Mr. William C. Webb and author John Bell
Mr. William C. Webb
Mr. William C. Webb and author John Bell
During
my research of Shoeless Joe Jackson playing in Americus, by mere coincidence, I
came across a gentleman living at the Magnolia Manor retirement home in Americus
by the name of William C. Webb. Mr. Webb had the very distinct privilege
of actually playing baseball with Shoeless Joe Jackson in Waycross, Georgia in
1925 for the city's Atlantic Coastline railroad team. He looked to be in
very good shape when I met him, and it was a great pleasure to talk to him about
Shoeless Joe, baseball, and life in general.
Born in 1903 in Adrian, Georgia,
William C. Webb graduated from Adrian high school in 1922. He played
baseball, football, and basketball at Sparks Junior College from 1922 through
1924. After Sparks, Mr. Webb went to Waycross and was hired by the
railroad "to play baseball." Joe Jackson was the player/manager
of the team and had been there since the end of the 1923 season, immediately
following his Americus playing time.
Mr. Webb pitched for the railroad
team with Jackson through the 1925 season. In 1926, he pitched for the
Midville, Georgia semi-pro baseball team and stayed there through 1928. He
calls these years the best of his career that lasted for fourteen years
total. In 1927, he started fifteen games, winning twelve, losing two, and
tying one. In 1929 while pitching for Thomaston, Georgia, Mr. Webb pitched
a game against Luke Appling's Grinnell team of East Atlanta and gave up only six
hits. One of those hits was a home run hit by Appling who would begin a
twenty-year major league career with the White Sox the very next year.
Thomaston won the game 7 to 3 behind Mr. Webb's pitching of the complete
game. He also got two hits in the game to help his cause.
In 1931, while in the United States
Navy, Mr. Webb pitched on the USS Wright team. That same year, when the
New York Yankees broke spring camp, they played an exhibition game against the
Wright team. Pop Branch was on the mound for the Navy team and pitched
well enough against Ruth and Gehrig that the Yankees offered him a contract to
pitch for them.
Mr. Webb described Shoeless Joe
Jackson as a good baseball man. Even though he was not educated, he had
the ability to make managerial decisions that almost always worked out
well. He was a "player's manager," according to Mr. Webb, who
led by example and had great respect for the players. Shoeless Joe's very
presence was a boost to the players he managed bringing each of them to the top
of their game. Jackson also had more ability in baseball than anyone he
had ever seen, both offensively and defensively, driving the ball out of the
park almost at will, making circus catches in the outfield, and throwing the
ball of the stands behind home from center field. When payday came, Joe
would ask Mr. Webb to help him cash his paychecks by assisting with signing his
name on them.
Shoeless Joe told Mr. Webb how his
bat, the famous "Black Betsy," was made of second-grown hickory
wood. Mr. Webb described it as having a big knob, small at the handle, and
bent. "The bend in the bat was how he got his hands through the ball
so fast," Mr. Webb explained. Mr. Webb described the strange sound
the bat made when it hit the ball as sounding "like he hit a
brick." Jackson even let Mr. Webb hit with the bat a few times during
the Waycross days.
At 98 years young, William C. Webb is
one of the few people still around who saw Shoeless Joe Jackson play, much less
played on the same team. He also saw and played with many of the great
ball players of the 1920's and 30's. An afternoon talking to Mr. Webb is
truly both an honor and a pleasure.
--John Bell