Shoeless Joe Jackson

"They say I was the greatest natural hitter of all time. Well thats saying a lot with hitters like Wagner, Cobb, Speaker and Ruth around. I had good eyes and I guess that was the reason I hit as well as I did. I still dont use glasses today."

"I have been pretty lucky since I left the big leagues. No man who has done the things they accuse me of doing could have been as successful. Everything I touched seemed to turn to money, and Ive made my share down through the years. Ive been blessed with a good banker, too — my wife. Handing the money to her was just like putting it in the bank. We were married in 1908 when I was just 19 and she was 15, and she has stood by me through everything. We never had any children of our own, but we raised one of my brothers boys from babyhood."

"Jackson was not only a natural hitter, but he had a set style, a grooved swing. I cant ever remember him being in a batting slump. His swing was so perfect that there was little chance of it getting disorganized. He was the greatest natural hitter who ever lived."

"Charley Somers, who owned the Indians, was the most generous club owner I have ever seen... The first year I came up to Cleveland, in 1910, I led the league unofficially in hitting. When I went to talk contract with him for 1911, I told him I wanted $10,000. He wasnt figuring on giving me more than $6,000, and he wouldnt listen to me. "Ill make a deal with you," I told him. "If I hit .400 you give me $10,000. If I dont, you dont give me a cent." It was a deal, I signed the contract, and I hit .408. But I still didnt win the American League batting title. That was the year Ty Cobb hit .420. I was hitting .420 about three weeks before the season was over and Mr. Somers called me in to pay off, told me I could sit it out the rest of the season. I told him to wait until the season was ended and I wasnt quitting. I wrote my own contract the rest of the time I was in Cleveland."

"I repeat what I said when I started out — that I have no axe to grind, that Im not asking anybody for anything. Its all water over the dam as far as I am concerned. I can say that my conscience is clear and that Ill stand on my record in that World Series. Im not what you call a good Christian, but I believe in the Good Book, particularly where it says "what you sow, so shall you reap." I have asked the Lord for guidance before, and I am sure He gave it to me. Im willing to let the Lord be my judge."

"I went out and played my heart out against Cincinnati. I set a record that stills stands for the most hits in a Series, though it has been tied, I think. I made 13 hits, but after all the trouble came out they took one away from me. Maurice Rath went over in the hole and knocked down a hot grounder, but he couldnt make a throw on it. They scored it a hit then, but changed it later. I led both teams in hitting with .375. I hit the only home run of the Series, off Hod Eller in the last game. I came all the way home from first on a single and scored the winning run in that 5-4 game. I handled 30 balls in the outfield and never made an error or allowed a man to take an extra base."

"I guess the biggest joke of all was that story that got out about "Say it aint so, Joe." Charley Owens of the Chicago Daily News was responsible for that, but there wasnt a bit of truth in it. It was supposed to have happened the day I was arrested in September of 1920, when I came out of the courtroom. There werent any words passed between anybody except me and a deputy sheriff. When I came out of the building this deputy asked me where I was going, and I told him to the Southside. He asked me for a ride and we got in the car together and left. There was a big crowd hanging around the front of the building, but nobody else said anything to me. It just didnt happen, thats all. Charley Owens just made up a good story and wrote it. Oh, I would have said it aint so, all right, just like Im saying it now."

"You know, yourself—. The only way you could hit him was to poke the ball. I used to wait for his curve. Used to kid him by standing up straight with the bat leaning against my hip."

"I asked to be suspended before the world series of 1919. I didnt want to play after I heard what was going on. But I had to play, and I did play. Look at the records I made in that series. Look at s, too, and you dont need any more proof that we played."

"If I had been the kind of fellow who brooded when things went wrong, I probably would have gone out of my mind when Judge Landis ruled me out of baseball. I would have lived in regret. I would have been bitter and resentful because I felt I had been wronged. But I havent been resentful at all. I thought when my trial was over that Judge Landis might have restored me to good standing. But he never did. And until he died I had never gone before him, sent a representative before him, or placed before him any written matter pleading my case. I gave baseball my best and if the game didnt care enough to see me get a square deal, then I wouldnt go out of my way to get back in it. Baseball failed to keep faith with me. When I got notice of my suspension three days before the 1920 season ended — it came on a rained-out day — it read that if found innocent of any wrongdoing, I would be reinstated. If found guilty, I would be banned for life. I was found innocent, and I was still banned for life."

"Old Joe remembers "a spraddle-legged hitter who looked good" whom Joe taught to change his tactics to pivot hitting. "Hes the only fellow I ever tried to convert to the style who jumped onto the ideas in a minute. He was a young fellow named Babe Ruth who wanted to learn."

"I was responsible only for Joe Jackson. I positively cant say that I recall anything out of the way in the Series. I mean, anything that might have turned the tide. There was just one thing that doesnt seem quite right, now that I think back over it. Cicotte seemed to let up on a pitch to Pat Duncan, and Pat hit it over my head. Duncan didnt have enough power to hit the ball that far, particularly if Cicotte had been bearing down. Williams was a great control pitcher and they made a lot of fuss over him walking a few men. Swede Risberg missed the bag on a double-play ball at second and they made a lot out of that. But those are things that might happen to anybody. You just cant say out and out that that was shady baseball."