Hot dogs, peanuts, Cracker Jack, and an icy-cold beverage: traditional, tasty treats that flavor America’s national pastime — baseball. However, less savory notes spice that mix, too, as stories of both heroes and demons season the game’s history.
A motorcycle ride through the winding byways of northern South Carolina and Georgia will lead a rider to explore tales of a few of the game’s most famous — or maybe infamous — players, depending on one’s point of view, while delivering curvy roads to make the best screwball pitcher proud.
From atop its hills and from within its hollows, homegrown talent from here captured America’s attention during the sport’s infancy, filling record books, making history, gaining notoriety, or, in some cases, becoming notorious. A century or more later, these names still resonate among baseball fanatics and non-fans alike.
Cobb.
Mize.
Jackson.
The Shoeless Scandal
At age 6, Joseph Jackson’s poverty-riddled family moved to Pickens in South Carolina’s mountainous upcountry. At the time, that area of the state outside of Greenville became known as the “textile capital” of the country. Jackson’s parents worked for the Brandon Mill, and soon young Joe, the oldest of eight children, joined them, foregoing schooling in exchange for a 25-cent-per-day paycheck.
With business booming and fierce competition to find employees, mills looked for innovative ways to lure workers, so companies organized “Saturday specials,” activities to entertain folks on their days off. This included baseball games. Mills paid workers extra money to play, and better teams hired better players. In 1900, 13-year-old Joe Jackson became a rising star, earning as much money playing Saturday baseball ($2.50 per game) as he did for a week’s worth of mill work.
By 1908, the standout player rose through the mill-sponsored leagues, landed with the minor-league Greenville Spinners, then moved up to the major leagues, where, in 1911, for the Cleveland Naps (that became the Indians, and are now the Guardians), he set a still-standing rookie batting average record of .408, with an impressive league-leading .468 on-base percentage. Traded to the Chicago White Sox in 1915 for $65,000 (the most expensive trade ever at the time), the outfielder and slugger played crucial roles in the team’s 1917 World Series win.
Jackson’s stats made him famous, but his nickname of “Shoeless” made him infamous, gained when he once (and only once) removed blister-inducing cleats before batting while still in the mill leagues. He reportedly hated the moniker that followed him for the rest of his life.
But his infamy grew further while on the White Sox roster, thanks to the 1919 World Series “Black Sox” scandal, in which eight members of his team allegedly “threw” the game for money. A jury ruled the eight not guilty, but the new baseball commissioner banned them from the game for life anyway. Jackson played for private teams, “outlaw ball,” after that, but never again professionally.
Jackson eventually returned to Greenville, living a quiet life running several liquor stores and other businesses. Today, you can learn more about the baseball phenom by visiting the “Shoeless” Joe Jackson Museum and Baseball Library in Greenville, full of interesting stories and artifacts displayed in Jackson’s actual house. The museum opened in 2007 and sits across the street from the Fluor Field Baseball complex, home to the Greenville Drive, a High-A affiliate team of the Boston Red Sox.
Georgia’s Big Cat
Leaving the museum, consider traveling Route 183 back toward Pickens, a rural route still dotted with the occasional textile mill reminiscent of young Joe Jackson’s era. From there, you can branch northwest into Georgia’s high country, riding its green-lined, curve-ball-like byways, then turn southward to end in Demorest, Georgia. Or simply ride directly southwest about 85 miles from Greenville on Route 123, cross Lake Hartwell with its panoramic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, to end in Demorest. For this is the home of Piedmont University and the birthplace of baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize.
Within the university’s Johnny Mize Athletic Center sit displays of memorabilia and artifacts donated to the college by the Mize family. Mize garnered attention as an outstanding player of his time, with a professional career spanning 1936 through 1953, including stints with the St. Louis Cardinals, the New York Giants, and the New York Yankees, during which the Yankees won five consecutive World Series titles.
Nicknamed “the Big Jawn” or “Big Cat” for smooth first-base fielding. The 10-time all-star had a lifetime batting average of .312, hit 359 home runs, and recorded a .992 fielding percentage. His name recognition might not be foremost among the greatest ball players, but his achievements are acknowledged in the baseball annals. He was inducted posthumously into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981. The display includes many photos, plaques, and awards that the talented but unassuming Mize received during his career.
