SHOELESS JOE & BLACK BETSY

                                       by

                                          Phil Bildner

                                                       Illustrated by

                                                           C.F. Payne

                                         

Bluebonnet Award – 2004 Winner

Boldner, P. (2002). Shoeless joe & black betsy. New York, NY:

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

  

EXPOSITION: This book tells the story of one of baseball’s most illustrious players, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and his personal baseball bat that he called “Black Betsey.”

CONFLICT: When Shoeless Joe began playing in the minor leagues, he fell into a terrible hitting slump that threatened to end his baseball career before it even really got started.    

RISING ACTION: Shoeless Joe went to see a friend named Ol’ Charlie Ferguson who made baseball bats and asked the old man if he could make a bat just for Joe that would get him out of his hitting slump.  Ol’ Charlie made several bats that each seemed to help for a while, but none of them permanently helped Shoeless Joe raise his batting average.

CLIMAX: Finally, after lots of trial-and-error combined with even more creativity, Ol’ Charlie made a beautiful bat that Shoeless Joe called “Betsy,” after Betsy Ross.  Later, he renamed it “Black Betsy” because he colored the bat black to frighten the pitchers.  The bat helped Shoeless Joe hit better some times, but not every time he got up to the plate.    

FALLING ACTION: Finally, Ol’ Charlie told Shoeless Joe that he had to treat the bat like it was alive: wrapping it up to keep it warm, taking it to bed with him at night, bringing it South for the winter, etc.  Once he did that, Shoeless Joe found that Black Betsy helped him become a consistently outstanding hitter.  

RESOLUTION: In its “Afterword,” the book tells how Shoeless Joe, using Black Betsy, went on to become one of baseball’s greatest players until he was accused of being part of the 1919 Black Sox scandal, in which he and some of his White Sox teammates were accused of intentionally losing the World Series.  Although all the evidence suggested he was innocent, he was banned from baseball for life.

WAS THIS A WELL-ILLUSTRATED BOOK?  C. F. Payne’s illustrations are excellent.  They are very artistic, showing moments from the story in colorful and realistic images.  At the same time, the artwork has an old-time ambiance that reminds one of Norman Rockwell’s creations.

PICTURE SOURCES:
     goodreads.com
     baseball-reference.com
     shoelessjoejackson.com
     philbildner.com
     blackbetsy.com