For over a century, the story of outfielder Joe Jackson, the 1919 Chicago White Sox and eight of their members' bans from baseball has gripped the imagination of sports fans across North America. Now, 74 years after Jackson's death, it has taken a new twist.
Jackson and the rest of the Black Sox are being reinstated from baseball's lifetime ban list with immediate effect, according to baseball commissioner Rob Manfred. Manfred made the announcement in a Tuesday letter, as first reported by ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr.
The decision clears the way for Jackson—a terrific talent for the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland and the Chicago White Sox—to potentially enter the Hall of Fame.
Jackson and seven teammates on the 1919 White Sox—pitcher Eddie Cicotte, center fielder Happy Felsch, first baseman Chick Gandil, utilityman Fred McMullin, shortstop Swede Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver and pitcher Lefty Williams—were banned for life in 1921 by commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis on charges of throwing the '19 World Series.
"No player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers 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," Landis wrote in '21 despite the eight players' acquittal on nine counts of conspiracy to defraud.
In the aftermath of the highly public trial, the Black Sox entered American legend. Jackson and Weaver's images were gradually rehabilitated and their innocences protested; they died in 1951 and 1956, respectively. Risberg, the last living member of the eight, died in 1975.
The scandal eventually became fertile ground for artwork; two of cinema's most celebrated baseball movies, Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams, center around its events.
Pete Rose, baseball's all-time hits leader, also received posthumous reinstatement Tuesday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Shoeless Joe Jackson, Black Sox Removed From MLB's Banned List.