Zack Wheat Memorial

Today while driving to a client in a town called Polo Missouri I got to enjoy the scenery and beauty of the country side. Upon arriving about a mile from the city limits I was greated by a sign that made me turn around to get a picture of. It said "Zack Wheat Memorial Highway"

I thought it was a bit peculiar that there was a ball player named Zach Wheat and wondered if there was a connection.

As soon as I hit the city limits there it was "The Zack Wheat Memorial" in Polo Missouri, and to top it all of for a bonus was located on the Polo Grounds, which includes a lake, playgrounds, rodeo arena, and the schools ballfields. I was excited to say the least that I was standing in the town this famed played grew up in.

I guess they misspelled his name wrong, or did the ATC, and the books.

Anyways I thought I would share this event of the day for me and show some pics I got of it.

Go ahead and post some pics if you got'em

[SethY]

Very cool to experience! I picked up a T206 PSA 4 of him today! I am just starting to collect him and that is a very neat experience you had!

[teetwoohsix]

Thanks for the photo's Andrew-what a great surprise that must've been!!!

Made me very happy. I was actually not going to stop for pics but I remembered it would be neat for the board and the Newbie collecting the Wheat cards. I like to travel with you guys on your trips to the National, Cooperstown, and so on through pics. So I figured why not bring another trip to the board. Not the biggest town at about 460 population but he is larger than life there.

Here is my only Wheat

[SethY]

Thanks for calling me the newbie! Haha

[Kawika]

Thanks for the photos, Andrew. You learn something new every day and I am probably the last guy to know that Zack had a brother, Mack Wheat, who played parts of seven seasons in the Bigs. Mack was born in Polo, older brother Zack was born a dozen miles up the road in Hamilton. Mack's sole appearance on a baseball card, if I am not mistaken (and I have been known to be mistaken) would be on a 1922 Zeenut when he was on the PCL Los Angeles roster. (Am I right on this one, Zeenutters??) Anybody got one to post?

[rhettyeakley]

David, here ya go (it's a fairly tough one to find)...



-Rhett

Edited to add: I also thought it was interesting that also included in the '22 Zeenuts was George Kelly's brother Ren Kelly (also a fairly tough Zee)

[Kawika]

Thanks, Rhett. What took you so long? You da Man!
Nice write-up on the Yeakley boys in the new OC.

[rhettyeakley]

Am I wrong or was Zack Wheat's first name actually Zachary and not Zachariah as they have on the memorial you pictured?

I could swear I always thought his name was Zachary and that his parents had a Presidential theme going through their sons names Zachary (Zachary Taylor) and McKinley (William McKinley).

-Rhett

Edited to add: After the OC write up maybe people will actually realize that we are not the same person (it happens all the time). Also Rhys is the older one by a year and 3 mo. (so we aren't twins or anything like that)

[Kawika]

Scabbed jpeg off eBay.

[rhettyeakley]

On Baseball-Reference and in my MacMillan Encyclopedia it lists his first name as I had rememebered it (Zachary Wheat)

However Baseball Almanac, Wikipedia (as if that means much), and the BBHOF all have his name as Zachariah Wheat.

I guess I'm wondering which one is really correct
-Rhett

[Zach Wheat]

Zachariah was actually his dad's name who then named him Zachariah as well. Family tradition says that he was named "Zach" although he signed documents and went by both Zach and Zack as well. He seems to have preferred Zach. Zachariah is actually the correct name for "Zach" Wheat although the MO legislature made a minor boo boo when naming MO Highway 13 the "Zack" Wheat Memorial Highway.

The stretch of Highway that was named for him ran from his farm in Polo, MO where his wife (who was his second cousin) would make him hold out for higher pay during his most prductive years and Hamilton, MO where he was born. Coincidentally, Zach is buried in the same cemetery (Forest Hill in Kansas City, MO) as the great Satchel Paige.

[drdduet]

Nice T205 Andrew, I always thought the Wheat was one of the best looking T205's, along with the Marquard.

[T206Collector]

...to sign a bunch of pre-war cards in his lifetime. This is one of my all-time favorites. And he pretty clearly signed a "k" at the end of his first name.

From Autographed T201

And he twice signed this T206 card (I have his signature on a cleaner T206, but the signature is hard to read faded green ink):

From Autographed T206

And this one is no longer mine--As per my collecting rule, I had to trade it for a signed T206 I didn't already have:

From Autographed T202

[uffda51]

[RichardSimon]

A check signed by Wheat.

[wonkaticket]

Neat story...great player.

[JasonL]

did anyone else notice Wheat's freakishly small proportioned feet depicted on the memorial? I wonder if perhaps this was true-to-life? Was he also a Carnie? kind of unsettling.


Otherwise, very interesting. Thanks for taking the trouble to stop, shoot pics and share.

[Jerry G]

Twenty or so years ago, I worked with a close relative of Zack Wheat. He knew I was interested in this sort of thing so, he offered to sell me one of four autographed baseballs that belonged to Zack. I tried not to shake too much and contain myself as I inspected the baseballs. All were combination of Dodger old timers and current players from the 1950's. It was a very tough decision, but I went with the whitest ball. Other balls had more signatures as this one only had nine. It included autographs of Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella. Additionally, there are Dazzy Vance, Cookie Lavagetto, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese. Dixie Walker signed immediately below Robinson.

A ball like this would never have appeared on my wantlist, but it is one of my very favorite pieces.

[T206Collector]

That's an awesome ball! Funny that he'd keep a ball that he signed himself, but I guess with all the other great signatures together it makes a lot of sense.

How far off was the familial relation? Always wondered what happened to Zack Wheat, Jr., who'd probably be 90+ years old today.

[bcornell]