Alabama Florida League – Valbella Publishing – Shoeless Summer

  In 1921, Shoeless Joe Jackson was banned for life from organized baseball
by commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis for his alleged involvement in the infamous
Chicago Black Sox World Series scandal.  Although acquitted in a court
of law with the other White Sox players of all charges related to the scam to
purposely lose the 1919 World Series, Joe Jackson was never reinstated in baseball. 
So, he turned to playing « outlaw » baseball in semi-pro, independent
leagues where major league baseball and the commissioner had no jurisdiction. 
In July of 1923, Shoeless Joe signed on with the Americus, Georgia team of
the South Georgia league.  With the season almost half way over and the
Americus club not doing well, Joe turned things around not only for the team but
the entire league.  There was controversy with his playing at first, but
it soon settled and made way for an astounding run of our national pastime. 
The caliber of baseball played in the league stepped up a few notches, and
the fans came from near and far to witness the excitement.  Shoeless Joe’s
time in Americus was capped off by leading the team to the league championship
at the end of the season.
        Shoeless
Summer features a detailed, day-to-day chronology of the season with emphasis
on the uproar that followed Americus signing the famed baseball outlaw to play
for the team.  Statistics and biographies of each of the Americus players,
daily lineups and box scores, and the only photograph of Shoeless Joe with
the Americus team in uniform known to exist make this a well-rounded piece of
baseball history.  The cities of Albany, Americus, Arlington, Bainbridge,
Blakely, and Dawson all had teams in the South Georgia league.  Shoeless Summer
includes a complete list of players from each team as well as a list of those
who played in the major leagues.  Included as a special feature is a
tribute to Mr. William C. Webb, a man living in Americus, who played on the same
team with Shoeless Joe in 1925 in Waycross, Georgia.
       
Baseball fans young and old will enjoy this factual account
of one magical summer in a rural, baseball-crazed region of the country. 
Thanks for your interest in Shoeless Summer.

published 2001 by Vabella Publishing, first edition.
125 pages, 5.5″x8.5″, paperback.