Talented author and researcher Tim Hornbaker looks at the unfortunate ending of one the baseball’s greatest hitter’s careers, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, in “Fall from Grace.” The question we are still faced with over one hundred years after the Chicago White Sox threw the 1919 World Series, did “Shoeless” Joe Jackson actively participate in the gambler’s pay off? Hornbaker examines the evidence, and allows the reader to draw their own conclusions.
The quiet baseball star still holds the Major League record for battling .408 in his first full rookie season. Despite the fact that he couldn’t read or write, Jackson became one the sports greatest natural hitters. Jackson resisted suggestions to change his battling style, and went out to hit a career .356 average. Hornbaker reveals how Jackson adopted his nickname “Shoeless,” and why one baseball’s greatest managers, Connie Mack, decided to let him go.
After being dubbed “The Ty Cobb of the minors,” Jackson became a dangerous slugger in the Major Leagues, and received series offers from the rival Federal League. One report suggested that Jackson could name his price, but the “Shoeless” one would remain loyal to the Cleveland Indians, before being traded to the Chicago White Sox in 1915. After winning the 1917 World Series, the team was favored to beat the National League’s Cincinnati Reds for the 1919 World championship, but gamblers conspired with eight White Sox players, and the series was thrown.
In the end, the eight players that conspired with the gamblers would receive lifetime bans from Major League Baseball. Despite appeals, Jackson was never reinstated, and ended his career playing semi professional baseball. Through the years, there have been attempts to get Jackson reinstated, and ultimately be inducted into the Baseball hall of fame, but their efforts have been fruitless. “Fall from Grace” is honest look at one of baseball’s greatest stained players of all time.
By: Tim Hornbaker
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
Length: 10 hrs
Release date: 05-23-17
Publisher: Brilliance Audio