Going to bat again for Joe

GREENVILLE — Joe Anders was 15 or 16 when he met "Shoeless Joe" Jackson.

Anders and his buddies would hang out at Bolt's Drug Store on Pendleton Street, sipping Cokes and chocolate milkshakes when they weren't playing baseball on the nearby Brandon Mill field.

They weren't allowed in the liquor store next door, but Anders sidled up to the store's proprietor one day while he was standing out front and introduced himself.

"I told him that I played baseball with Brandon (Mill), and he kind of took me under his wing from that day on," Anders said.

Jackson, who is still regarded as one of the best hitters ever to swing a bat, offered Anders tips and pointers over the next several years, and Anders took the lessons to heart, eventually becoming a feared hitter in his own right with the minor league Greenville Spinners in 1942.

Anders, now 88, still speaks of Jackson in reverent terms and hopes a renewed effort that kicked off last month in Cleveland to clear Jackson's name is successful and that someday Jackson will be afforded what he deems his "rightful place" in Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Jackson and seven of his Chicago White Sox teammates received a lifetime ban from playing major league baseball — and consequently eligibility for the sport's Hall of Fame — following their alleged involvement in the infamous Black Sox Scandal of 1919 in which games were "fixed" in a World Series loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

The new effort to clear him began in Cleveland, where Russ Haslage of the League Park Society — a group formed to save at least some of what remains of the ballpark where Jackson played for five seasons — announced a campaign with a goal to make Jackson "eligible" once again.

The Society, along with the Cleveland Blues vintage baseball club, is part of a coalition intent on working to that end. Those groups, along with the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum in Greenville and the Shoeless Joe Jackson Virtual Hall of Fame — a Web site devoted to the memory of Jackson and the movement to persuade baseball to remove him from its ineligible list — hope to sponsor a process in which fans can express their support.

It's the latest on a growing list of attempts to clear Jackson, who died in Greenville in 1951. Legislators, including the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond and, more recently, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of Greenville, have made political pitches on Jackson's behalf.

News of the effort in Cleveland has struck a chord with many in Greenville, where Jackson remains an iconic hero 90 years after the scandal.

"We're absolutely excited," said Arlene Marcley, curator of the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum. "Anytime someone wants to do their best to reinstate Joe, we're all for it, and they're going about it the right way."

Count DeMint among the avid supporters.

"I personally believe Shoeless Joe was innocent, but everyone can agree he served his lifetime sentence with dignity and honor," DeMint said. "He was one of baseball's all-time greats, and he deserves his rightful place in the Baseball Hall of Fame. I will continue my efforts on Shoeless Joe's behalf with the hope that the league will finally honor his memory and celebrate his accomplishments."

Fanning the flames for the latest effort to pave Jackson's path to the Hall of Fame are the findings of Chicago attorneys Paul Duffy and Daniel Voelker, who recently pored over research compiled by Eliot Asinof, author of the 1963 book "Eight Men Out." The book, which also was the basis for the 1988 movie of the same name, chronicled a version of the Black Sox Scandal.

Asinof died last year, and his estate recently sold his research documents for the book to the Chicago History Museum, prompting Duffy's interest.

"I had read the book and thought it was the authoritative source," Duffy said. "But a lot of what he (Asinof) said wasn't supported by fact."

Duffy and Voelker presented their findings in an article that appeared in last month's issue of Chicago Lawyer Magazine, with their ultimate conclusion being that Jackson "deserves recognition for his contribution to the sport and vindication of his name."

"We're glad to help," Duffy said of the renewed effort to clear Jackson. "We hope our research can aid their cause."

During his early stint in Cleveland, Jackson lived two blocks from League Park, a legendary field. Jackson pitched the first game at the rebuilt League Park in 1910. Babe Ruth hit his 500th home run over the park's left-field fence in 1929, and Joe DiMaggio laced the final hit of his record 56-game hitting streak there in 1941.

But Jackson, who batted .408 in his rookie season with Cleveland, ranks as the most revered figure in the park's history.

"Shoeless Joe is one of the patron saints of baseball of League Park," Haslage said. "He was one of everybody's favorite players. The house he lived in was torn down about 10 years ago, but hopefully, we'll be able to take part of that land and set up a memorial to him."

Much like that can be found all over Greenville.

In the heart of the West End, there's a bronze statue of Jackson in sweet mid-swing.

In the heart of West Greenville, Little Leaguers take their cuts at Shoeless Joe Jackson Park.

At downtown's Fluor Field, the stadium is flanked by the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum, which is housed in Jackson's relocated home.

And in the hearts of many baseball lovers, from Greenville, where it all began, to Cleveland and then Chicago, where it all came to an unceremonious end, there beats a rejuvenated pulse of hope and the promise that someday the man from Brandon Mill will be celebrated in Cooperstown as well.