Black Betsy was the primary baseball bat of Shoeless Joe Jackson. It was hand made by a fan of his in 1903 when Jackson was still only 15. It broke the record for the highest sold baseball bat in history, when it was sold for $577,610 in 2001. [1] By then it was considered one of baseball's most fabled artifacts. [1] The record was broken in 2004 when a 1923 Babe Ruth bat sold for $1.2 million. [2]
The bat was hand made by a local fan of the South Carolina mill teams, Charlie Ferguson, out of a bunk from the northern side of a hickory tree. [3] It was 36 inches (91 cm) long and weighed 48 ounces (1.4 kg). Knowing that Jackson liked blacked bats, Fergerson darkened the bat with tobacco juice. Jackson took the bat to the minor leagues, where the fans often chanted "Give 'em Black Betsy" when Jackson came to bat. [4]
Jackson took the bat, his favorite, [5] with him when he was sold to the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League. It broke in early 1911, and Jackson sent it to major-league bat manufacturer J. F. Hillerich Company to get it fixed. [6] He used the bat for the rest of his major league career. [1]
Jackson kept Black Betsy until his death in 1951. After his wife's death a few years later, it was bequeathed to her cousin and her son, Lester Erwin, who kept the bat on a bookcase for over 40 years. [1] Erwin decided to sell the bat through eBay in 2001. In a 10-day auction, it gathered two bids. The winner, Rob Mitchell, owner of a marketing company in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, won, offering $525,100 plus a 10 percent buyer's premium. [1] It was offered for auction again at Sotheby's on December 10, 2005, with an estimate of $300,000–$350,000, but failed to sell. [7] [8] [9] An eBay auction in January 2008 failed to attract the minimum bid of $600,000. [9] On April 24, 2008, it sold at Sotheby's for $301,000. [10]
Sporting goods companies Spalding and Hillerich & Bradsby and Rawlings produced reproductions of the bat for sale to fans, starting in the 1910s. [11] [12]
The National Pastime Museum, a virtual museum opened in 2013, included a bat described as "the rarest type of 'Black Betsy,' one that once launched many a line drive from 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson". [13] The museum sold the bat at a Christie's auction in October 2016 for $583,500. [2] The Christie's catalog called it a 1917–21 era Hillerich & Bradsby model, "one of two known professional model Joe Jackson bats, and the only full name script Signature model manufactured by Louisville Slugger that can be attributed to being used by Jackson.". [14] In its report on the sale, Associated Press said, "Shoeless Joe's 'Black Betsy' bat is one of two known to survive from his career, and the only one with his full signature in script stamped into the barrel." [2] Lester Erwin responded that the real 'Black Betsy' was the one he had sold in 2001, not the one sold in 2016. [15]
Field of Dreams is a 1989 American sports fantasy drama film written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Canadian novelist W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel Shoeless Joe. The film stars Kevin Costner as a farmer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends, including Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago Black Sox. Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, and Burt Lancaster also star.
Joseph Jefferson Jackson, nicknamed "Shoeless Joe", was an American outfielder who played Major League Baseball (MLB) in the early 1900s. Although his .356 career batting average is the fourth highest in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB), he is often remembered for his association with the Black Sox Scandal, in which members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series. As a result, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned Jackson from baseball after the 1920 season. During the World Series in question, Jackson had led both teams in several statistical categories and set a World Series record with 12 base hits. Jackson's role in the scandal, his banishment from the game, and his exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame have been fiercely debated.
The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball game-fixing scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate led by Arnold Rothstein. As a response, the National Baseball Commission was dissolved and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed to be the first Commissioner of Baseball, and given absolute control over the sport to restore its integrity.
Hillerich & Bradsby Company (H&B) is an American manufacturing company located in Louisville, Kentucky that produces baseball bats for Wilson Sporting Goods, which commercializes them under the "Louisville Slugger" brand.
The Wilson Sporting Goods Company is an American sports equipment manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois. The company has been a subsidiary of Finnish multinational company Amer Sports since 1989, and is, in turn, now under the Chinese company Anta Sports since 2019. Wilson makes equipment for many sports, among them baseball, badminton, American football, basketball, fastpitch softball, golf, racquetball, soccer, squash, tennis, pickleball and volleyball.
Louisville Slugger Field is a baseball stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. The baseball-specific stadium opened in 2000 with a seating capacity of 13,131. It is currently home to the professional baseball team, the Louisville Bats, Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. From 2015 to 2019, it was also home to Louisville City FC, a professional soccer team in the USL Championship.
The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, is a museum and factory tour attraction located in Louisville, Kentucky's "Museum Row", part of the West Main District of downtown. The museum showcases the story of Louisville Slugger baseball bats in baseball and in American history. The museum also creates temporary exhibits with more of a pop culture focus, including collaborations with the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Coca-Cola, LEGO artists Sean Kenney and Jason Burik, Topps Trading Cards, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and Ripley's Believe It or Not!.
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Barry Halper was an extensive collector of baseball memorabilia who had been a limited partner owning about 1% of the New York Yankees. During the auction of Halper's collection, Sotheby's Auction House called it the "World Series of Sports Auctions."
The 1920 Chicago White Sox season was a season in American baseball.
Bristol Robotham Lord was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1905 to 1913 for the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Naps, and Boston Braves. Lord is best known for a 1910 trade between Philadelphia and Cleveland in which he was exchanged for Morrie Rath and Shoeless Joe Jackson, who became one of the best hitters in baseball history.
La Verne Ashford "Larry" Chappell was a professional baseball player who played from 1913 to 1917 for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and Boston Braves.
Thomas Carl Stouch was a Major League Baseball second baseman who played four games with the Louisville Colonels of the National League in 1898. He is best known for "discovering" Shoeless Joe Jackson who played against him while Jackson was in a mill team in Greer, South Carolina in 1907.
The 1910 New Orleans Pelicans season was a season in professional baseball. The Pelicans played in the Southern Association and won their second league pennant. One sportswriter ranked them as the greatest sports team in the history of New Orleans. The team was owned and managed by Charlie Frank.
Bolton Street Park was a baseball field in Savannah, Georgia, which was home to the city's professional baseball clubs between 1885 and 1909, including the Savannah Indians from 1904 to 1909, and hosted Major League Baseball spring training between 1892 and 1908. The ballpark was located between Bolton Street and Park Avenue east of the railroad tracks running parallel to East Broad Street.