Ex-Ball Players as Family

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Posted By: Mark

I know of Brad (L. Grove); any others?

Mark

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Posted By: Brian

My great-grandfather, Frank Miller, played for San Francisco (PCL), Chicago (AL), Pittsburgh (NL), and Boston (NL).

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Posted By: warshawlaw

My cousin was the #1 ranked lightweight contender in 1929

http://imageevent.com/exhibitman/interestingexhibitcards;jsessionid=3tuv446az3.zebr a_s?p=45&n=1&m=-1&c=3&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=2

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Posted By: bill

there's a aray illermay card on that famous internet
auction site a 1951 topps ringside if it's the same one
say's referee

bill

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Posted By: Jim Clarke

My 1st cousin is Vern Rhule. Pitched on the Tigers for awhile and he has been a pitching coach for a number of major league teams over the last decade or so... He is the most famous person to come out of Coleman, Michigan.. JC

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Posted By: Mike

My brother, Jim Schwantz, played for the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers in the 1990's.

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Posted By: Dylan

I was told that Tom Seaver was somehow related when i was young, but i was a kid so i could be mistaken.

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Posted By: whitehse

Jim Schwantz???

As a Bears fan I remember him.......he will always be remembered for being a teammate of Ryan Wetnight. Schwantz and Wetnight was always a stupid joke even for us 28 year olds at the time. we were idiots what can we say.

He was a good ballplayer. Never understood why the Bears didnt keep him.

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Posted By: Jim Clarke

When I lived in Philadelphia back in the mid 70's, I told everyone in school that Bobby Clarke was my Dad. But I guess this does not count.. Right?

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Posted By: ErlandStevens

He's not a major leaguer, but my wife's grandfather (now deceased) was Paul Amen. He was on one of the exhibition Olympic teams that played in Berlin in 1936. He also played for Dallas in the Texas League for at least one season. Great fielder, but his hitting kept him from making the majors.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

No blood relation to me, but my brother-in-law's godfather was Mark Clark, WWII
General and commander of UN forces during the Korean War.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

My Great uncle is Vernon Presley -Not Elvis's dad, but his cousin.

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Posted By: Andy Baran

Sid Gordon was my cousin, though he passed away in 1975 before I had a chance to meet him. He was a pretty decent ball player in the 40's & 50's.

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Posted By: Max Weder

My spouse Jennifer's father played senior baseball in Nova Scotia in the 1940's and 50s. And-- before you ask-- that is not a marijuana leaf on his jersey.

Max

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Posted By: Jason L

Gene (left) and Lee Handley, pictured here at Pirates Spring training...

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one more: here's a wire photo, cropped for use in a newspaper of my cousin Lee Handley, with his double play partner, HOFer Arky Vaughan, at Wrigley Field in 1938:
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Posted By: howard

...check out that awesome unibrow!

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Posted By: anthony

no relationship to me but my uncle was married to tony demarco's sister (now deceased)...in 1955 he knocked out johnny saxton in the 14th round to become world welterweight champion.

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Posted By: Fred Y

My cousin Moritz "Mort" Flohr was a pitcher for Duke University who was signed right off campus in 1934 by Connie Mack and appeared in 14 games for the 1934 Philadelphia A's.

I visited him in the late '80s--saw a scrapbook his mother has kept from his college days & when he appeared w/ the A's. Anything else he may have had from career days was lost in a flood--glove, some bats, pictures--just about everything except a picture of him in his A's wool jacket on the mantle and his mother's scrapbook.

He signed a couple of index cards for me and I dare say not many have an auto of this short-time major Leaguer!

He went back for Spring Training in 1935, but in the meantime he had hurt/blown his arm out, got a bit too much into alcohol and never made the 1935 team.

He died in 1994 in a nursing home in WNY State.

To my knowledge he never appeared on any kind of BB card--not in Conlan Collection nor in Larry Fritch's One Year Wonders.

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Posted By: Tom Hufford

Fred,

Back in the 1960's, Hall of Fame historian Lee Allen wrote a column "Cooperstown Corner" for The Sporting News. Lee loved to travel the country hunting down "what ever happened to" old ballplayers, and he often used these findings as subjects for his columns.

I remember that he once included an item about Mort Flohr and his major league debut in one of his columns. It seems like the first batter he faced in the majors was Babe Ruth, and he plucked The Babe with his first big-league pitch. If I remember correctly, Flohr operated a restaurant after his baseball career, and Lee Allen couldn't understand why Mort didn't call the restaurant "The First Pitch."

