I was reading
Batting (1925) by F.C. Lane the other night. Lane was editor of Baseball Magazine and friend to many players. He writes:
Joe Jackson of melancholy memory, one of the greatest hitters who ever lived, always used a black bat. He once explained the origin of this bat to me. "When I was about fourteen years old, " said Joe, "before I joined the Greenville Grangers, I had some reputation as a ball player in my home town. One day a well known fan of the city, Captain Martin by name, called me into his place and presented me with the original of the black bats I have always used. The bat he gave me was much the same as the one I use today and it was black. I have that original bat now and although it is broken with hard usage, I would not take Five Hundred Dollars for it. I do not know that I am specially superstitious, but these black bats have led for me in the batting percentage of four different Leagues and they have hit for me over .400 in the American League. I have all my bats made after this one pattern and they are all black."
It is outrageous for Jackson to say his Black Betsy from Captain Martin was black and "broken with hard usage". It is apparent to anyone who studies bats that he used a store model bat during his playing days but put it down and picked up a black one whenever some photographer was about to take his picture.
