Posted By:
Jason LOk, an OT post because it's another one of my family-related posts (I know, collective groans), but ON-topic because it pertains to Honus Wagner...
Everyone has heard of the old "6 Degrees of Separation" -made popular by the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon game...
Well, all of you who have endured my posts over the past year can assume that you "know me" for the sake of this fun Friday night exercise.
You know me (1)
I knew my grandfather (2)
My grandfather knew my cousin Lee Handley (3)
and Lee knew Honus Wagner!
There are only 3 people between you and Honus!!!
I had surmised that Lee had some sort of relationship with Honus throughout his Pirate playing days, as Honus Wagner hung around and coached the team in various capacities for many years coincident with Lee's tenure with the team, but until this discovery this week, I had never seen any hard evidence that they knew each other and were in fact contemporaries. At least from this we now know that they travelled together on at least one occasion!
I picked this up from someone who was selling pieces from Whitey Wietelmann's estate. It is a 1978 copy of a photo that was originally taken on Feb 25, 1947. On the reverse, Whitey wrote the following description: "Second Pirate Squad, in charge of Coach 'Honus Wagner'...headed for Miami Beach Feb 25, 1947. Left to right - John 'Honus' Wagner, Frankie Gustine, Frank Kalin, Whitey Wietelmann, and Lee Handley..."
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PS - of course, this also means you are 3 degrees from Lee's other HOF teammates, including Frankie Fritsch, the Waner brothers, and Arky Vaughan!
AND - 4 degrees from everyone that Honus knew, including all the other great HOFers of the deadball era!
Hope that makes your weekend!
