Joe Jackson rates this low because he only played 13 seasons. The first 3 of those seasons he play a total of 30 games which doesn’t help his Hall of Fame case. Also, in 1918 with the war going on Jackson only played 17 games before working in a ship yard to support the war effort. He was kicked out of the game when he was only 32.
Ironically, Joe’s hitting stats would have been better with the lively baseball. Ruth patterned his swing after Jackson and his swing was made for the lively ball. Joe his like crazy in 1920. He had his best OPS since 1912.
In his case with throwing the World Series was that Joe was naive and he didn’t want the money. I don’t know if that is true or not. It seems kind of hard to believe. There is the story that Joe tried to tell owner Charles Comiskey about the fix. One report said he went at night and Comiskey wouldn’t come out of his office. Does that mean that Comiskey supposedly heard about the fix but did not want people to know he knew? I though he went at night and always wonder what Comiskey would be doing at his office at night. I would think that he would be hobnobbing with other rich people promoting the team.
Also, in his SABR biography it said he did it after the Series which I don’t know how that will help. I also think there were a lot of other people Jackson could have talked to who would have been more helpful than Comiskey. This story has always seemed unbelievable to me.
That being said it has been more that 100 years since the incident so if he is voted into the hall of fame I wouldn’t have any problem with it.
