Evening star., 1925-06-07

are fiocking through the turnstiles
his band of ball tossers III their aim
professional teams.
Jackson is manager OF SEMI
Waycross, Ga, a town noted throue
national game.
Although Jackson's club is known
as the Waycross AllStars, the team
in reality comprises players from
Georgia. Alabama Tennessee and
South Carolina. Some of JaCkson's
men are former professional players
who failed to make good in faster
company, but the Waycross club is
u well-balanced aggregation capable of
making many Class A clubs hustle.
jackson Still Great.
ENHANCEMENT in prolonged legal
controversies and separation from the
White SoX pay roll have left no visible
mark upon Jackson. AS fast as ever
the Black SoX athlete fits, ghostlike,
in center field for his club and electri-
fies the spectators in almost every
game with spectacular catches and
throws.
Surrounded by scandal that erased
the names of some of base balls
brightest stars from the White SoX
roster, Joe Jackson still possesses the
ability TO pack 'em in" the grand
stand. In twn after town in South
Carolina this spring Jackson's club
drew more than 5000 people through
the turnStleS.
The personnel of the Waycross club
was not the attraction. Jackson alone
was responsible for packed bleachers
and crowded grandstands. For in
stance, when Jackson's club played at
Laurens. S. c., early in May, people
from 200 miles away motored to the
Laurens park to secure a peek at the
former White Sox outfielder.
Convicted of failing to exert himself
in the White SoX battle with the Gin
cinnati Reds for the world champion
ship, Jackson cannot be accused of
failing to do his best for Waycross.
In every contest played by his club
this year, Joe has batted and fielded
in a fashion that would have brought
agony to the thousands who once
thronged into Comisky Park TO watch
the South Carolinian in his palmiest
days in the American League.
Won Game Single-Handed.
In one game this spring, Jackson's
club played a semi-pro outfit with a
professional pitcher working for the
home club. Shoeless Joe toed the plate
fhree times and was credited with de-
feating the local team single-handed.
Joe drove out two terrific home runs
and one double that almost cleared
the center field barrier. He scored
three runs, and Waycross won the
game to !.
Jackson apparently is just as pop
ular in Dixie as when in the heyday
of his major league career.
His every appearance at the plate
is the signal for salvos of applause,
and in none of his exhibition games
has Jackson been greeted by disquiet-
ing remarks concerning his participa-
tion in the scandal that rocked the
base ball world in 1917.
Jackson has been quoted many
times in South Carolina newspapers
as denying absolutely his alleged part
in the scandal. Apparently the ma.
jority of Southern fans believe in Joe's
innocence, or are willing to give the
former White SoX star "the benefit
of the doubt"
Jackson apparently has abandoned
all hope of ever re-entering profes-
sional base ball, but if Southern
fandom continues to patronize the
Waycross club as literally as it has
done for the past two seasons, Joe
will have no occasion to worry over
the future. Last year Jackson is re-
puted to have made approximately
Fans Flock to Games.
Attendance at all of the All-Stars'
exhibition games this season has been
excellent, and there is no doubt that
Jackson is making almost as much
now as when he drew a princely salary
from Charles Comiskey.
Jacksons home is in South Carolina.
only a short distance from the village
in which the shoeless wonder learned
TO play the game that brought him
fame and shame in after years.
Handicapped by lack of education,
Jackson is not equipped for COM
mercial career and does not plan to
enter business when his base ball days
are over. However, this is not a source
of worry to the ex-Chicago player, as
he is said to have accumulated enough
to keep him in comfort when he de-
cides to forsake the diamond forever.
In strange contradistinction to Jack
sons case is that of Phil Douglas, the
"Shuff1in' Phil who was the idol of
the fans at the Polo Grounds. Douglas
has found himself incapable of staging
a Comeback" even in his old stamp
ing grounds in Dixie.
Two years ago, just after John Nc
Graw had ushered him out of profes
sional base ball, Douglas caught on
with the Forest City, n. c., base baff
club and esSayed to pitch in league
comprising several mountain towns in
the Tarheel State.
-- Douglas Driven From Slab.
Fate dealt "Shuff1in' Phil a cruel
blow. He was knocked out of the box
early in his first game, an aggrega-
ton of college boys finding his roper
toire exasperatingly easy. Douglas
was yanked from the box and left
town that night.
Douglas went back TO Birmingham,
Ala, penniless, it is said, and is now
reported to be performing common
labor in a coal mine.
Swede Risberg, Eddie Cicotte, Happy
Felsch and others of the Black Sox
also have found that popular favor,
once lost, is almost impossible to re-
gain.
OF all that luckless band of alleged
conspirators, Shoeless Joe Jackson,
most illiterate of the lot, alone has
been able to continue to CLEAN a liveli-
hood from base ball-loving public
and to elicit cheers from the stands
as he knocks the clay from his spikes
and settles himself for a toe hold.
Verify, the world is funny