Imagine being a baseball player. You’re playing in the world series, you have the best hitting percentage on your team, and fielding percentage. Your team loses, and suddenly everybody starts calling you a scandal, and blaming the loss all on you. How would you feel if that happened to you. This is exactly what happened to shoeless Joe Jackson. He was seriously one of the best, and I believe that he should have at least one chance to be put into the hall of fame.

Shoeless Joe got his nickname during a mill game played in Greenville, South Carolina. Jackson suffered from blisters on his foot from a new pair of cleats, and they hurt so much that he had to take his shoes off before an at bat,ever since then he was nicknamed shoeless Joe(Funtrivia). Shoeless Joe Jackson purposely lost the world series for the Black Sox, just for money. Shoeless Joe was promised 20,000 dollars, but only ended up receiving 5,000. When his team found out, they told the coach, and the coach told the MLB, and shoeless Joe was banned from baseball for life. This should not have happened, he was amazing.
The question that I am asking, is if shoeless Joe Jackson should be accepted into the hall of fame. I believe that he should for many reason, like how he has the third highest hitting average ever in the MLB. Shoeless Joe was that amazing when he hit, so why shouldn’t he be allowed into the hall of fame. Some may say that he threw the world series for the Black Sox, but why should that matter, if he had the third highest hitting average ever known in the MLB. Also, shoeless Joe Jackson’s hitting skills were so good, that Ty Cobb, and Babe Ruth, some of the best baseball’s ever known said that they actually copied shoeless Joe’s style, like his swing(Kinsela, W.P). When people like that admire him say that, I believe that means something. Finally, if he was associated with the Black Sox  scandal, then why did he hit twelve balls in a row, and almost had a perfect game.

Shoeless Joe is one of the best in baseball history, so shouldn’t he at least get a chance at being in the hall of fame too? As a rookie, shoeless .408, which is still Cleveland’s record, to this day(Kinsela, W.P). Some may say that he wasn’t worthy of being in the hall of fame, because he wasn’t Ty Cobb good, or he was associated with the Black Sox Scandal, but he wasn’t Ty Cobb good, but he is still one of the best, ever to be in the MLB. Shoeless Joe actually started off as a pitcher, but was soon moved to the outfield, because he broke someone’s arm while warming up. Have you ever heard of anyone else doing that, that’s what I thought. Many people say that the coach kind of did this to his team, he payed them lousily, and he was just mean, so there’s another reason why shoeless Joe, and many others might have accepted the money, to play poorly in the world series.
By the time that 1919 came around, shoeless Joe was batting at his prime, with a .351 batting average, which is .2 away from Roger Hornsby, and .15 away from the number one batting average of all time, who is Ty Cobb. How is shoeless Joe not in the hall of fame, with the third highest batting of all time. Some may say that he Jackson didn’t exactly throw the game, but he still took the money, but his wife made him take the money, and they gave all of it to charity. Finally, Shoeless joe played his heart out in the world series game, so shouldn’t he at least get a chance.

As said in the Youtube clip, Joe was amazing, he had 12 hits, a series record, he also hit the only home run in the series(Shoeless Joe Jackson). The poem states that, “the coach couldn’t hear him yell that he needed to rest, and tell him what’s happening, and instead kept him in the whole game” (I can’t play to lose). Shoeless Joe actually tried to tell his coach about what was going on, but his coach was a jerk, and wouldn’t listen, and kept Joe in the whole entire game.

In conclusion, shoeless Joe should absolutely be in the hall of fame, because of his pitch, hitting average, and how he played his heart out. Shoeless Joe is one of the best of all time, and he got blamed for the loss of his team, so he should at least get a shot at the hall of fame.

    WORKS CITED:

“Career leaders for batting average”N.P. 2014. WEB.  19 February,  2015.

“Kinsela, W.P.”Shoeless Joe Jackson. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
Licence. 9, 2015. WEB. 18 February, 2015

“Shoeless Joe Jackson”. Youtube, March 11, 2013. WEB. February 18, 2015.

“I Can’t Play To Lose”. Baseball Poetess. 4 March, 2010. WEB. 18 February, 2015