As graceful as a dancing master

[Northviewcats]

Hello Everyone,

I’ve wanted for some time to look up biographical information on some less famous players from the dead ball era. Players whose cards I am collecting. I’m sure that most collectors are aware of the Society for American Baseball Research. I think it is a great resource for getting information.

I thought I start a thread where I would pick a player from my collection, scan the cards I own of the player, and add the link to the player’s biography on the SABR Website. I would like to invite the members of the board to follow the link, read the biography, and then add any information that they have on the player. It would also be cool if members could post some scans of cards that they have of the player in their collection. In this way we can show a “little love” to some of the lesser known prewar ball players and at the same time learn more about them and the cards that keep them from slipping into obscurity. I imagine that many of the newer collectors, like myself, would appreciate learning about the players and seeing all of the different cards that they could collect. It would also be cool if other members started similar threads about the players that they were interested in.

So, this thread will feature “Wid” Conroy. Until, I read his biography on SABR, by Sam Berstein, I didn’t know anything about him except he had a funny nickname, hit a lot of triples, and that he played for the Yankees when they were still called the Highlanders. I also found it interesting that he had sort of a “Magglio Ordonez haircut thing” going on, as seen in his T206 fielding card. In any case, I really enjoyed reading Berstein’s biography of him especially when he wrote that reporters claimed that Wid was “as graceful as a dancing master” around third base. I would have loved to see him play.

Here is the link to Wid's bio in SABR: http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?...=1697&pid=2771

Thanks for sharing any pictures or stories.

Best wishes,

Joe