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Sockalexis: The First Cleveland Indian
by David Fleitz (coming in October 2002) |
Shoeless
Joe's Statue
by David Fleitz |
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Want to see some pictures of the Shoeless Joe Jackson statue? Click here. Check out the "Greenville's Goin' Shoeless" slogan that I criticized on the last page of my book. |
Last Saturday, July 13, a statue of Shoeless Joe Jackson was unveiled in his hometown
of Greenville, South Carolina. The city of Greenville held a ceremony that was
attended by U.S. Congressman Jim DeMint, baseball Hall of Fame member Tommy
Lasorda, and an assortment of local officials and Jackson enthusiasts. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail. Anyway, Congressman DeMint announced that he had just spoken to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who asked DeMint to tell the people of Greenville that he was busy reviewing Jackson's case for reinstatement and that no decision had yet been made. With all that Selig has on his plate right now - the looming baseball strike, the steroid issue, the All-Star Game embarrassment, etc. - he still has time to look at reinstating Joe Jackson? That got me thinking. How could they reinstate Jackson and not Pete Rose? If they let Jackson back in, wouldn't that create public pressure for Rose's reinstatement? I thought that the bosses of baseball didn't want to let Rose back in the game. Or, might Selig, as a grand public relations gesture, knock all the talk of strikes and steroids off the front pages for a while by unilaterally pardoning both Jackson and Rose at the same time? That would certainly interrupt the constant stream of bad news emanating from the national pastime, and it would give the embattled Selig some positive press for a change. The players are considering a strike date in mid-September. Let's wait and see if Selig decides to play the PR card and uses a possible reinstatement of Jackson or Rose, or both, to bring positive publicity to himself and draw attention away from baseball's most pressing problems. |