'Shoeless' Joe Jackson's game bat auctioned for $583,500

NEW YORK  - “Shoeless” Joe Jackson’s game bat has sold for $583,500.

Christie’s says it went to an online bidder Wednesday on the first of a two-day auction of baseball memorabilia.

The items come from the National Pastime Museum, an online museum based on a private collection of baseball artifacts, photographs and memorabilia.

Shoeless Joe’s “Black Betsy” bat is one of two known to survive from his career, and the only one with his full signature in script stamped into the barrel.

Jackson was accused with other Chicago White Sox teammates of accepting payments for throwing the 1919 World Series. The Major League great was acquitted but banned from the sport.

The auction record for a game-used baseball bat is a 1923 Babe Ruth bat. It sold for $1.2 million in 2004.