This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/22/2019
Offered is an absolutely intoxicating and exceptionally interesting photo of the 1918 Fort Porter baseball team with Shoeless Joe Jackson and Lefty Williams of the Chicago White Sox featured within this elusive and rare panoramic photograph. In 1917, during World War I, Fort Porter which was within close proximity of Buffalo, NY was again a recruiting and processing station and on 10 Nov 1917 it was designated U.S. General Hospital #4. General Hospital #4 became one of the first psychiatric hospital to treat returning troops with combat related psychiatric problems. During WWI the White Sox were rocked by the entry of the United States into the war. Several Chicago players enlisted in the military, while others were drafted in the early months of 1918. Joe, as a married man, was granted a deferment by his hometown draft board in Greenville, but after he played 17 games with the White Sox the board reversed its decision and ordered him to report for induction. Instead, Jackson found employment at a Delaware shipyard, where he helped build battleships and played ball in a hastily assembled factory circuit, the Bethlehem Steel League. Jackson was the first prominent player to avoid the draft by opting for war work, for which he was severely criticized in the sporting press, especially in Chicago. When two of Jackson’s close friends, pitcher Lefty Williams and reserve catcher Byrd Lynn, followed him into the shipyards, owner Charles Comiskey swore he would not let any of them return to his team. “There is no room on my club for players who wish to evade the army draft by entering the employ of ship concerns!” he fumed. But after a sixth-place finish and the war’s end, he changed his tune. Jackson won the factory league batting title with a .393 average and helped lead the Harlan & Hollingsworth team to the championship among shipyards on the Atlantic coast, but the controversy permanently damaged his relationships with the Chicago sportswriters. From what we have been able to piece together from our research is that the offered photo is just before Jackson and Williams went to play in the shipyards in Delaware. The panoramic has been framed into a border which can be seen in the images. The condition is slightly rough with a tear which has been fixed with tape and is far more apparent from the back running on the right side up from the bottom into the second player from the middle next to Jackson but not effecting Jackson, as well there is a slight tear on the right side which has also be secured with tape which is far less obtrusive. The upper left corner has also been ripped which has been framed out and from the front is not obtrusive at all. A terrific item of the utmost scarcity capturing the imagination conjuring image of Shoeless Joe Jackson.