1997 Joe Jackson News
 Long Gone Collectibles Black Betsy bat featured in Beckett Vintage Sports
The September, 1997 issue of
Beckett Vintage Sports has an article (page 6) about Long Gone Collectibles' Shoeless Joe Jackson model baseball bat. The bat is a reproduction of Joe's famous black
bat "Black Betsy". For more information about the bat see our Shoeless Joe Jackson baseball bat advertisement.
Shoeless Joe Jackson's Virtual Hall of Fame featured in Beckett Vintage Sports
The August, 1997 issue of
Beckett Vintage Sports featured the Virtual Hall of Fame web site as their Vintage Surf Site of the month.
County to keep Shoeless Joe's valuable signature
Columbia, South Carolina --- Shoeless Joe
Jackson's last will and testament can rest in peace in Greenville County Probate Court's vault. The state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday September 2, 1997 that Jackson's
widow's heirs cannot have the document for its rare and valuable Jackson signature. The signature has become valuable to collectors, who might pay as much as $100,000 for
the document were it not an official document in Greenville County archives. Greenville lawyer Leo Hill, who as a youngster knew Jackson in the Brandon Mill neighborhood,
sought to have the document declared the property of Jackson's widow, Katie, who left all her possessions to the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society
when she died in 1959. Hill maintained that the will should be turned over to the charities so they could auction it to collectors and use the money for research.
But state officials saw Hill's bid as a threat to the principle that public records should be available for all to examine. Hill, who wrote Katie Jackson's will and represented
the charities at his own expense, said he was disappointed. "With all our modern technology, all that information could be preserved in any number of ways. In today's
modern commerce, few people see the original copies of the faxed documents they deal with," Hill said. He might take the issue to the federal appeals court on the constitutional
principle of the state's taking Katie Jackson's property without compensating her heirs, but he said he would talk with the charities first. Carolyn Weatherall, a receptionist at the
county records office, said many people came to see the document when controversy surfaced over the will. The curious are given a photocopy of the document, which is kept locked
in the probate court vault, she said.
Pro-Joe campaign makes City Hall ----- Greenville native Joe Jackson was honored Wednesday
July 16, 1997 on his 110th birthday when the mayor of Greenville Knox White added his signature to a petition containing more than 90,000 signatures of people who are asking for
Jackson to be reinstated into baseball, so that he may take his rightful place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Relatives of Jackson presented
Mayor White with a framed poster of the former baseball player at ceremonies held at City Hall.
On April 1st 1997 the Shoeless Joe Jackson Home Page moved to it's new home at www.blackbetsy.com. The site
has been redesigned, more information about Joe has been added and the name was changed to Shoeless Joe Jackson's Virtual Hall of Fame.
At present this Virtual Hall of Fame is the closest thing to a shrine that we Joe Jackson fans have to honor one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
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