The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-15
N HIS NEMESIS.
Cobb Has Always Overshad-
owed Joe Jackson at Bat.
Always He's Just a Bit Ahead
of ShOeless Wonder.
(BY FRANK G. MENKE.)

New York, June 15.-Fortune hasn't
smiled with any real sweetness upon |
Joe Jackson. His achievements over
the sweep of four campaigns were
great enough to have caused him to
be heralded as 1.-The greatest player in
the game" But Fate kept Ty Cobb in
better than runner up.
Cobb has acted as an eclipse of Jack
sons greatness. No matter what deeds
yond-just enough farther to cloud
the brilliance of the ''shoeless won
DER
Back in 1911. Joe's first full season
as a major Lacquer, he dubbed for the
wonderful average of 40S. In the en-
game, only about a dozen batters have
gone beyond 400. 1t would seem that
such a showing with the bludgeon
must win because that was the year
when Ty Cobb slugged to his record
mark of .42O-and Joe finished second.
Cobb His Nemesis.
The following season-1912-Jack
him to the wire with 40 No matter
how well Joe performed, Tvs accom-
plishments were a bit superior. And
Fate seems to have had d hand in it,
because when Ty has slumped, jinx
has similarly afflicted Joe; Luck never
has been with Jackson. The breaks
have gone to Cobb-au of them
In 1913 Jackson nit for .373-and
Cobb went to $50. In 1914 Jackson
dropped to 1913 and Cobb to 1858. Last
season Cobb hit $40 while Joe's total
was only .30S. Had Joe amassed his
.40S and 1896 averages in any other
years than 1911 or 1912 he would have
acquired the honor of being the bat
ting leader of the Johnson circuit.
But Fortune ruled that he should hit
always below Cobb
This season the same state OF affairs
exists. Cobb hasn't been breezing
along as mcrrily as of yore. If he fin
ishes around $50 for the year he will
be surprising many. jackson has
beaten that mark in three starts out of
five His grand average from 1911 to
1915 inclusive is 1854. But now that
the opportunity is before him, Joe
doesn't seem to be able to grasp it. Ty
isn't connecting with any degree of
| frequency-but Joe is hitting with
! lesser degree.
Five years a big league star; five
years of hitting for an average of 1854;
/ once a 4OS hitter, but never the bat
J ting leader That is Joe's history.
Why He's Shoeless Joe.
Many folks have the erroneous idea
| that jackson is called ''shoeless" be-
cause he used to play in his bare feet
down south. The ''shoeleSs" title came
about in this way:
Jackson's own baseball shoes were
missing one day just before game time
in the little southern town where he
/ performed early in his youth An
| other player, with an extra pair of
shoes loaned them to Joe. The shoes
/ were far too small for Jackson. but he
| squeezed his feet into them in some
way and proceeded to his work.
| Along about the fourth inning the
shoes hurt Jackson so much that he
took them off while in the outfield,
laying them on the grass alongside.
For two or three innings he got away
with it-no one discovered he was
playing in his stocking feet But a
| short time later he had to race in back
of the infield for a Texas league"
swat and then the stockinged feet were
noticed.
you've got a shoeless player, eh ?''
commented the rival manager, and
ever afterward Jackson became known
| as the "shoeless wonder