Black Betsy . . . Footsteps to the Hall Traditional Cache
holds no currency: Sadly it is time to close this one down. Almost nine years old. The Shoeless Joe Museum has shut down for the time being. The intent is to move the house (again) to the other side of the property. Notice posted on the door says the expected reopening will be late spring or early summer. Hopefully I will be able to once again work with the museum and get another cache going at the time.
Thanks to all who found this cache over the years.
Black Betsy . . . Footsteps to the Hall
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This cache is located very near to the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum. You are searching for a small round container shaped like a film canister only smaller. The container is camoed to blend in with its immediate surroundings. There is room for the log only so please BYOP. Please replace carefully, exactly where you found it. Otherwise it might disappear. First To Find Honors go to . . .tailhook3
Depending on when you search you will either have the area pretty much to yourself or you will have to deal with 5000 or more muggles gathering right across the street. Stealth will definately be needed when they are coming and going. Oh, be sure to keep an eye out for the trolley. Joe Jackson like so many other youngsters in the South in the early 1900's went to work in a textile mill to help his family. He never learned to read or write. Joe probably would have spent his whole life working in the textile mill except for one thing -- baseball. When he was thirteen he was signed by the managers of the Brandon Mill baseball team and played on the men's team. Between 1901 and 1907 he thrilled the crowds with his baseball prowess. His favorite bat . . . Black Betsy. In 1908, Joe was playing semi-pro ball for the Greenville Spinners. During the first game of a doubleheader, Jackson played in new spikes that quickly wore painful blisters on his feet. In the second game, with the Spinners at bat, he took off his spikes and walked to the batter's box. No one noticed that he wore no shoes until he hit a triple. As Joe slid into third, a fan of the opposing team shouted, "You shoeless son-of-a-gun!" That was the only time Joe played shoeless in a game, but the moniker 'Shoeless Joe' stuck and followed him throughout the rest of his playing days. By 1911 Joe found himself with the Cleveland Indians where he hit .408, the highest batting average ever recorded by a rookie. When all was said and done he wound up with a .356 lifetime batting average. Third all time -- to this very day!! Only Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby managed to better that mark. Ty Cobb once said to Joe: "Whenever I got the idea I was a good hitter, I'd stop and take a look at you. Then I knew I could stand some improvement". Babe Ruth said, "I copied Jackson's style because I thought he was the greatest hitter I had ever seen, the greatest natural hitter I ever saw. He's the guy who made me a hitter". Shoeless Joe continues to be one of the most beloved and publicized ballplayers of all time. Several movies, a broadway play, poems, countless books, television documentaries, feature articles and the internet have spun Shoeless Joe into an American icon. In 2006, the small brick house where Joe lived and died was dismantled, moved three miles, and reassembled on its current site across from Fluor Field, current home of the Greenville Drive minor league baseball team. The house is now home to the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Baseball Library. Stop by on Saturdays from 10AM to 2PM to learn more about this great Greenville legend. Be sure to visit the Shoeless Joe statue on South Main Street by entrance to Fluor Field.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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