Quote:
Originally Posted by jd1020
I'll never understand the argument that Shoeless Joe only did good when it didn't matter. You'll point to his RBI's in the final game after Lefty Williams blew the game in the top of the 1st because he and his family were threatened the day before. What AB was available to him to take when it mattered?
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The ones where Chicago hadn't been paid and decided they were going to win.
The differences were stark. He knew when he could turn it on and when he couldn't.
No XBH with runners on until Game 8. A .545 BA with 6 RBI in the games where the players had abandoned the fix. 0-6 w/ RISP in games known to be fixed. In those games he hit .250 w/ zero RBI (until game 5 when he got his first RBI when they were down 10-1).
And again, he admitted he took money and admitted he threw games 2 and 3 in his grand jury testimony.
Was he the driving force behind the decision to throw games? No, I don't think so (that was almost certainly Gandil, Cicotte and Risberg). But was he their best player and did he participate in the fix? Oh absolutely and by his own admission.
Jackson got what he deserved. Buck Weaver might've gotten screwed. And at least Gandil, to his credit, took his medicine. He expressed remorse and conceded that they deserved to be banned.