This course explores the rise of Textile League Baseball in the post-Reconstruction South, tracing the migration of New England textile mills and the growth of mill villages whose teams became sources of civic pride. It follows the remarkable journey of Joe Jackson, who at age twelve played with seasoned veterans and soon starred for the Brandon Mill team in Greenville, South Carolina. By 1908 he was the twenty-year-old standout of the Greenville Spinners and earned the legendary nickname “Shoeless Joe.” The course examines his ascent to Major League stardom, his .356 lifetime batting average, and the challenges of illiteracy that shaped his career. It concludes with the Black Sox Scandal, his banishment from baseball, and his later life mentoring youth in Greenville.

Dan Roberts has researched the history of Textile League baseball in Upstate SC and its most famous player Shoeless Joe Jackson and was instrumental in creating the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and bringing the Greenville Drive baseball team to play in the new Fluor Field stadium in Downtown Greenville.