On the blog today, a really fun card to create, a 1971 "Minor League Days legends Edition for the great Joe Jackson:
Found
this really nice image of him suited up with the Savannah Indians, for
whom he played part of the 1909 season before taking his talents to the
Major Leagues the following year.
Jackson hit .358 with the
Indians over 118 games that season, collecting 161 hits in 450 at-bats,
and pretty much giving us an idea as to what to expect once he arrived
to the Majors in 1910.
Of course, if not for the alleged
complicity in throwing the 1919 World Series along with teammates,
Jackson would have had his rightful spot in the Hall of Fame years
later, something I feel he should have anyway based on his performance
between the lines.
Though he never won a batting title, even
with a .400+ season under his belt in 1911, Jackson put together the
third-highest career average (.356) the game has ever seen, topping
.350+ seven times in 13 seasons, including a .382 average in 1920, his
final year in the Majors before getting banished because of the 1919
fixing allegation.
Over his incredible career Jackson led the
league in hits twice, doubles once, triples three times.
on-base-percentage once and slugging once, and total bases twice,
finishing top-5 in MVP voting three times, including a runner-up finish
in 1913.
One of the most talked about historical baseball
players of the Dead Ball era, who knows what Jackson could have finished
with had he not been banned for life at the age of only 32.
Take
into account his last season went as follows: .382 average, 218 hits,
105 runs scored, 42 doubles, 20 triples, 121 RBIs and a .589 slugging
pct.
The man was clearly in the middle of his peak performance and the live ball era was just beginning.