Joe Jackson, in 2025, after over a century of banishment from baseball, has this year had his placement on baseball's ineligible list rescinded, and the great outfielder, nicknamed "Shoeless Joe," one of the eight banned 1919 Chicago Black Sox, is now eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Thus, the current offering of a 1914 Cleveland Naps team-signed baseball with the extremely scarce signature of Joe Jackson is particularly timely. Jackson was born in 1887 in Pickens County, South Carolina, and he grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. He started work at age 6 or 7 in a Greenville textile mill, and he never went to school. As a consequence of his lack of education and illiteracy, Jackson signed his name with an "X" on his first professional contract. As he continued his professional baseball career, he did learn to trace his name for many signatures. His wife was literate, and she read Jackson's mail for him, handled his finances, and read his contracts for him. Because of Jackson's illiteracy, his signatures are rare, even more so on a baseball. Jackson started his Major League career with brief appearances for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1908-09. He played with Cleveland from 1910-15 and with the Chicago White Sox from 1915-20. He batted a lifetime .356, behind only Ty Cobb for the highest Major League career batting average. Jackson had a career total of merely 54 home runs as he played his career in the Dead Ball era. Jackson's power showed in his 168 lifetime triples, leading the AL three times in three-baggers. Jackson batted .408 in 1911, his highest batting average, and he had a .940 career OPS. At the conclusion of the trial on August 19, 1921, of seven (infielder Fred McMullin was not tried) 1919 Chicago White Sox players and two gamblers accused of fixing the '19 World Series in favor of the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago jury acquitted the players and the two gamblers. The very next day, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a former Federal Judge, issued the following proclamation, banning eight "Black Sox" from "Organized Baseball" for life": "Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame, no player who sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players 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." Now banned, Joe Jackson went home to Greenville, South Carolina, and operated several businesses, including a liquor store. He also played semi-pro baseball under assumed names. Thus, Jackson's Major League career was truncated when he was still in his prime, and so his being out of the limelight is yet another reason that his signature is extremely rare.

The Cleveland Naps were nicknamed for their player-manager, Hall of Fame second baseman Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie. The team-signed ball has twenty-nine (29) autographs: Joe Jackson, Nap Lajoie, Ray Chapman, Bill Wambsganss, Joe Birmingham (ss), Guy Morton (twice), Bill Reidy, Willie Mitchell, Fred Carisch, Vean Gregg, Nemo Leibold, Nick Cullop, Walt Barbare, Roy Wood, Jack Graney, F.E. Van, Ivy Olson, Elmer Smith, Harley Dillinger, Abe Bowman, Doc Johnston, Frank Mills and a few others.

The team-signed ball was found at an estate sale in the 1980s in Cleveland, Ohio, and originated from Bill Reidy, who was a scout for the Naps after his playing career for the New York Giants, Brooklyn Superbas, and St. Louis Browns, from 1896 to 1904. At the estate sale, the ball was accompanied by a signed original photograph of Reidy, and that 8x10" photo is included in this lot. It's inscribed "To Ferd, from 'Slow Ball' Bill' [sic] Reidy, Scout Cleve BB Club Season - 1914." The offered ball is an Official American League Ball (Johnson) in very good condition, with a light coat of shellac. Some of the autographs have faded, and the signatures rate 6/10 overall. With the recent lifetime ban on Jackson lifted, and his subsequently being eligible for the Hall of Fame, interest in Joe Jackson will only increase, making his immensely rare signature all the more sought after.

Estimated domestic USA shipping cost only. Does not include handling or insurance: 23.49 Please feel free to contact us for a more accurate shipping cost.