Thursday, January 12, 2012

We built this city!!

  Tonight was my meeting with Mr. Perry and it was amazing.I was invited to his home in Newberry, SC which is about an 1 hr 1/2 from where I live in Greer but it was well worth every minute of the drive. I must first say that he was one of the most passionate and intelligent people I have come across in my life. His knowledge on baseball in the textile mills is endless. He was kind enough to invite me into his office and allow me to speak one on one with him and look at all his amazing baseball memorabilia, I felt like a kid again at Little League night at a Cincinnati Reds game. I had an amazing time while there and gained some fabulous new knowledge as well as leads into where I will go in the future for not only this project but the many more I hope to do about baseball.


Enough romanticizing about baseball I know you are all interested in the information that I received and I am likewise interested in sharing it. Mr. Perry to my delight confirmed my original assumption that mills used recruiting tools to being in players. Although I was already aware that they made makeshift jobs in order to house these players within their mills. What I did not know was that these players could earn up to $100 a week playing baseball. Take a second to think about that in today's terms pretty impressive! What I really found interesting was when he shared how mills also recruited workers to their mills based on how good their baseball teams were.I find this absolutely fascinating that mill baseball was a double edge sword. They were using it to recruit the best players that they could for their teams, not only to win games but also to ensure that they were able to attract the best working force. I am curious, what type of affect that had on mill villages themselves? These were tight knit communities mainly comprised of generations of families that had always been on that particular mill.

As Mr. Perry and I were talking I realized how much of a impact Textile baseball in the upstate had not only on the mill community, the townies but also the sport of baseball.  In major league baseball there is a minor league farm system in which players mature and work their way up to the Majors. I have come to understand that up until 1955 when mill baseball vanished, the upstate served as a unofficial farm system. Mr. Perry explained to me that for a long time the Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Athletics would come here to get their players. Often times they would also send their players down here but the major league players would complain because the Textile mills teams were to good!!! How bout that! There were over a 100 players that played in both the majors and in mill league ball. As Mr. Perry highlighted there was probably many many more. In his book he references these players because he was able to validate them with documentation of playing in games in both the mill leagues and the majors. It is pretty impressive how dominate mill teams truly were from 1880-1950's, many local colleges and high schools would not play them because they would run the score up.


The experince was amazing and I look forward to the opportunity to get to talk to him again as well as to at some point spend a lot more time on studying this. I realized tonight that Textile baseball was baseball in it's purist form. That it was played and celebrated for the love of what baseball truly was not money, not million dollar contracts not championships. It made the upstate what it was today.  Unfortunately many people over look how important this time period and this sport was to what the upstate is today. That of course is my goal to showcase how important and fascinating textile baseball truly was.


I was able to come to the understanding tonight that I can not get frustrated when things don't work in my favor. On my drive back from Newberry I realized that in order for this month to be a success I need to do what I originally intended to do and that is to showcase the importance of textile baseball in the south. With such a brief period of time I will continue to work to provide all of you with some of the key highlights from textile baseball. Trying not to harp so much on finding all the information i can about how mill bosses tried to recruit other players.But providing you all with a rounded view of this world as I know many are unfamiliar with it. Primarily staying withing 1910-1930, I look forward to continuing this journey.


I must say I was really touched tonight when Mr. Perry told me that he could feel my passion for textile mills and textile mill baseball. This really means a lot to me coming from the world's expert on textile baseball, it reinforces that no matter how childish my passion for baseball and history is I need to run with it. Besides how cool is it that a person who grew up in the mill life and as historian and man from the south could compliment a Yankee on his passion for southern baseball!!!!!!

1 comment:

  1. I'm learning so much from your blog! You've opened up a whole new world of mill life. In one of my history classes, I read a book called "Textile Town," which was about the Spartanburg mills. I don't remember reading anything about baseball in much detail, so it's interesting to add this to my knowledge of what I know about mills and the south.

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