El Paso Herald · El Paso, Texas · 1913

How Great Men Play the Game: Joe Jackson

Cartoonist Scar studies Joe Jackson of Cleveland in August 1913: an exceptionally wide stride, running-in throws that cut off perhaps more runs than any fielder in the game, and did you ever notice how much Cobb and Jackson look alike?

Scar’s How Great Men Play the Game series reaches Joe Jackson in August 1913, banner reading “Right Field, Cleveland Am.,” and the observations have the ring of a man who watched closely. At the plate: “Jackson has an exceptionally wide stride which enables him to step in on the ball and get it before it breaks.” In the field: “With his great running-in throws he cuts off perhaps more runs than any fielder in the game.”

On the bases Scar credits him with a technique that sounds like it came out of an engineering manual: “To save ground in rounding the bases he throws his foot against the bags with such force he rebounds to the base lines.” Jackson drawn caroming off the sack like a banked billiard shot.

And then the trademark corner observation, this time an inset of two nearly identical profiles under one question: “And did you ever notice? How much Cobb and Jackson look alike as well as bat alike.” In 1913 that comparison was the highest compliment the American League had to give, and the batting averages backed the resemblance. The series was syndicated, so the man from Cleveland turned up in morning papers half a country away from him, El Paso included, which is its own measure of how great men played the game.