SABR republished most of these columns in a book titled (appropriately) "Cooperstown Corner" about 15 years ago, and I think it is still available - and a terrific read!

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Posted By: Tom Hufford

If most of us would trace our families back far enough and then find out who the descendants of those ancestors are (besides ourselves), its not unusual to find some famous (or surprising) kin.

My mother is from central West Virginia - where everyone is kin! - so on her side of the family I've found (so far) that I'm related to the following:

Dale Dodrill, Pittsburgh Steelers 1950s - 3rd cousins (we have the same great-great-grandparents)

Bert Hamric, 1955 Dodgers and 1958 Orioles - 4th cousins

Wayland Ogden Dean, Giants-Phillies-Cubs 1924-1927 - 5th cousins

Edward B. "The Pitching Poet" Kenna, 1902 A's - 5th cousins

On my father's side, the wife of Gene Garber (1969-88) is my 6th cousin, and the wife of Charlie Bowles (1943 A's) was my 5th cousin.

My wife's distant cousins include Hal and Charlie "King Kong" Keller, Skip Lockwood, and Milo Lockwood (1884 Washington UA).

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Posted By: Ken McMillan

My great Great uncle was Elmer Miller who played center field for the Yankees in 1914 to 1922 as a center fielder. He was the lead off batter for the yankees in the 1921 World series. He was literally the first Yankee to get a hit and scored the first run in the 1921 world series. I have newsprint and baseball cards to show this.

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Posted By: David Kern

My father was a minor league pitcher until he blew out his arm. His neighbor and teammate growing up did better - Mel Ott.

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Posted By: Joann

For JC on Vern Rhule:

Most people know that Al Downing threw the pitch that Hank Aaron hit to break the home run record. But I'm pretty sure Vern threw the pitch that Hank hit to break the RBI record. Is that right? Anyone confirm?

Also, this doesn't count as a relative but here goes:

My last name is Kline. When I was a kid I used to tell the other kids that Al Kaline was my uncle. Of course, in Michigan in the late 60's, Al Kaline was pretty much a deity. I said they spelled the name wrong on his jersey and he told them to just keep it that way. heehee. Kids. I still crack up to this day thinking about that. Even had a few believers for awhile there.

Joann

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Posted By: Fred Y

Boy!!--What a memory you have!!

I'm amazed to get a reply about Mort, thinking nobody would have ever heard of him!! Then again--NOTHING surprises me when it comes the the scope of people who frequent this Board!!

The Babe Ruth story is TRUE--I saw pictures & newspaper article about that EXACT incident in the scrapbook I mentioned above!!

One picture was taken of the Babe at homeplate just after Mort hit him w/ the pitch--he was holding his wrist/arm in obvious pain. Babe went to 1st base, but was then removed from the game for a pinch runner. The next batter was Lou Gehrig--and you guessed it---He took it outta' the park for a 2-run HR!!

I think Mort faced one more batter--gave up a double and was removed from the game!

Mort's father (my Grandpa's brother) owned a tavern for many years in Canisteo NY and Mort also worked there and became owner when his father died--I was in it many times as a kid!!

We (my family) lived in Wellsville NY (smallest town in the US to support Professional BB)-- in the old Class D PONY League--which was only 20 or so miles from the tavern!

Would LOVE to get ahold of that book!!

Thanks alot for your post, Tom!!

PS---If I recall correctly the tavern was simply called "Flohr's Bar" or "Flohr's"!

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Andy, there is a mention of Sid Gordon in today's NY Times in an article about Tilden HS.

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Posted By: Andy Baran

I'll check it out, if it's online. I found Sid Gordon's senior year Tilden HS yearbook on ebay a few years ago.

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Posted By: howard

My older brother once swore to me that if he was 6' 3" instead of 5' 6" he would have played in either MLB or the NHL. In reality the highest level he reached was as a ringer for a high school hockey team when he was in the Coast Guard.

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Posted By: Tom Hines

Through sheer dumb luck and odd timing I found Paul Hines to be my Great-Great Grand Uncle. Paul played pro for almost 20 years. I love the fact that he is credited as the 1st Triple Crown Winner (albeit only years later after some new numbers crunching) and having a "single handed" triple play.

Tom Hines

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Posted By: S. Gross

My father once umpired a Trenton Industrial League game in the '60's with Al Downing pitching.


(((... and, Jim C, go back to Philly today, and say Bobby Clarke's your dad, and see what happens ..... ))))