Abstract:
In the 1940s and 1950s hundreds of baseball players played three days a week in textile leagues around the Piedmont section. Players held jobs in the factories and the mills provided uniforms and equipment and paid time off to play. The games provided residents entertainment and gave them a sense of pride in where they lived. Quality of play varied from community to community, but some of the players were good enough to play professionally with the Washington Senators, Chicago Cubs, and New York Yankees. In the late 1950s as the mills disbanded the villages and television grew in popularity, the teams and leagues folded.