Manfred won't reinstate Shoeless Joe Jackson

Shoeless Joe Jackson, the oft mythologized outfielder famously banned from baseball for his alleged involvement in the 1919 Black Sox scandal, won't be getting a plaque in Cooperstown anytime soon.

Rob Manfred, who succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner in January, recently denied a formal request for Jackson's reinstatement from the president of his eponymous museum in Greenville, S.C.

Though the request prompted further investigation into Jackson's alleged role in the scandal - eight Chicago White Sox players were accused of conspiring with gamblers and throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds - Manfred's staff couldn't find enough credible evidence to overrule the decision by former commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis to permanently ban the accused from baseball, even after they were acquitted in court.

"The results of this work demonstrate to me that it is not possible now, over 95 years since those took place and were considered by Commissioner Landis, to be certain enough of the truth to overrule Commissioner Landis' determinations," Manfred wrote in a letter posted Tuesday on the museum's Facebook page.

Still, Jackson's performance in the 1919 World Series has long stood as proof of his innocence. Jackson, then 31, hit .375 with three doubles, one home run, and one walk in the series.

In 1999, eight years after the Hall of Fame's ruling to preclude eligibility for any player permanently banned from baseball, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for Jackson to be honored.

"It is worthy for this body to take a few minutes to stand up for fairness and right an old wrong," said Rep. Jim DeMint, the Republican author of the resolution.