If you are a real fan of baseball, and in Greenville, SC, go visit the Woodlawn Memorial Park cemetery. There, in section “V”, is the final resting place of Joseph Jefferson Jackson, and his childhood sweetheart, Katie. Although, there are mostly all ground level, simple plaque grave markers, theirs will not be hard to find. It is the only marker lined with 44 baseballs, laid side-by-side, outlining their entire plaque. There are also two baseball bats and an old pair of cleats with an inscribed baseball inside lying on top that reads; “Keep on Swing (sic) Keep eye on the ball”. There is a random pile of coins scattered across the brass; quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies, in no particular order.

There is also a heavy metal vase, attached near the top of the grave, with fake, faded roses and a tattered American flag inside. Hanging from the roses, is a license plate-sized metal sign that reads; “Losers Quit when they’re tired, Winners quit when they’ve won”. His death date is December 5, 1951. Although seven decades have passed, it is clear this grave is visited often and has great meaning to those that come.

He was nicknamed “Shoeless Joe”, which became one of the most iconic monikers in the history of the game of baseball. His exploits on the diamond, beginning as a teen, playing with men, on a factory team in Greenville, SC, are of mythical proportions. Those who were fortunate enough to see him in person say, when his bat made contact with the ball, it made an explosive sound like no others. He ran faster and threw harder than most in the league. He was supremely gifted and he was a young teen, playing with grown men.

Later, after playing a total of 10 games in 2 seasons in Philadelphia, he played his first full season for the Cleveland Indians. He hit for a historical batting average of .408 and placed second in the league behind the great Ty Cobb (.420).

(For you stat geeks, here is his line: AB 572, H 233, RBI 83, SB 41 OBP .468, OPS 1.058). At age 24, in his first full season, he established himself as one of the greats.

He  played only 10 more seasons and left the game with a .356 lifetime batting average, (still third highest of all-time). Ty Cobb, who many considered the most dynamic player of the generation, claimed that Shoeless Joe was the greatest player he had ever seen. Babe Ruth, who also batted left handed, said that he copied Joe’s swing. Joseph Jefferson Jackson was undoubtedly one of the game’s great ones.

In 1915, claiming financial hardships, the Indians traded Shoeless Joe to the Chicago White Sox for three players and cash. Two years later, he became a World Series Champion, and in the 1919 World Series, he finished the series with the most hits (12) and the only Home Run hit by either team. He is also implicated in the infamous “Black Sox” scandal, where players from the White Sox, conspired with gamblers, to “fix” the outcome of games and the series itself. (The White Sox lost to the heavy underdog, Cincinnati Reds).

Charles Comiskey, was the owner of the White Sox in 1919 and he was nicknamed “The Old Roman” or “Commy”. Before ownership, Comiskey played amateur baseball as a pitcher and then as a first baseman in the early days of Professional ball. (He is credited with being an innovator in the position by being the first to play away from the base, in order to increase fielding range). Otherwise, he had a  very pedestrian few seasons in organized professional baseball.

As an owner, he was generally considered generous as compared to his counterparts, however, began to pinch pennies as his team became more successful circa 1916-1919. Prior to the World Series championship in 1917, Comiskey promised bonuses for a World Series crown. He never delivered. The players sometimes found their dirtied uniforms still in their lockers, as Comiskey asked equipment staff to cut costs on the cleaning bills. Yet it was “The Old Roman’s treatment of star pitcher, Eddie Ciccote, that may have opened the door for the scandal of 1919.

Prior to the start of the season, Ciccote had been promised a substantial bonus if he were to win 30 games, a very improbable feat for any pitcher. After his 29th win, nearing the end of the year, Comiskey ordered the manager to keep Ciccote out of the lineup. He was never able to earn his bonus. (It is widely acknowledged, that Cicotte and first baseman, Chick Gandil, were the the first players approached by the gamblers in the 1919 World Series scandal, and became the organizers for the other 6 players implicated).

Here’s the thing. Shoeless Joe and The Old Roman will forever be linked in baseball folklore by the 1919 Black Sox debacle. Joe had arrived at that moment as perhaps the most celebrated player of his time. Comiskey had arrived as a part of an ownership group in the league who had decided collectively to allow for gambling to be a part of the game. Much like generations later, when Bud Selig would turn a blind eye to performance enhancers used in the game, Comiskey and his peers chose to ignore their game’s dark side until forced to face it.

Shoeless Joe was in the middle of a career that was beyond reproach and destined to be one of epic proportions. When faced with doubling or tripling his annual salary, allegedly, he agreed to participate in the scam. It appears he had a change of heart, as he outperformed everyone in the Series at the plate and committed no errors in the field.

Comiskey had been notified prior to the Series by a reporter that a “fix” was possibly in the works. He chose to do nothing. Even later, when the scandal came to light, Comiskey promised a 20k reward for anyone with information. Jackson’s wife wrote

letters to Comiskey with Joe’s knowledge of the fix, and he never responded. No reward, to anyone, was ever paid.

Joe and his 7 teammates were acquitted in two separate court cases, the records of which have been missing in the Cook County court system since completion of the trials. Comiskey and his peers, hired a Federal Judge, Kennesaw Landis, to become baseball’s first commissioner and given the mission to “clean-up” the game. This was his official decree regarding the 8 players determined to have knowledge of the 1919 scandal:

“Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.”

Joe’s career was finished and Comiskey continued on. Due to Landis’ decree, Joe has never been eligible for the game’s greatest honor, election to the Hall of Fame. (Landis’ verdict has placed him and his teammates on an “ineligible” list). Comiskey was elected to the HOF in 1939. Judge Landis was elected later and Bud Selig, who was Commissioner during the darkest years of the American Pastime, is also an elected member.

The Selig election may be the greatest collective joke played upon the hallowed Hall. Originally an owner, Selig, like Comiskey before, was always interested in baseball’s bottom line. In the early 1990’s, he was part of an ownership group that voted then acting Commissioner, Fay Vincent, out of office. (Vincent had drawn the ire of ownership for siding with the players in labor disputes, among other things). Selig, then became “acting” Commissioner between 1992-98 and then became Commissioner from 1998-2015. This is the longest stretch in the games’ history that baseball ownership ran the league.

The last time baseball was “governed” by ownership? Well, that would be prior to 1920, when Comiskey and his pals had the wheel. So like their predecessors, Selig helped sully the game and sink it to new lows for all baseball purists.

So, Comiskey, Landis and Selig, are all in Baseball’s Hall of Fame and Shoeless Joe is not. Comiskey and Selig never played a single game in MLB, and arguably did more harm to the game than good. Shoeless Joe was an adored superstar who never did anything to hurt the game until he attended that ill-fated meeting.

Shoeless Joe had this to say before his death in 1951; “God knows I gave my best in baseball at all times and no man on earth can truthfully judge me otherwise.” (It is reported that Joe came back to his hotel room after one of the games of the 1919 World Series and found 5k on his bed. It is also said that he gave that money to his sister to pay a hospital bill).

Comiskey, Landis and Selig may be in the Hall of Fame, but Shoeless Joe has an immortality that money cannot buy. He died December 5, 1951 and after 7 decades, they still come to visit. They leave pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. They leave baseball bats that have been there so long they are weathered and rotted. They leave flowers and flags and special messages, whose meaning is only known to those that left them.

When you visit this grave, you feel as if you are at a very special place where people come and they leave their love. They leave their love for Joe and Katie and they leave their love for the game. They leave their memories of what was once good, and maybe great, in their own lives, from their connection with the game.

Go see for yourself. Go to Woodlawn Memorial Park in Greenville, SC and look for the only grave with baseballs watching over it.