Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B
What you say certainly makes a lot of sense. We unfortunately will only be able to speculate on this as opposed to ever being able to offer the world anything concrete. There are so many Negro Leaguers for whom full basic data is missing. Common names, no middle names on file, let alone DOB/DOD...the picture will likely never be fully formed for every NL'er. Conversely, we do have a full list of MLB players from this 1920's-30's era. While there will continuously be fine tweaking of some of this data until the end of time, we generally know where and when they were all born and passed away. On top of that, over more than 30 years, I have collected post-baseball career info (their lines of work) and causes of death for almost all from this period. As noted, they were all capable of signing their names and I am certain I've seen all of their autographs in my years of doing this. I've also owned the vast majority of them at some point in time, albeit not all at once! Again, I do want to make room for the fact that a scant name or two could possibly be escaping me; like the rest of us, my memory is not as razor-sharp as it was in my youth!
|
I grew up thinking that marking one's name with an "X" was not an uncommon thing, but it seems from what you say that it was rare indeed. Instead of Joe Jackson just being the most prominent of players unable to sign or only with great difficulty, he was actually one of the very few. Thanks for the information.