There is a Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum

Shoeless Joe Jackson will never be in the Hall of Fame, but he has his own museum.

How good was Shoeless?

Here are the top ten players of all time in adjusted OPS+

1. Babe Ruth 206 L

2. Ted Williams 190 L

3. Barry Bonds 181 L

4. Lou Gehrig 178 L

5. Rogers Hornsby 175 R

6. Mickey Mantle 172 B

7. Albert Pujols 171 R

8. Dan Brouthers 170 L

9. Joe Jackson 169 L

10. Ty Cobb 168 L

You've noticed, I'll bet, that he's listed above Cobb on that list.

To be fair, Cobb played well past his prime, until his early 40s, and thus lowered all his stats of the "per plate appearance" type. Shoeless was asked to clean out his locker at age 32, so he never experienced the typical decline which affects percentage-based stats at the end of a career. In his final year in the bigs, Jackson batted .382 with 121 RBI, led the league in triples, and was fifth in homers. If he had played as long as Cobb, he would not have continued that level of performance indefinitely, and his lifetime OPS+ would have been lower.

It's possible to compare them apples-to-apples. If Cobb had retired at 32, his lifetime OPS+ would have been 184, below only Ruth and Williams, and 15 points higher than Jackson. (Cobb's lifetime batting average would have been .372 in this scenario.) But even granting that, one must conclude that Shoeless Joe could play some ball. "Almost as good as Cobb" is pretty fuckin' good.

By the way, Dan Brouthers was a 19th century first baseman who led his league in each of the triple crown categories at least twice, capped by five batting titles. It is most probable that Brouthers, not a better-known player like Cap Anson or Ed Delahanty, was the best hitter of that century. Brouthers led his league in either OBP or slugging (or both) in nine different seasons, leading in OBP five times, and slugging seven times. Anson never led in slugging and won the OBP crown only four times in a 27-year career. Delahanty led in OBP twice, and in slugging five times, but some of those came in the 20th century.