New book helps paint portrait of Shoeless Joe

Time has only added to the mystique of Shoeless Joe Jackson. There have been movies, a Broadway play, books and documentaries featuring his role in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. There is a museum dedicated to his life in his hometown of Greenville, S.C.

Despite that, Jackson exists in most memories as a one-dimensional, almost cartoonish caricature. The unschooled farm boy who may or may not have been hoodwinked by crooked teammates and big-city gamblers to help throw the World Series.

“Fall from Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of Shoeless Joe Jackson” helps flesh out that portrait and add context to the actions of a player who was banned from baseball for life for his part in the scheme. Nearly a century later, there are periodic grassroots movements to reinstate the .356 lifetime hitter and make him eligible for the Hall of Fame.

In this undertaking, author Tim Hornbaker is working familiar territory. Three years ago, in “Turning the Black Sox White,” he challenged the orthodoxy that the disgraced players were motivated by their disdain for the miserly ways of owner Charles Comiskey. Last year, he came out with a biography of Ty Cobb; Jackson’s relationship with Cobb and their almost annual battles for the batting title are a recurring theme in his latest work.

Hornbaker’s conclusion about Comiskey was clear: That the owner had gotten a bum rap. His bottom line on Jackson is far murkier. He concedes at one point that there are so many conflicting accounts of what …

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