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Shoeless Joe Jackson Thesis

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Shoeless Joe Jackson Thesis
Andrew Vignolo
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The 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” scandal is one of the biggest instances of sports deception in professional sports history. It was the one and only known time where members of a professional sports team had thrown the World Series because of bribery. It revolved around a major New York gangster named Arnold Rothstein, who supplied the money to all of the players that were involved in the throwing. One particular player out of the starting nine was “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, an all star and a future Hall of Famer. He was one of the first players in the court case who pleaded guilty for taking money to intentionally lose the 1919 Baseball World Series. After the court ruling, Jackson told reporters, “The jury could not have returned a fairer verdict, but I don't want to go back to organized baseball--I'm through with it.” This quote shows how he really felt about the entire situation and how sorry
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But what did he do exactly? He received a $10,000 payment from Rothstein, the New York Gangster. But oddly enough, his batting average (total hits divided by attempts) in the series was higher than his average compared to his batting average for the rest of the 1919 season. This fact is what raised eyebrows worldwide. Why should one of the best players in baseball history be accused of fixing a series even though his batting average was better than his normal average? But he still accepted the $10,000 bribe; it does not make logical sense. And the lawsuit prevented Jackson from participating in the Major League of Baseball and banned him from the Hall of Fame. Even though he accepted the money, Jackson should still be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Main reasons of this are his possible innocence, his ignorance to what he was saying when taking the money, and other cheating

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