Genealogue Challenge #67

John mentioned Cardinal infielder Solly Hemus in a post today.

What was Solly's father's middle name, and why (probably) was it chosen?

Extra credit: On about what date did his father's first wife settle in Solly's city of birth?

Bill Henry Still in the Bullpen

Bill Henry claimed to have been a major league pitcher right up until his death last week in Florida.

Naturally, his obituary made headlines nationwide. After all, Bill Henry had been in the majors for 16 years, even pitched in two games of the 1961 World Series while playing for the Cincinnati Reds.

His obituary (now retracted) caught the attention of the real Bill Henry, who is very much alive, and of genealogist and SABR member David Lambert. It was Lambert who noticed that the deceased Henry's vital stats didn't add up: the ball-playing Henry was born 1927 in Texas, not 1924 in Missouri.

Henry left behind a handful of honest-to-goodness Bill Henry baseball cards, one of which is autographed, although no one's sure if it's authentic.

His widow and third wife, Elizabeth, said her husband was fond of showing the cards to friends, even though the biographical information on the back of the cards didn't match his own.

She said he just told everyone that the printing company made a mistake on the cards by saying that he was born in Texas in 1927. [Link]

Genealogue Challenge #4

This one is trickier than it appears:

Under what name is Casey Stengel's father listed in the 1880 census?

A Major League Puzzle

Luis Castro had a brief stint with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1902, and has been recognized as the first player from Latin America to play big-league baseball in the modern era. Problem is, he might have been born in the United States.

According to e-mails exchanged between the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., and a member of the SABR biographical committee in 2001, these were the facts uncovered for a baseball player named Louis Castro during that period: He was born on Nov. 25, 1876 in the United States, he worked in a saloon, married a woman named Margaret and lived in Flushing for most of his life. His father, Nestor Castro, and mother, Agnes Wasquees, were both born in South America and he died at the age of 64 on Sept. 24, 1941 at Manhattan State Hospital on Wards Island.

So that's it. Castro's not only American, he's a New Yorker, right? Maybe.

Castro's death record says he was born in the United States, but the 1910 Georgia Census gives his birthplace as Medellin, Colombia. [Link]

The reputed 1910 census entry for Castro is found on page 132A of roll 192 (Atlanta, Ward 6). His occupation appears to be "undertaker," which must have conflicted with the "long minor-league career after 1902" attributed to him on this forum.

Castro played ball at Manhattan College in the late 1890s. Was he the Louis Castro, born Aug. 1877 in New York, boarding at 2329 8th Avenue in 1900, not far from where the campus was then located? His parents were natives of Australia, which Wikipedia tells me is not the same place as South America.

Anyone with an Ancestry.com subscription and time to kill want to look for Luis/Louis in their indexes?

Vowel Movement

New York Mets pitcher John Maine's grandfather must never have visited my home state—a place noticeably lacking "pizzazz."

Maine [...] said his father's family surname used to be Main, but that his grandfather added the "E" for pizzazz and mystique. Tom Glavine, part Irish, said some members of his family have dropped "E" for reasons of proper pronunciation. "Actually," Glavine said, "I think my family gave the 'E' to the Maines." [Link]

Genes Mean He Leans to the Left

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Vladimir Guerrero has an inherited condition that makes him run in circles counterclockwise. Fortunately, he found a job that pays him for doing this.

"I have a family history where there is one leg proven that is longer than the other," Guerrero said, adding that it's the right one in his case. "So when I hobble, it's not my knee. My mom's side of the family, we have a leg longer than the other. So it looks like I'm hobbling, but I'm not. But my knee is fine." [Link]

Reversing Murphy's Curse

If your surname is Cohan, Chance, Steinfeldt, Tinker, Howard, Sheckard, Evers, Moran, Williams or Murphy, you can help the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. It all started in 1908, just after the Cubs won their last Series.

The night after the big win, Broadway legend George Cohan hosted a celebratory dinner at Rector's Restaurant for the victorious players. Conspicuously absent from the guest list was Cubs President Charles W. Murphy. Murphy was met with considerable criticism for his handling of World Series tickets and poor seat availability for the fans and subsequently was not invited to the dinner.

Harry Caray's Restaurant wants to go back in time and "reverse the curse" by recreating the guest list—and including a Murphy.

The restaurant believes it's time to forgive Mr. Murphy and invite him back to the table. On the night of the 9th Annual Worldwide Toast to Harry Caray, his namesake restaurant will hold a reenactment of the 1908 dinner, only this time Murphy will be there. [Link]

Forgotten Angels in the Outfield

In South Daytona, Florida, the local baseball field was built on top of Pine Ridge Cemetery, burial place of the town's black settlers. And, yes, they built it Poltergeist-style: remove the stones, but leave the bodies.

Putting a monument at James Street Park would be a nice gesture, baseball Coach [P.J.] Warner said, but it could upset some parents and kids.

