Shoeless Bill Jackson?
 

Pulled this photo from our files yesterday. On the back, Paul Thompson has him identified as "Bill Jackson." There actually was a Bill Jackson who played for the White Sox in 1914 and 1915 but only appeared in 76 games. If this is in-fact Joe Jackson how could Paul Thompson misidentify him? That seems odd.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4396/...57342a06_c.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4399/...784e9926_c.jpg

Lets take a closer look. Clearly, there is a "B" written next to his last name and then the "ill" was added later, with a different writing utensil. In this auction from Heritage in 2015 there is also a "B" on the back of their photo that was crossed out, with "Joe" then written in:

https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball/1...umbnail-071515

This is Bill Jackson, according to Getty Images. Something is amiss, however as Baseball Reference lists Bill Jackson as 5' 11" 160lbs, and Eddie Collins at 5' 9" 175. Hmm:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4373/...a1df83db_z.jpg

I think most people are familiar with this image of Joe Jackson, which at first glance looks like it could be the same player and taken on the same day as the original photo I posted above. Looking closely at his belt buckle in both photos it's clear they are in completely different positions and the top buttons of their shirts are also different. Still, it's certainly possible they could just be shots taken on different days.

I'm not saying definitively that our photo is Bill and not Joe Jackson. It just seems odd that Paul Thompson could mix them up and I think it's worth investigating to get a definitive ID:

http://www.photofile.com/Original/AA/EQ/aaeq021.jpg

Simple miswriting. All of us have mixed-up first names in social settings. Maybe he was writing on the back of a pile of photos at the time.

Andrew- That is a photo of Joe Jackson, no doubt.

After looking closer, I'm not sure.

It has been a long time since I got rid of my photo collection, but I remember only being able to identify Conlan's handwriting. Are you sure that is Thomson's handwriting and identification? The photo seems to have come from the Ring archive, maybe the id is from someone there.

I don't show a Bill Jackson that played for the White Sox. I show a Bill Jackson that played in the Fed Leagues. He played for the Chicago Whales. So pretty sure this is Joe Jackson.

You're right! I hadn't looked that closely at Bill Jackson's page on baseballreference.com. He definitely played in the Federal League and not for the White Sox.


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After further review, I thinks it's Bill.

There's that photo of Bill & Collins together on the Sox.

But if Bill Jackson never actually played for the White Sox, as stated above, who is in the photo with Collins?


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From Getty:

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/ne...hoto/135192608

That doesn't even look like Bill Jackson.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/b...illJackson.jpg

Big Bill James
Here he is on one of your cards:
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/9QUAAO...-K/s-l1600.jpg

Andrew- That's what I'm trying to find out.

Yes, that's definitely him! Thanks for that.


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A fair number of ID errors in Getty Images.