have evidence to prove a person guilty, in Joe's case there is no evidence that Joe did anything wrong. His World Series statistics speak for themselves, out of all the players and gamblers that testified under oath, not one said Joe Jackson was present at any meetings between the players and gamblers. The gamblers also testified that they had never spoken to Joe concerning throwing the World Series. Joe tried twice to inform his owner about the fix and for whatever reason, his owner would not meet with him. FACT: Joe Jackson was suspended from baseball in 1920 and then banned from professional baseball in 1921, he spent the rest of his life either playing the game or teaching kids the fine art of the game. Joe Jackson never held any ill will towards Major League Baseball and it is now time for Major League Baseball to do the right thing, to clear his name from their "so called" Ineligible List, to stop the ill will against him. Lastly, don't cry for Joe Jackson.....for Joe could have cared less whether he was ever inducted into the Hall of Fame....that is not what this is about.......it's about doing the right thing....to correct an injustice. All Major League Baseball has to do to right this wrong is make a simple statement........... "Joe Jackson has served his sentence with dignity and held no ill will towards baseball. Joe Jackson sentence is done, we have no further jurisdiction over him" With a statement like this MLB could correct the injustice done to Joe without "playing God" with history or to reverse a decision made by a prior Commissioner........it simply would be saying that his sentence is done, which in reality it was done in 1951 when he died. |
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