The real story:
Jackson’s career peaked with the Chicago White Sox, where he helped them win the 1917 World Series. But his legacy was forever altered by the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, in which eight players were accused of conspiring to throw the World Series for money. Jackson was among them, though his performance in the series—.375 batting average, 12 hits, and the only home run—suggested he played to win.
He admitted to receiving $5,000 but always maintained he never intentionally played poorly. A jury acquitted him in 1921, but MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned him for life, a decision that kept him out of the Hall of Fame.
Sports is so infested and corrupted by online gambling now that continuing to pretend that the lifelong bans on Jackson and Rose are somehow moral high ground is absurd. Especially when MLB made sure there was no investigation of Ohtani’s bets, with everyone going along with the dubious story that his interpreter stole tens of millions from him without his knowledge. It’s sickening how MLB fawns over Ohtani (there are a lot of memes pointing out the ridiculous nature of MLB celebrating Ohtani tying his shoes), and it’s clear that they were not about to seriously investigate the gambling.
It is the sports writers who continue to hold out on Rose and Jackson, while being fine with FanDuel and DraftKings.
Rose bet on baseball but not against his team. No evidence he ever didn’t give his all to win or was involved in any way to fix games.
Jackson’s case isn’t quite the same. He did take money from gamblers and knew about the conspiracy to throw the series even though there isn’t any indication he didn’t play his best.
I’m a huge baseball fan — especially old time. Jackson was a shy, unsophisticated guy whom old-timers almost unanimously regarded as the best who ever played (Babe Ruth copied his swing). I don’t care about him taking the money — he was no match socially or emotionally for the gamblers’ and his teammates’ full-court press (especially Chick Gandil). Just going along with it was, to him, the easiest way to get rid of them and get away from them. He was notoriously soft-spoken and shy. Everyone acknowledged that he had a great, error-free series and didn’t actually participate in the fix.
Again, when people say, “well, he did take their money,” I could care less. These same people buy MLB’s party line that Ohtani had no clue his interpreter rerouted tens of millions of his money to bet on games (I believe that Ohtani used his interpreter to make bets for him). People don’t want Ohtani to he guilty, and there is a complete lack of curiosity about the holes and discrepancy in the story. But Pete Rose and Joe Jackson? Keep banning them forever.