Omaha daily bee., 1911-07-16
Scouts Have a Time
Luring Jackson Into
Big League Company
As q Barefooted Bruiser He is Liter.
ally Dragged Out Of Caro-
lima Bushes.

CLEVELAND o.. July 1s.-"Joe" jack
son. the wonderful riEhtfieider Of the
Cleveland American league base ball team,
is a product OF the South Carolina cotton
mills. on the teams representing which
mills he played prior to the discovery by
one OF Connie" Mack's scouts that the
barefooted boy was Of big league caliber.
"Ossie" schreckengost. the former Ath-
letic catcher who became famous as the
receiver Of the cratic "Rube' waddell
when the big lefthander was in his prime.
was the scout who. South Carolinians say.
found Zoe" Jackson.
Jackson at that time was playing on the
| Greenville (s. c. team and was its best
batsman and leading run getter. He went
to Greenville after q career on the Pied
mont and Mollohon mills teams Of the Pied
mont section of South Carolina. II was
while with the Piedmont mills outfit that
the manager Of the Greenville team saw
him play. He was country boy then
and what he knew about reading and writ
ing could be put in the lefthand corner Of
primary school slate. according to Jack
sons Carolina admirers.
Down in Newberry, s. c., where is To-
Gated the Mollohon mills. they say that II
took three railroad trips to get Jackson
| TO Philadelphia, where he played for a
brief period last year with the Philadelphia
Athletics. At that time the boy had never
been in a city of more than 5000 popula-
ton, and II is said that he was MORALLY
afraid Of the big town. The Athletics
| scout on the first attempt to get Jackson
north succeeded in plotting him as far as
Charlotte, N. c., when the boy decided he
had gone far enough and leaving the train,
he successfully hid from Schreckengost. A
day later the boy showed up in the Pied
mont country.
whats the matter joe don't you want
to be a big leaguer?" the surprised friends
of the young star asked.
NO them big places is too big. Pelzer,
Piedmont and Newberry just about suits
me-" was the gist of his answer, and the
next afternoon he was slamming out three
baggers and home runs for the home folks
team as Of old
The second trip was little more sue
| cessful than the first one, according to
Jackson's Carolina friends, in that the cot
ton mills fielder got about 200 miles nearer
to his destination than on the first trip.
They say he kept his nerve until he was
somewhere in Virginia, and then the men,
cries of the big smokestacks and the cot
ton fields back in Piedmont got in its
work, The end Of the story was similar
to that Of the first, for two days later
Joe was back In Piedmont. telling the
boys all about il and gleefully exclaiming
how glad he was to be back in the home
country again
A third time the scout appeared and had
more heart-to-heart talks with Joe, and
once more Joe consented to emlgrate to the
Pennsylvania metropolis This time he
went all the way and he played a few
games with Connie Mack's team. He did
fine work and everybody was surprised
when Connie Mack let Cleveland get hin
last spring. Now Connie Mack could not
get him back for any price.
This is the story they tell around the
Mollohon cotton mills of the departure foi
the big league Of Joe Jackson of the Cleye
lands. Before the boy got to playing bal
for money they say he never wore shoe:
except in bitter cold weather.
Shoes were an abomination to him II
the olden days" an admirer OF the Cleve
land rightfielder said the other day. II
South Carolina everybody is watching tn,
career of Joe Jackson and every base bal
fan in the state is watching with pride thu
career of the brilliant young player. Ever!
cotton mill in South Carolina has a bal
team and in the Piedmont country there 4
still lot of good league material. hu
whether any OF 1t is as good as jackson
only time can tell. But the big leaRu
scouts are looking out for promisin
youngsters all the time. II might be adde
; that Tyrus Cobb. the great Detroit fielder
came from the Augusta, Ca, country
which is only a short Journey from tn
D scenes of Joe Jacksons boyhood.