Today was a really fun day in research because I was able to share an experience with my daughter. Today my daughter and I went to Simpsonville to visit the Historic Woodside Mill Ball park. This ball field at one time probably saw some of the greatest players to ever play the game. There has been renovations and with time there are natural changes but I could imagine in my mind while I was there being at a mill game. It was such a great experience to see my daughter running around the field. Of course day dreaming kicked and and for a moment I pictured us as a mill family and my daughter just another child during the heydays of mill life. How many children picked up a ball for the first time on this field?
The field was named after O'dell "red" Barbary, who was a mill league standout in the 30's and 40's. He lived on the Woodside Mill in Simpsonville,SC. His career was capped in the majors with a single at bat in only one game in 1943 as a Washington Senators.
As I took pictures I was reminded of how incredible this sport was and how much of a impact it had not only on the people of the mills but the people of the upstate. I am really grasping that my project has turned into so much more than finding about how mills recruited players for competition. It was so much more than that. Of course this happened but lets face it who really wants to document this. This was a livelihood it was everything to this area. The upstate of South Carolina was built on the backs of these ball players. I have really come to grasp that it is not to far fetched that I was put in this position in order to preserve a part of history that is slowly dying off!
Here are a few pics from today...I put in a few of my daughter as well. What can I say I am a proud father.
Hey, I think that I have been there before! Is it the one that is kind of near the new Imax theater in Simpsonville? Because I used to live near there.
ReplyDeleteYes it is!
DeleteI've been to this field before, but I didn't realize its history!
ReplyDeleteAhhh---your daughter is so sweet! Great pictures and a great story.
ReplyDeleteYou know, people talk about having a 'calling'---often to preach or teach---and I think you may definitely have a calling to help preserve such an important part of upstate culture. And isn't it interesting that you aren't a 'native.' ?! I think sometimes natives tend to take things for granted; and that's when it's good to have a new person come in and help natives remember how amazing their own heritage is. I'm a HUGE believer in state and local history; how can we be wrapped up in the past of exotic places if we have no appreciation for all the uniqueness under our noses!
I grew up in the two story house beside this ball park in the 70s play in that park with friends nearly every day these pictures are not what it looked like when I was a kid they should have left the old dugouts as they were block building with concrete top. saw many soft ball games played here al of us mill hill kids would be the bat boys for the teams when the different mills played each other. lot of great memories playing in and around this park.
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