The Big Ump in the Sky

On December 5th, 1951, Shoeless Joe Jackson died of a heart attack at his home in Greenville, South Carolina. Sixty-three years old, one of the greatest baseball players who'd ever lived, he'd been banned from the national pastime for 31 years.

Jackson maintained his innocence in the Black Sox scandal to the very end, but by all accounts, he didn't let the issue ruin his life. He played in semi-pro leagues and for barnstorming teams after his banishment, and then he moved to Greenville with his wife and started a successful dry-cleaning business. Every now and then, he would break out his famous bat, "Black Betsy," and take a few swings with the locals in a sandlot game. He was a beloved figure in Greenville at the time of his death.

Still, he was clearly haunted. His last words are reputed to have been, "I'm about to face the greatest umpire of all and He knows I am innocent."

It was awfully Manichean of Joe to view the Lord as The Big Ump in the Sky. I dig it. No nambi pambi bullshit, no purgatorial bullpens or multi-lifetime bans, just Safe or Out on the final slide into home. He makes you no promises, The Big Ump. He just calls it like He sees it.

(The shot below is of Joe Jackson with his nephew in a liquor store he owned in Greenville - the picture was taken not long before his death.)