Shoeless Joe Jackson has been banned from baseball for over a century, but after a ruling by Rob Manfred on Tuesday, the disgraced former White Sox star has a chance at baseball immortality. Manfred reinstated Jackson, along with MLB hit king Pete Rose, after calls from the sitting United States president Donald Trump to do so. Rose's family has long taken up his case, especially since the Reds and Phillies legend died last September. Manfred finally gave in on Tuesday.
"Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game," Manfred wrote in a letter to attorney Jeffrey M. Lenkov, who petitioned for Rose's removal from the list Jan. 8. "Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve. Therefore, I have concluded that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual, and Mr. Rose will be removed from the permanently ineligible list."
Jackson's inclusion in this ruling is merely a footnote in ESPN's story, but perhaps it shouldn't be. While both he and Rose will face an uphill battle to be voted into the Hall of Fame come 2028, when they are eligible, one could argue Jackson has the better case. That person is me.
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Should Shoeless Joe Jackson make the Baseball Hall of Fame?
The reasons Shoeless Joe ought to be in the conversation for the Hall of Fame are simple. First, enough time has gone by that Jackson has served his penalty and then some. Second, Shoeless Joe's stats in the infamous Black Sox Scandal series were actually quite good. Third, Jackson was cleared of direct wrongdoing by a grand jury in Chicago!
Jackson is not completely innocent by any means. He was arguably the best player and leader of the 1919 White Sox. He should and could have done more to prevent such a scandal from occurring in the first place, and there's plenty of evidence he had direct knowledge of it.
Shoeless Joe's Cooperstown argument trumps Pete Rose
All that being said, Jackson did not play nearly as large of a role as some of his teammates. He led both teams in the series with a .375 batting average, and set a record for base hits in said series that wasn't broken until the 1960's. He also committed zero errors during the entire affair. If Jackson did in fact take the money, he was terrible at following through.
Rose could be forced to wait longer than Jackson if only due to recency bias. The hit king also dealt with more than just gambling allegations off the field, as he allegedly had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl back in the 1980's. He blew off the allegations late in his life, telling a female reporter it "was 55 years ago, babe."
Jackson is no guarantee to make the Hall, but neither is Rose.