Now Ueberroth Urged to Clear ‘Shoeless Joe’

At least one state lawmaker says it just ain’t so about Shoeless Joe.

A resolution introduced Tuesday says Shoeless Joe Jackson did not help throw the 1919 World Series and urges baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth to absolve Jackson just as he has reinstated Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.

“The General Assembly of South Carolina, aware of the large amount of evidence that has surfaced in the last 66 years, is convinced that Joe Jackson was innocent of any participation to throw the World Series of 1919,” the resolution says.

Rep. James Mattos, a Democrat from Jackson’s home town mf Greenville, introduced the resolution, which calls on Ueberroth to reinstate Jackson as “a member in good standing in professional baseball.”

Ueberroth lifted a ban Monday that has kept Mays and Mantle out of baseball since they took jobs as good will ambassadors for Atlantic City casinos.

Jackson and eight other members of the Chicago White Sox were suspended from baseball by Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis in 1920 after they were implicated in a conspiracy to throw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.

Jackson died in 1951 at the age of 63.