Play Book Tag discussion

Fall from Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson by Tim Hornbaker - 4* - My Review

Biography of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson and account the 1919 Black Sox scandal. It covers his entire life from birth in South Carolina, baseball career with the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Naps, and Chicago White Sox, connection to the gambling conspiracy to throw the World Series, acquittal at trial, banning from baseball, life after baseball, and death in 1951. We learn about his wife and family, and responsibility to provide for them after the death of his father, lack of education, employment at a ship works during World War I, and other businesses he ran after he could no longer play baseball in the major leagues.

He was one of eight players accused of being paid by a gambling syndicate to throw the Series, and though all were acquitted in court, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis issued a ban for life for the eight. (If you want to read a detailed account of the Series and the scandal, I recommend Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series.) Hornbaker makes a case for Jackson’s reinstatement so that he would be eligible for the Hall of Fame, which he almost certainly would have achieved if not for the scandal. It is a book that could generate some interesting discussions among baseball fans, especially regarding the relationship of baseball and gambling.