Few Could Swing the Bat Like Jackson and Wagner

Two of baseball’s giants died on this date, four years apart.

First was “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, 63, who died of a heart attack at his home in Greenville, S.C., in 1951.

Honus Wagner, who was in the inaugural Hall of Fame class of 1936, died in his sleep at his home in Carnegie, Pa., in 1955. He was 81.

Jackson, considered by contemporaries as the greatest of all natural hitters, batted .356 in a 13-season career. He batted .408 in 1911, only to finish second to Ty Cobb, who batted .420.

He also remains baseball’s oldest enigma. He was banned for life as a member of the infamous “Black Sox,” accused of throwing the 1919 World Series to Cincinnati.

Jackson acknowledged taking $5,000 of a promised $20,000 from gamblers, but said he never got the balance. He batted .375 in the Series and maintained for the rest of his life he played his best in the Series.

Wagner retired in 1917, yet still stands seventh on the all-time hit list at 3,415.

He was the premier shortstop of his day, playing for Pittsburgh. He batted .300 or better 15 consecutive seasons. In one 12-year stretch, he won eight National League batting championships.

In his early years with the Pirates, he spent his off-seasons barnstorming the Midwest with a Carnegie, Pa., basketball team.

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Also on this date: In 1973, Pepper Rodgers resigned as UCLA’s football coach to take over at Georgia Tech. . . . On the same day, the Dodgers’ traded Willie Davis to Montreal for relief pitcher Mike Marshall. . . . In 1921, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis suspended Babe Ruth for the first six weeks of the 1922 season for violating the game’s prohibition against off-season barnstorming. Ruth also was fined $3,362. . . . In 1998, Cade McNown passed for 513 yards and threw five touchdown passes but Miami ended UCLA’s 20-game winning streak, 49-45.