It didn't sit well with Waves player Kyle Marsh, 10.

"We're playing on dead people?" he asked with a crossed brow.

But Warner doesn't believe the fields are haunted. Over the years, his league has had nothing but luck, winning many major tournaments and even state championships.

"Maybe they're looking over us," Warner said. [Link]

In an Old Timers League of His Own

Genealogist David Lambert gets the credit for finding Silas Simmons—a player from the golden age of Negro League baseball who turns 111 next month.

That Simmons is still living was unknown to baseball researchers until this summer, when a genealogist near the nursing home where he lives in St. Petersburg alerted a Negro leagues expert.

A member of the Center for Negro League Baseball Research confirmed a baseball historian’s dream: that Simmons was indeed a man who had pitched and played the outfield in the equivalent of the black major leagues on and off from about 1912 through at least 1929, and that he had played against such stars as Pop Lloyd, Judy Johnson and Biz Mackey.

Wayne Stivers, who spearheaded the fact-finding committee that led to 17 people associated with the Negro leagues being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this summer, said: “We were aware there was a Si Simmons and that he played. But we didn’t know he was still alive. We figured, 110, no — this man is not alive. My reaction was, ‘We need to talk with him immediately.’” [Link]

Even Better Than Arquimedez Pozo

Sequoyah Stonecipher is destined to have the coolest name in the history of Major League Baseball. Right now, he's an All-American high-school player in San Diego.

His full name is Sequoyah Trueblood Stonecipher. He was named for his great grandfather on his mother’s side -- Sequoyah Evonne Trueblood, a Choctaw and Chickashee Indian from Oklahoma.

“Everyday people ask me about my name,” said Stonecipher, whose father’s German surname coincidentally has an Indian ring to it. “I think it’s a cool name.” [Link]

Sequoyah is bound to win The Arquimedez Pozo Award—named for a utility infielder whose only claim to fame was his unique moniker.

America's Two Favorite Pastimes

Members of The Society for American Baseball Research get free access to HeritageQuestOnline and the ProQuest Historical Newspaper Database. Ancestry.com members, on the other hand, have access to Professional Baseball Players, 1876-2004:

This database is an index to over 15,000 professional baseball players who played between 1876 (the year the National League was founded) and 2004. Information listed in the index for each individual includes their first and last names, birth first and last names, nickname, birth date, birthplace, death date, death place, college attended, height, weight, date of first game, date of final game, how bats, how throws, and date and round drafted. Additionally, many of the individuals who played between 1887 and 1938 have images associated with them, showing either a photograph or baseball card.

Unfortunately, the only baseball player mentioned in the database description is a man children in New England are born to despise.

Players are listed in the browse table by their popular names, not their birth names. For example, Bucky Dent is listed as "Bucky Dent", not as his given name "Russell Earl O'Dey." To browse the images first select a first letter of a last name in which you would like to search, followed by the last name, and finally the full name of the individual.

Leave Your Balls At Home

Two documents important to the history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, turned up in 2004—only one of which will cause descendants of Abner Doubleday to choke on their Cracker Jack.

One was a muster roll of 18 men who marched on the Lexington alarm of April 19, 1775, now on display at the Berkshire Historical Society. It's the sort of thing that would only interest those creeps you see lurking around the genealogy stacks at the library.

The other was a town bylaw from 1791 containing the earliest known reference to "baseball" in North America:

For the Preservation of the Windows in the New Meeting House . . . no Person or Inhabitant of said town, shall be permitted to play at any game called Wicket, Cricket, Baseball, Football, Cat, Fives, or any other game or games with balls, within the Distance of Eighty Yards from said Meeting House. [Link]

As eighty yards wouldn't even reach to the warning track in Fenway Park, this bylaw must have been passed during the dead-ball era. Speaking of which, visit The Dead Ball Era for info on ballplayers tagged out for the last time.

How Genealogy Saved Baseball

The World Baseball Classic looked good on paper: Have a tournament of national teams with Major League Baseball players filling out the rosters. Easily done for the U.S., Japan, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic, all of which have deep baseball roots.

But four teams do not a tournament make. To make enough competitive teams, MLB allowed players to join teams from the home countries of their ancestors, so long as they could "theoretically meet the citizenship requirements." As a consequence, poorly represented countries scrambled all winter to establish the ethnic origins of big-league players.

Some players were forced to rummage through old boxes of family records and photos to document the exact birthplace of a grandfather.

Manager Matt Galante used a foolproof method to gather Italians for his team: he looked through team rosters for names ending in a "telltale vowel."

When Oakland A's pitcher Dan Haren ended up on the Dutch roster, he called his parents to find out why. They didn't know either: his father is Irish and his mother Mexican. The Dutch also lost Seattle's Joe Woerman, who turned out to be German.

Credit is due Riccardo Schiroli of the Italian Baseball & Softball Federation, who was down in the trenches where the real genealogy is done.

