Let’s Play Ball!

It’s baseball season! After more than a year of pandemic, hearing the sound of bat and ball colliding is joy to the ears of all baseball fans. Following your favorite team as life slowly moves toward “normalcy” is more exciting than ever! Whether high school, college, or professional teams, the rivalries remain and the competition grows stronger. Eatonton, GA, has had its share of excellent high school teams for generations, but there was another team we should not forget…the Imperial Mill Baseball Team!

The Imperial Mill was built in 1898, and its first owner was Dr. Benjamin Hunt. The only church in the area was named Hunt’s Chapel in his honor. In the beginning, the church also served as the school for the Imperial Mill children, but later a school was built for first through eighth grades. After the eighth grade, Imperial Mill students attended high school at the old Eatonton School, now The Plaza Arts Center.

The members of the Imperial Mill baseball team were working-class young adults; some had already experienced World War I first hand. They were paid to play ball but also to work in the mill. Since electricity was not yet available, all ball games were played in the daytime, so the players’ days often started in the mill and ended on the field!

The baseball team kept Imperial in the spotlight by winning pennants year after year. The team also produced outstanding athletes who then had children who followed in their footsteps…for instance, Tiny Hearn (Georgia Sports Hall of Fame) and his son Billy Hearn, who lettered in baseball, basketball, and football at UGA!

Here at the Old School History Museum, we especially love the stories shared by our own Lugenia Snow, who served as an OSHM docent for many years. Both she and her husband William came from families of athletes who played for Imperial Mill and Eatonton High School teams.

Lugenia’s dad, Henry Grady “Spud” Batchelor, came home to Eatonton from his tour of duty in WWI and learned that Imperial Mill was hiring baseball players. Since he could play multiple positions, he was hired immediately and stayed with the team for many years. Lugenia remembers her dad talking about the big truck Imperial Mill used to transport the players to their games with other mill teams throughout the region. The truck was designed with benches built into each side and equipped with waterproof curtains to pull down in case of rainy weather. Mr. Batchelor also spoke fondly of their revered driver, John Alford, who drove the truck and looked after the players, even when they got into fights with other teams!

Lugenia has so many wonderful memories of growing up in the Imperial Mill Village, but perhaps her life-long friend, Gary “Scooter” Melton, said it best when he wrote these words: “To the world, the village was just another place. To the village people, it was “The World!”

Without a doubt, their pennant-winning baseball team earned part of that devotion!