Joe Jackson Timeline
| YEAR | AGE | EVENT |
|---|---|---|
| 1887 1888 * | -- | Joseph Jefferson Jackson is born in Pickens County, South Carolina, the first of six boys and two girls (Joe, Dave, Jerry, Earl, Ernest, Luther, Lula Mae and Gertrude) brought into the world by George and Martha Jackson. |
| 1893 | 6 | Joe Jackson goes to work at the Pelzer textile mill at the age of 6 years old. |
| 1901 | 14 | George moves the family from Pelzer mill to the newly constructed Brandon Mill. Joe begins to play ball on the Brandon Mill team at the age of 13, he turned 14 in July of 1901. |
| 1906 | 19 | Joe begins his semipro career with the Greenville Near Leaguers. |
| 1908 | 21 | Enters professional baseball with Greenville in the Carolina Association and leads league in batting with a .346 average; the same year he marries his sweetheart Katherine Wynn and makes his major league debut with the Philadelphia Athletics. Joe plays 5 games with the Athletics before departing for his native South. |
| 1909 | 22 | Joe plays 118 games for the South Atlantic League Savannah, GA team and bats .358 for the year. |
| 1910 | 23 | Connie Mack trades Joe to Cleveland where he reports to their New Orleans minor league club. Joe plays 136 games for New Orleans and bats .354 for the Southern League season. Joe is brought up to the Cleveland squad for the last 20 games of the season and bats .387 during that time. |
| 1911 | 24 | Bats .408 during his first full major league season, highest batting average ever by a rookie. |
| 1912 | 25 | Bats .395 and leads American League in triples; Joe signs a contract with J.F. Hillerich and Sons to have his signature appear on their famous Louisville Slugger baseball bats. |
| 1913 | 26 | Leads American League with 197 hits and .551 slugging average. |
| 1914 | 27 | Joe's father George dies on February 11, 1914 at the age of 57. |
| 1915 | 28 | Joe is traded to the Chicago White Sox on August 20, 1915. The Sox gave 31,500 in cash and three players (Braggo Roth, Larry Chappell and Ed Klepfer) for Jackson. This deal would forever change his life. Jackson took the train back to Chicago that night (August 20th) with Harry Grabiner and played leftfield in a doubleheader the next day for the Sox.......he went one for seven against the Yankees. |
| 1917 | 30 | Joe bats .307 and stars in the field, helping the White Sox win the World Series over the New York Giants 4 games to 2. |
| 1918 | 31 | Joe takes a job in the ship yards during World War I, he takes a lot of heat for not going overseas. Joe plays ball for his employer, The Harlan and Hollingsworth Shipbuilders. Once the war was over and Joe returned to Chicago, he was soon forgiven for not going overseas to fight. |
| 1919 | 32 | Jackson bats .351 during the regular season;posts .375 average at bat and a perfect 1.000 fielding average. Joe hits the only homerun of the series, scores 5 runs, has 6 RBI's in the World Series as the White Sox lose to the Cincinnati Reds. |
| 1920 | 33 | Bats .385 during regular season and leads league in triples for third time; Joe is suspended after allegations that 8 members of the White Sox conspired together to throw the 1919 World Series. |
| 1921 | 34 | Chicago jury acquits Jackson of helping to fix the 1919 World Series, however Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, first commissioner of baseball, goes against the court ruling stating that baseball is perfectly capable of governing itself and bans Jackson and seven other Chicago players from ever playing professional baseball again. |
| 1922 | 35 | Jackson returns to Savannah, Georgia, and opens a dry-cleaning business which becomes very successful. Joe plays baseball in the summer with various teams including many teams in the North. |
| 1923 | 36 | Joe starts the summer out playing ball in Bastrop, LA and then signs to play for the Americus, Georgia team and leads them to the Georgia Little World Series where he bats .500 and they won the series in six games. Joe finishes with the Waycross, Georgia team. |
| 1924 | 37 | Joe spends time in St. Louis coaching Ernest Wingard, a former teammate of his from the Americus, GA team. Wingard had been signed with the St. Louis Browns and Joe went to help Ernest get a good start in the Big Leagues. Joe returned from St. Louis in early July and took over the Waycross, GA team as player manager. Joe led the Waycross team to the Georgia state championship. |
| 1925 | 38 | Joe returns to manage and play for the Waycross Coast Liners for another season. Waycross won 59 games against 20 losses that year. Joe's mother Martha moves to Savannah to be close to her son Joe and his sister Lulu Mae. |
| 1929 | 42 | Joe's mother Martha becomes ill and Joe and Katie return to Greenville from Savannah for a few weeks to care for her. They later take her with them to Savannah so that she may be close to Joe and his sister Lula. |
| 1932 | 45 | Joe returns to Greenville, South Carolina and is signed to play the 1932 season with the Greenville Spinners. Joe plays with the Spinners until almost the end of their season. It is reported in the papers that Joe signs to play with a semi-pro team in Philadelphia, PA, but after his beloved mother Martha dies on August 25, 1932 at the age of 68, he never made it to Philly. On Wednesday August 24, 1932 Joe plays in his first night game in Forest City, NC. He did not care for night games saying he'd much rather play in the day time. |
| 1933 | 46 | Joe and Katie move from Savannah back to Greenville for good, first opening a barbecue restaurant and then opening Joe Jackson's Liquor Store, which they operate until Joe's death. In the summer of 1933, Joe played for Poe Mills in Greenville. |
| 1934 | 47 | Joe played and managed the Winnsboro Mill Royal Cords in Winnsboro, SC. |
| 1937 | 50 | Joe manages the Woodside Mill team, his brother Jerry is his star pitcher. |
| 1941 | 54 | Joe is asked to put on a hitting exhibition and belts two home runs in the process. This coming after he had one of his heart attacks. |
| 1951 | 64 | Joseph Jefferson Jackson suffers a massive heart attack and dies at home on December 5th. |