Working from Italy, he scoured census records, called consulates and persuaded clerks in small towns to spend hours thumbing through handwritten register books. He coaxed documents out of ballplayers and spent hours rooting around on Ancestry.com. "Thank goodness for the Internet," he says. [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Author is a Great-Great Liar

From the Bangor (Me.) Daily News:

Record may prove man's status in baseball history

Thursday, January 26, 2006 - Bangor Daily News

[snip]

Although [Ed] Rice wrote "Baseball's First Indian-Louis Sockalexis: Penobscot Legend, Cleveland Indian" to make a case for Sockalexis [as the first American Indian to play major league baseball], he did not have solid proof that the Penobscot Indian was the first. He believes he has that now in the form of the 1919 death certificate of James Madison Toy, who is currently recognized as the first American Indian to play professionally.

[snip]

Rice found he could get a copy of Toy's death certificate, but only if he was related to Toy. He marked on the form that he was kin and submitted it electronically to the records department. When an official called a few hours later to find out how he was related to Toy, Rice lied and said he was a great-great cousin in Maine.

"I just took a deep breath and thought, if there's a record, God, why aren't I entitled to get it out there into the public domain?" Rice said. "I don't see that I'm doing harm other than I'm trying to get my hands on a record once and for all."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

[tagged: genealogy]

Ballplayer Honors Two Nations, Plays For Neither

From MLB.com, posted Dec. 16, 2005:

Report: A-Rod won't play in WBC

By Mark Feinsand / MLB.com

Despite saying earlier in the week that he was leaning toward playing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic, Alex Rodriguez has decided not to participate in the event at all.

A-Rod, who was born in the United States, is eligible to play for the Dominican [team] because his parents were born there. But he told the New York Post in Friday's edition that he will not play for either country, as he doesn't want to dishonor either one.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

tags: genealogy, family history, family tree

Ballplayers' Roots are Showing

From The Arizona Republic:

Major names aim for Classic

Joseph A. Reaves
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 6, 2005 12:00 AM

[snip]

[Roger] Clemens was one of 177 players from all 30 major league clubs who formally announced Monday they wanted to represent their countries in the biggest, most-prestigious international baseball tournament ever staged.

[snip]

Some key major leaguers had tough decisions to make because tournament rules allow players to compete for any country that would grant them a passport.

Craig Biggio, John Smoltz and Mike Piazza, for example, all have enough Italian ancestry to qualify for Italian passports. Biggio and Smoltz asked to play for the United States. Piazza opted for Italy.

Gene Orza, chief operating officer of the players union, said Piazza came to him and wanted to know what would be best for international baseball - if he played for Italy or the United States?

Orza, who is of Italian descent himself, said when he suggested that Piazza's presence might help make the Italian team more competitive, the Pennsylvania-born catcher told him: "All right, I'm signing up for Italy."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Ted Williams, La Astilla Espléndida

From The Boston (Mass.) Globe:

WORLD SERIES NOTEBOOK

By Gordon Edes, Globe Staff | October 27, 2005

[snip]

Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez, and Juan Marichal were the players with Red Sox ties selected to the Latino Legends team announced yesterday.

[snip]

New England baseball historian Bill Nowlin, among others, raised questions why Ted Williams, who was of Mexican ancestry on his mother's side, was not included on the ballot. Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson was another critic, citing his Mexican ancestry and wondering why he wasn't on the ballot, either.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Revered Ancestor Commemorated

From The Lowell (Mass.) Sun of Aug. 13, 2005:

The Bobbles are coming! The Bobbles are coming!

The Lowell Sun

LOWELL -- The Lowell Spinners have received national attention for their Bobble Head promotions, and next up to the plate is Paul Revere. The first 1,500 fans through the gate today will receive a Paul Revere Bobble Head sponsored by Sal's Pizza and Trinity EMS. Gates open at 3:30 p.m.

As part of the festivities for the night, the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-generation descendants of Paul Revere will be on hand to throw out the first pitch.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

That sound you hear is Paul Revere spinning in his grave.

Hall of Famer Descended from Man Who Didn't Invent Baseball

From The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune:

Wade Shares This Moment With Many

JOE HENDERSON
Published: Aug 1, 2005

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - Some came out of friendship, while others had a sense of duty. They had promised, as much to themselves as to Wade Boggs, that they would be there if this day ever came -- his day to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

That day was Sunday.

[snip]

"Wade is a direct descendent of Abner Doubleday," [his sister Ann Ashton] said. "My grandmother's niece did the research on the family genealogy, and when Miss Hattie -- our mother's mother -- found out that Wade is a direct descendent of Abner Doubleday, she told everybody in Tampa, Fla., that she knew why Wade was able to play baseball."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

For details of how Abner Doubleday did not invent the game of baseball, see HistoryBuff.com. BTW, Wade, I'll never forgive you for signing with the Yankees.