merely on hitting. In 1919, while making just $6,000 a year playing for the White Sox and their tightwad owner, Charles Comiskey, Jackson's .351 batting average propelled Chicago to the World Series. The Sox, having won the Series two years before, were heavy favorites to beat Cincinnati. But Chicago's play was ragged and it lost a best-of-nine affair, five games to three. Stories were rampant about a fix, and before a Chicago grand jury, Jackson admitted that he'd been promised $20,000 to dump games. Jackson only received $5,000, while he conceded to not hustling after balls in left field, throwing the ball weakly, and striking out in key situations.

Jackson's final season was 1920, a year in which he batted .382, slugged .589 and led the league in triples(20). In August 1921, Jackson and seven other Chicago players were banned from baseball for life. At 31, Shoeless Joe had played his final game.

9. Ty Cobb OPS+167
Remembered for aggressive baserunning and spraying 4,189 hits during his 24-year career, Ty Cobb was not just the game's best player before 1920, but its most dominant slugger as well. He won 11 batting titles in 13 years, eight slugging titles, and was OPS+ leader 11 times.

No doubt Cobb's unrelenting intensity, even meanness, carried him a long way. "When I began playing the game, baseball was about as gentlemanly as a kick in the crotch," Cobb said. "I was like a steel spring with a growing and dangerous flaw in it. If it is wound too tight or has the slightest