LIFESTYLE
Charles Flint “Shad” Rhem For many of us, as the weather warms, our thoughts turn to baseball. Since 1876, there have been 19,576 players who have appeared in a major league baseball game. 198 of those were born in the state of South Carolina. (I am not including those players who only appeared in the Negro leagues, many who would also make for a good story). Two Hall of Famers were from South Carolina, Jim Rice and Larry Doby. Shoeless Joe Jackson will probably never make the Hall of Fame although he was one of the all-time greats on the field. Other colorful players include Mookie Wilson, Hurricane Hazle, and the pitcher Van Lingle Mungo. Closer to home, BoBo Newsom from Hartsville had a long career from 1929 to 1953. Sumter’s Bobby Richardson was an 8-time All-Star and 3-time World Series champion with the New York Yankees from the mid-fifties to the midsixties.
Perhaps the most colorful of all the South Carolina players was a pitcher, Charles Flint “Shad” Rhem. Anyone driving to Georgetown from Florence will recognize the Rhems name, it is an unincorporated area around the intersection of South Carolina 51 and the Brown’s Ferry Road. Rhems’ most famous landmark is 30
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April 2021
the Mingo Esso. The Rhem family has been in the area since 1846. Flint Rhem was born on January 24, 1901. His father worked for F. Rhem & Sons selling cotton, timber products, real estate, and operating the Black River and Mingo Steamboat Company. Rhem’s father did not approve of baseball and forbade his son from playing. Flint attended Clemson University from 1920 until 1924; however, it appears he did not play on the baseball team until after his father died in 1922. He quickly drew the attention of the baseball world as he averaged 15 strikeouts per game. In an effort to promote himself, he sent a letter to Ty Cobb who was then the playermanager for the Detroit Tigers. Cobb later described the letter, “His spelling didn’t indicate that he was about to graduate magna cum-laude, but young Flint cited a flock of one- and two -hitters he’d pitched and asked for a tryout in Detroit.” Flint Rhem (second from left) pitched for Clemson from 1922-24
