COLUMN: 'Shoeless Joe's' Iredell legacy

In this column two week ago I briefly recounted the story of legendary baseball player Joseph Jefferson "Shoeless Joe" Jackson (1887-1951), a native of Greenville, S.C., and his career as a player in America's national pastime. I mentioned that because of his supposed involvement in fixing the 1919 World Series, he and seven fellow Chicago White Sox — renamed the "Black Sox" by the press — were banned from professional baseball for life. Joe's nickname, incidentally, came from a single game that he played in his socks because the new cleats on his shoes were causing blisters. The name stuck.

Joe Jackson, as I stated in the column, returned home to Greenville, was involved in several businesses and though banned from the big leagues, continued to play baseball on some of the local cotton mill teams and also did some coaching of teams and individual young men in the area.

Larry Ellenburg, who recently retired from the Iredell-Statesville Schools Maintenance Department and who lives just off of the Wilkesboro Highway, called me about my article, informing me that he was one of the lucky kids to whom Joe taught the fundamentals.

Larry was born in Greenville, S.C., in 1939 and grew up in a house on 4th Street in what he called the Judson Mill Village, just a short bicycle ride from the Judson Mill baseball park.

Larry's father, Joe Earl Ellenburg, born in 1915, also was a ball player, and in his early years played some baseball against an aging Shoeless Joe in some of the cotton mill ball games. Larry said that there were about 150 cotton mills in and around Greenville and said that his father, who was a weaver by trade, usually had an easier job in the mill during baseball season so he could play center field on the mill team. He said his dad held, at one time another, every job there was in the weave room, including supervisor.

Joe Ellenburg was playing baseball before Larry was born in 1939 and continued to play up to the time the family moved to Statesville. His dad played for the Greenville Spinners and for Judson Mill, Dunean Mill, Poe Mill, Mills Mill and others. His longest affiliation with a team, Larry said, was with the Slater Mill team in Travelers Rest, S.C.

Larry remembers his father saying that when Joe hit a line drive, they were called "blue darters," and that Joe's favorite bat was named "Black Betsy." His father told Larry that Shoeless Joe very seldom struck out, that he was a "natural-born hitter."

"By the time I was 5 years old I was dragging around a bat and thowing a ball," said Larry. "My dad used to take my brother and me to every game he could and they let us sit with the team in the bullpen. When Dad was batting or on base, the other players kept an eye on us. I grew up surrounded by baseball. Just about every mill had an 'A' and a 'B' team for the men and a Little League and a Pony League for the little boys. The Judson Mill ball field was just behind our home. Some really good players got their start or played for some of the mill teams. For instance, Baseball Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda pitched for the Greenville Spinners in 1949 and married a Greenville girl."

As a boy Larry was privileged to receive instruction from the legendary Shoeless Joe himself. Larry mostly remembers Shoeless Joe's advice regarding hitting: "Mr. Jackson told us to hit the ball between the top and the middle so as to get a grounder. If you hit the ball between the middle and the bottom, see, it would pop up and more likely be caught.

"He taught us the correct way to hit, to catch, to slide and to field, but he also taught us sportsmanship. He said to give the game all you've got, listen to your coach, hustle and keep your eye on the ball. Pretty good advice, I'd say."

Larry's family moved from Greenville to Statesville in 1950. Besides working in local cotton mills, Larry's father had a farm on Midway Road. Larry and his brother attended Scotts High School and Larry played on the baseball and football teams in the ninth, 10^th, 11th and 12th grades, first under Richard Feimster and then under Carson Woods. The understanding between Larry's father and the school coaches was that the boys could play on the school's teams as long as they kept up with their farm chores.

"I don't mean to brag, but when I started playing baseball at Scotts, I was head and shoulders above most of the team because I had been coached in the fundamentals by one of baseball's greats. I was a starter for all four years at Scotts High School."

After graduation from Scotts High in 1958, Larry played ball and worked for Waverly Mills in Laurinburg, N.C., in the Tri-County League pitching against teams from Lumberton, Fairmont, Red Springs, Gibson, Oxendine and Hoke County.

In 1960 at age 21 he signed with the Shelby (N.C.) Colonels in a Class-D semi-professional Western Carolina League for $150 a month, which was not enough to live on. "I only played for the home games," he said, "as I still worked in the Shelby Cotton Mill on third shift to make ends meet. Sometimes I was late for my shift which started at 11 p.m., but that was OK with the management, as they knew I was on the town ball team."

"If it hadn't been for Joe Jackson I couldn't have accomplished what I did in baseball. I was a lucky kid. I just happened to be one of the fortunate kids that Joe Jackson worked with. If he was teaching you, you listened. He wouldn't stand for any nonsense. You listened to what he said and then down the road he'd come out and see you play in a game and see if his coaching paid off.

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Baseball has continued to be a strong influence in the Ellenburg family. Both of Larry and wife Barbara's sons, Tim and Delton ("Del"), played Little League baseball and Larry coached Little League from the early to the mid-1960s, sharing lessons he had learned from his father and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Both sons also played high school ball; Tim played for West Iredell High and Delton played for Southview Christian School. Tim's daughter, Erin, played softball for Statesville High School.

Although Shoeless Joe Jackson, died in 1951 and had no children of his own, his legacy lives on, having influenced four generations of the Ellenburg family and goodness knows how many other young men. Attitudes, values and spirit have a life all their own.