The Teleproduction Group
Voices of "Thread"

Baseball, Hard Times, and Treasure Hunting....

Thomas K. Perry
Author:
Textile League Baseball -
South Carolina's Mill Teams,
1880-1955

Fourth generation mill worker

"Treasure hunting, that's really what it was about. Discovering - through ten years of research and writing, the precious glistening gems of stories, anecdotes, names and photographs which would validate all that textile baseball meant - was the only directive to be fulfilled."

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Claude Center
Mill Team: Catcher, Southern Bleachery

When asked about George Blackwell, legendary textile league pitcher, Claude recalls:

"When he was pitching, he would halt the game, take off his shoe and pretend to spit in it for good luck. Some people still say he used a bit of voodoo."

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Earl Wooten  "The Earl of Pelzer"
Mill Teams: Piedmont and Pelzer

"I was the bat boy for Pelzer, and I can remember thinking that maybe someday I could be good enough to play in the textile leagues. In those days you had to be really good to make the team. I saw Joe Jackson, I don't know how old he was at the time, but he was in his fifties, he hit one a long way to win the game."

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Bill "Old Ninety Six" Voiselle
Mill Teams: Ninety Six, Ware Shoals

· Pitcher for the Boston Braves and New York Giants
· In 1944 as a Giants rookie had 21 wins and 25 complete games, 161 strikeouts and 313 innings pitched.
· While playing for the Braves he roomed with Warren Spahn.
· Mr. Voiselle still resides in Ninety Six, S.C.

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Billy O'Dell
Mill Teams: Newberry, Mollohon, Liberty

· MLB: Baltimore, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Atlanta and Pittsburgh
· 1958 All Star Game winning pitcher from Baltimore Orioles

"I never played in the minor leagues before going to Baltimore, I guess the textile leagues prepared me pretty good."

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Horace Mullinax
Mill Team: Lyman

"I thought there was no other game except baseball, when I was young coming up. I would walk or go anywhere to play a game of baseball."

"In the 30's we had very little except for our friendships with one another and the game of baseball."

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Guy "Slugger" Prater
Mill Team: Joanna

In 1947, Dodger scout Blackie Carter found power-hitting Prater and convinced Branch Rickey to sign him to a $5,000 contract. He showed enough talent to be assigned to the class B Newport News team, but soon returned to play with the mill team, where the money was good and the competition better.

"I gave my bat and glove to some kid, and he thought that was the greatest thing ever."

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Pat Hawkins
Mill Team: Bat boy and catcher, Jackson Mills

Pat shares his memories of Earnest "Powerhouse" Hawkins:

"Powerhouse Hawkins had the name of a baseball player, fisherman, hunter and a liar, but he was my idol in all of them. He could do pretty much all of them, he could tell you a great fishing story, hunting story or he could tell you a lie. He could look at you straight in the eye and tell you a lie and laugh about it. He was just what he said he was, he was the greatest."

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Mrs. "Shag" Knox
Chiquola Mills

"One glance at 'Shag' and I knew he'd never get out of my sight again."

"We both loved baseball, and after a game the players and their wives came over to our house for supper. Lord, we used to replay the entire game around the table! Those were good times and good friends."

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Joe Anders
Greenville Spinners
Mill Team: Brandon

· 1955 MVP hitting .505 and 30 game hitting streak

"In the 40's they were paying a whole lot better in the textile leagues than in pro ball."

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Fred "Shag" Knox
Mill Team: Chiquola

"Once you find a little parcel of heaven, a man would be foolish to leave."

There are stories that touch the heart and serve to remind us that baseball is, after all, only a game, only a part of life, and most often not the most important part at all. Shag had played well enough at Renfrew Bleachery to attract the attention of Pittsburgh scout Carlton Molesworth, who called the lanky shortstop the best pro prospect he had seen in 30 years of beating the bushes. Knox signed a contract, and agreed to report to the Buc's farm club in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Before leaving for the Midwest, he intended to fulfill an obligation he had made to play one game with Chiquola Manufacturing Company in the Anderson County League. True love, though, affected the best of his plans. Shag was introduced to Miss Mae, a young lady who was to become his wife. The Pittsburgh Pirates organization lost an outstanding baseball player, but the Honea Path community gained a fine gentleman whose actions influenced both the caliber of baseball and its integrity for more than 40 years.

- Thomas K. Perry,
Textile League Baseball

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Earnest "Powerhouse" Hawkins
Mill Team: Jackson

In 1928, at the age of 14, he began playing on the Jackson mill team. Though his playing weight never got above 150 pounds, he earned the nickname "Powerhouse" because of his stinging hits and rifle arm.

"And besides, it sounded better than Earnest."

By 1934, he commanded $100 a game when he pitched. Powerhouse was the consummate storyteller, the oral traditionalist of the textile leagues unashamed to tell you how great the old times really were.

- Thomas K. Perry,
Textile League Baseball

"It was in nineteen-thirty-six, and I didn't hit the ball very far out of the infield, so I figured it was a just a single. I got to first base and stopped, but no one came up with the ball, so I ran on to second and made it easy. Still no ball and I ended up with a homer on that puny hit. What happened? The outfielders couldn't find the ball because it had landed in an empty tomato can."

Powerhouse claims to have hunted polar bears when he was a young man living in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

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John Copple
Mill Team: Piedmont

"I remember playing Lyman one day and Big George Blackwell hit three doubles off of me. After the third one he pulls into second and says, 'I like your pitching, Johnny.' I looked at him and told him to go to hell."

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Paul "Sugar" Fuller
Mill Team: Mollohon

"As a kid, the greatest sound I knew was the sound of metal cleats on the sidewalk, as the players walked to the field."

"Everyone had a nickname. I played with a guy named 'Dummy' Martin, and he got that name because once while on first he decided to steal second, and when he got there much to his surprise he found a teammate already standing there."

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Hard Times

"When I was young, I didn't worry about money because we didn't have any."
- Lloyd "Slick" McGaha

"We were all very poor but we didn't know we were because everybody was."
- Jesse Campbell

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Photographs and Original Footage

Through our extensive research, we have amassed a wonderful collection of prints, newspaper articles and motion picture film. Both original and re-enactment footage are used for B-roll.

"That's where all the mill people went. If they were not in the mill working they were at the ballpark."
- Pat Hawkins