Georgia’s Controversial Peach
For the next baseball chapter, retrace your route from Demorest on Route 123 to Route 17, then turn south onto rural Route 106 (also called Mize Road), dotted with fields, farmland, and small towns. About 50 miles later, you’ll eventually end in Royston, Georgia, the former home of Mize’s cousin and one of baseball’s all-time greats — Tyrus Raymond Cobb.
Here you can visit the excellent Ty Cobb Museum, which tells the story of the man who held more significant baseball records than any player ever. The center fielder played from 1905 through 1928, all but two years of that with the Detroit Tigers. Interestingly, despite his achievements, he never played on a World Series-winning team.
Nicknamed the “Georgia Peach,” Cobb’s outstanding stats shout greatness — 12-time batting champion (within 13 years), a career batting average of .367, 897 stolen bases, and so much more. According to museum displays, though he had a natural talent for the game, he worked hard at becoming great, thinking, testing theories, and practicing, practicing, practicing. He developed a special “hands apart” grip for his swing and a particular way of sliding onto bases. However, his determination and focus on winning earned him a reputation as difficult, temperamental, and mean … a reputation that followed him throughout his life, and more so after his death.
As two fellow southern players in that same era, he and Jackson both bonded over similar hazing they received from northern teammates. Cobb admired Jackson’s swing, reportedly calling him “the most natural hitter” he had ever seen (as did Babe Ruth). But Cobb’s temper and penchant for fights on and off the field became as notorious as his stats. Some baseball historians consider him the greatest player of the “deadball” era, the game’s early days before livelier, new-style baseballs became common, while others focus on the tabloid-style stories haunting his legend.
Cobb also became baseball’s first millionaire. He aligned with the newly formed Georgia-based Coca-Cola Company, becoming a brand spokesperson and stockholder. He did the same with General Motors. These alliances earned him millions more than baseball could have in that era, and after retirement, he used his wealth for good, supporting his local community in Royston. He established the Cobb Scholarship Fund for needy students, which has awarded over $22 million in scholarships to college-bound Georgia students and continues to assist students today, and built a hospital that grew into the Ty Cobb Healthcare System.
Cobb died in 1961. He spent his last years hunting and golfing in Royston and left a nearly $12 million estate (worth about $130 million today). Soon after he died, his infamy multiplied when a book by discredited sportswriter Al Stump recounted alleged stories that tarnished and further sullied Cobb’s reputation. A movie version followed. Later proof revealed Stump fabricated and forged documents he said were from Cobb, but the damaging details remain ingrained in America’s mental baseball encyclopedia as much as his accomplishments do.
To counteract the fables, family members opened the Ty Cobb Museum in 1998. An excellent movie and numerous displays and artifacts narrate not only Cobb’s achievements and particular style of play but also recount the game’s raucous history during its earliest years. The museum doesn’t dilute the unflattering stories that swirl around his legend; rather, it provides context for how and why they happened and details his great philanthropy after his retirement, a fact most fans don’t know.
Museum manager Leah McCall said that even though a lot of his records on the field still stand, “and there really has never been a player that had the total package like him, I feel his greatest legacy is his philanthropy. He didn’t forget his roots.”
While in Royston, make the quick trip across the street to see the life-size statue of Cobb stealing a base, and another short trip down the road lands you at the Cobb Mausoleum in the local cemetery.
For a scenic return to Greenville, consider taking the slow way on Route 29 as it meanders through pretty farmland, crosses Lake Hartwell, and eventually joins byways leading back to the South Carolina foothills and Greenville. Enjoy the views while appreciating that from these same hills and dales grew some of the south’s most notable, most notorious “boys of summer.”
Want to go?
“Shoeless” Joe Jackson Museum and Library
356 Field St., Greenville, SC
Across from Fluor Field on the West End
Hours: Every Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through August 30
Johnny Mize display at the Mize Athletic Center
Piedmont University
280 Laurel Ave., Demorest, GA
Hours: Monday – Friday
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Ty Cobb Museum
461 Cook St., Royston, GA
Hours: Monday – Friday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
