They Built It...
And he's coming. Members of the Shoeless Joe Jackson Society of Florida inform us that they have "reason to believe" Jackson's spirit will soon be present at the new Comiskey Park. The society says Jackson visited the original Comiskey on July 1, 1990, the day fans received replicas of his Black Betsy bat. That afternoon, Yankee pitcher Andy Hawkins threw a no-hitter but lost 4-0 when "supernatural forces overpowered the Yanks, causing them to drop easy fly balls."
Now the society reports auguries of Shoeless Joe's imminent return. These include the sighting of a "fashionable lady" at a train station in Boston holding a black bat and muttering, "I have to go see Joe.... I have to go see Joe." Considering other phenomena reported by the society—for example, several pairs of old baseball shoes mysteriously appeared at Comiskey Park recently—and the fact that July 16, Jackson's 106th birthday, is almost upon us, who can say it ain't so?
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