Post-scandal, 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson rattled Bergen County 100 years ago. Here's the story

The day baseball legend "Shoeless" Joe Jackson played in Hackensack, he had five at-bats, four hits and one fake name.

Jackson, one of the greatest players never admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame, was undercover. The obscurity was obligatory.

Less than a year earlier, in August 1921, after he and seven Chicago White Sox teammates were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Jackson was banned from Major League Baseball. The "Black Sox" scandal, since affirmed by participants, remains one of the preeminent controversies in baseball history.

Players associated with Jackson post-scandal were told they had no chance of playing in baseball's top league. League officials enacted a rule barring Jackson and company's future teammates or opponents from their competition.

To earn a living and protect other athletes, the 34-year-old Jackson attempted to blend into Bergen County's semi-pro league. He adopted an alias, "Josephs," for his first foray on June 25, 1922.

The unknown outfielder quickly drew attention, reported R.H. Wynkoop, a sportswriter for The Record, in the next day's paper. Batting fourth for Westwood, the 6-foot-1-inch, left-handed hitter looked far better than his competition at Hackensack's Oritani Field.

Jackson threw out a runner at home from center field. He hit a double in his first at-bat and a single in his second. His third was a home run that became a legend, his manager for Westwood would affirm 15 years later in a letter to Jackson.

"I guess the ball is still going," he quipped.

The scene must have been "something very much out of 'Field of Dreams,' " says Jacob Pomrenke, the chair of the Society for American Baseball Research's Black Sox Scandal Research Committee.

Eventually, New Jersey's Ray Liotta would play "Shoeless" Joe in the baseball hit movie "Field of Dreams."

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But 100 years ago, the Hackensack game, one of the more memorable games Jackson would play after he was banned for life, was also one of the few times Jackson or his fellow banished White Sox teammates would play under an assumed name. It was hard for Jackson to keep his talents under wraps, and it would prove financially unwise to do so, Pomrenke says.

Though Jackson's name was tainted by the big league ban, he still drew fans. Jackson was one of the best hitters in baseball when he left the big leagues. During the 1920 season, his last, Jackson had 218 hits in 570 at-bats for the White Sox. He also notched a career high of 121 runs batted in over 146 games.

Century-old mystery

Jackson's role in the Black Sox scandal is uncertain, Pomrenke says. His play on paper during the 1919 World Series showed no signs of lacking effort. He batted .375 and committed no fielding errors.

Moreover, Jackson's scandal-implicated teammates claimed they never told him about their meetings with the gamblers who provided his $5,000 payout, which nearly matched his annual salary. One teammate said the player-conspirators only invoked Jackson's name in an effort to lend credibility to their pledge to throw the nine-game series.

At the end of the following season, Jackson and his teammates were brought to court on charges of fixing the series. They were acquitted in 1921 by a jury, but were nonetheless banned from Major League Baseball. The evidence was overwhelming.

Banished from the big leagues, Jackson found himself in Hackensack on June 25, 1922, to be a hired gun. After four hits in five at-bats, his visiting Westwood squad beat Hackensack-Bogota Club by 9 runs to 7, The Record reported.

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Wynkoop wrote in the newspaper the next day that the sports desk was flooded with calls after the Sunday game. Everyone wanted to know Josephs' back story. It was a relatively short one: Josephs was the infamous "Shoeless Joe."

The revelation rocked the region. The game was declared a forfeit. Other teams refused to play Westwood. The fallout led Abe Gildersleeve, Westwood's manager, to claim innocence. In a statement to The Record the day after the game, he purported that he had no idea "Josephs" was Jackson. He said he blindly trusted a mysterious New York agent who promised to send "the best in the business."

"Under no circumstances would I or any member of the Westwood Baseball Club agree to having such a player on our team," Gildersleeve said. Few bought his claim.

They were wise. In a 1937 letter to Jackson, Gildersleeve gave up the ghost. In the letter, he boasted that he "imported" the slugger for "a game against the Hackensack Oritani Team in 1922" and "under the alias of — Josephs ... You hit a home run that is still the talk of Bergen Co.," he wrote.

Gildersleeve's public denial and apology in 1922 soon faded in favor of defiance. A few days after the game, Gildersleeve boasted of big paydays in Westwood's future. He alleged that New York teams were clamoring for exhibitions against Jackson and that his own players countered the criticism by saying they would not allow Hackensack-Bogota or any other team to dictate their lineup.

At least one Westwood player, Leo Curry, didn't feel the same way. Curry, who pitched for Westwood during the June 25 game under the name Brown because he knew his teammate's real identity and didn't want to be punished for playing with him, was a member of the Hackensack-Bogota squad by the end of the week.

Jackson stayed with Westwood, helping the team to win July 2 home games against teams from Virginia and New York. For that Sunday doubleheader, nearly 1,000 fans packed the small field in Westwood, The Record reported. "The attendance was the best at any game in Westwood in many a long day," the article said. "Jackson, of course, was at the center of attraction." 

When Westwood played Clifton on July 9, Jackson was gone. He would go on to create a traveling all-star team to bank off his notoriety and ultimately play most of his games in the South, Pomrenke says. On July 18, Wynkoop reported claims out of Westwood that Jackson was "through as a baseball player in Bergen County." The local game quickly moved on, as Major League Baseball had done.

"We are led to believe that he wanted almost all the money there was in sight for his services after the first few games," Wynkoop wrote. "Jackson's absence will not be felt. It's really too bad that he ever showed up at all."

David Zimmer is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: zimmer@northjersey.com

Twitter: @dzimmernews