Anyone related to a pre war player?

[Matvoo]

Just wondering if anyone on here is related to any pre war player minor leaguers, major leaguers and other leagues. And any related items that you may have stumbled accross in your life?

[Brian Van Horn]

I know Walter Reuther's son used to collect his cards and I believe was part of the board at one time.

[Matvoo]

Thats cool Brian

[MacDice]

My wife is a distant relative of former catcher, Harry Smith. I got a couple of his items but can't afford his E107 or W600.

[yanksfan09]

My friends Great (not sure how many greats) grand uncle of some sort is Cy Young.

I've spoke through email with a couple relatives of D381 Fleischmann players as well. Walter Traggesser's relative was one of them. However, unfortunately, I couldn't find that card for them, or myself for that matter...

[Matvoo]

Very cool!!!!!!

[DaveW]

Originally Posted by yanksfan09

My friends Great (not sure how many greats) grand uncle of some sort is Cy Young.

Well that beats me! But I have a good friend that is married to a girl named Leifield - great-niece of Lefty.

[drcy]

The closest I come is my great grandfather was the quarterback of the first Michigan State University football team.

This was always the family story and, it being a family story, I took the veracity with a grain of salt growing up. But as an adult I found in the library a history of MSU football book published by the univsirity and it had a photo of the team including my great grandfather. The old family story turned out to be true.

The father of my cousin-by-marriage played in the lower level minors Pre-War and the cousin has his uniforms, glove and contracts, includes a jersey with the 1939 Centennial patch. I showed him what just the patch itself has sold for at auction and he was pleased, though he has no intention of selling.

[Econteachert205]

My great great uncle was bill mellor who played one season for Baltimore in 1902. My cousin has a cabinet photo I'm trying to pry out of him.

[Bpm0014]

Cool thread topic!

[Eric72]

A friend of mine is a descendant of Pep Young. That's as close as I get to having a relative who was a Pre-War player.

Best regards,

Eric

[Mountaineer1999]

Nice thread Matthew! I have no one but it's fun to read others stories. I've looked and looked over the years for a Barnett , any Barnett. There are none that I can fine but there may be an obscure minor leaguer out there somewhere with my bloodline.

[HalChaseCollector]

I am related to Rube Waddell according to my grandfather.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DHogan]

Not pre-war. But, my wifes cousins son, has been in the minor leauge for the Blue Jays the past few years. His name is Kevin Nolan. I have a few of his cards.

[7nohitter]

Again, not Pre War but my father played (AAA) in the early 60's for the Colt .45s and Cleveland Indians...

[btcarfagno]

I have sold autographs to more family members of players who played from the 20's to the 50's than I can ever possibly count. Sold an n172 and OJ cabinet to a family member of Phenomenal Smith.

Tom C

[LKeeler]

The great Willie Keeler was a distant relative of my great grandpa. My dad tried out for the Pirates in 50s.

[ruth-gehrig]

When I first started collected T206 cards I posted a WTB ad on net54 and a board member sold me a Doc Adkins card stating that they were a distant relative of Adkins. As he didnt have a picture of the card, he sent it out for inspection prior to any exchange of money which was a first for me.

[t206hound]

Originally Posted by LKeeler

The great Willie Keeler was a distant relative of my great grandpa. My dad tried out for the Pirates in 50s.

My uncle (Pete Castiglione) played for the Pirates 1947-1953, and was traded to the Cardinals (1953-1954).

Here's a bat and a homerun ball from 1953

[h2oya311]

No this is not a joke...according to my grandmother, Bob Feller was my third cousin, twice removed.

I feel like that's akin to: "Lone Star, I am your father's, brother's, nephew's, cousin's former roommate."

[Matvoo]

Very cool stories!!!

[almostdone]

I have wanted to tell this story for a while but didn't take the chance until I saw this thread.

Back in June a couple of friends asked if I wanted to join them for a Braves game against the Phillies in Atlanta. Of course I went a had a great time just hanging out with the guys talking baseball. There were a few others there that I had seen before but hadn't been formally introduced to. As it turned out I sat next to one of these guys during the game. He was a nice young kid in his late 20's named Daniel. He is a huge fan of today's game and players while I tend to focus on the history.

The game itself was kind of boring so we just talked about baseball and our experiences. Somewhere in our conversation Daniel says he thinks he is related to some guy from "way back". He says "I think he actually pitched in a World Series too.". This, of course, peaks my interest but he couldn't recall much more. He sends a text to his mom asking the players name and how he was related.

The players name was Rube Benton and was the brother of my friend Daniels great grandfather. Benton pitched in the majors from 1910-1921. Then another small stint from 1923-1925. He did pitch in the 1917 World Series for John McGraw's NY Giants against the White Sox. Benton pitched in game 3 where he pitched a 2-0 shutout becoming the first lefty to record a shutout in World Series history. He also pitched game 6 where he received a loss even though he didn't give up any earned runs. Turned out to be the last game of the series.

Here is the kicker though. A few years later during the trial of the Black Sox scandal, Benton was called by the grand jury to testify as to having prior knowledge that a fix was on for the series. He told the grand jury that he did have knowledge the series was fixed but didn't place any bets or take advantage of this knowledge. Judge Landis ended up giving him a pardon and said he could continue in his ball career even though others like Buck Weaver were given a lifetime ban for having the same knowledge. I was shocked to find out Landis did this considering how harsh his judgement was for so many others.

Obviously I am not related to a old player but sharing this story and researching it with Daniel was pretty exciting. He had no prior knowledge of any of it.

Another quicker but further distanced story. There was a kid in a Youth Group I led at church years ago whose grandfather was Ty Cobb's personal physician late in life here in Georgia. He still has a beautiful single signed Cobb ball that has been passed down to him from his late grandfather.

Just thought someone might enjoy these stories.

Drew

[kmac32]

My great great uncle Elmer Miller played for the Yankees in 1921 and 1922. He was a team mate of Ruth's playing Center field. In 1921, he was the lead off batter for the Yankees and he got a single becoming the first Yankee to ever get a hit in a World Series, they sacrificed to get him to second and Ruth drove him in making the first ever run scored by a Yankee in a World Series.

The giants eventually won the series over the Yankees as the first subway series. In 1922, he was traded to the Red Sox in a multi player deal that eventually paved to way for todays non waiver trade rule before the end of July. He retired after 1922 and went on to manage a team in Beloit Wisconsin.

[GoldenAge50s]

My cousin, Moritz "Mort" Flohr, was a pitcher at Duke University and was signed right off the campus by Connie Mack in 1934 & went directly to the Philadelphia A's as a teammate of Jimmie Foxx.

Mort appeared in 14 games in 1934, 2 as a starter. He was a bit wild, walking 33 batters in 30.2 innings, developed some arm trouble along the way and never appeared in a ML game again after 1934.

Mort never had a baseball card, but had 2 poses on Geo Burke postcards. I have some personal index cards Mort signed for me in the mid-1980's, several of his signed PC's and an original 8 x10 Burke photo that was the basis of one of his PC's.

Any mementos from his playing days were all lost in a flood in the early 1970's is what he told me. Mort passed away in WNY State in 1994 at the age of 82.

Here are a few of the things I have:

[z28jd]

Six of my cousins are related to Dots Miller and I just sent cards of Miller to four of them, all bought on the BST here. Miller's niece married into my family and the house he lived in was just blocks from the first house I lived in. His house below, which was in my family until 2009, along with a collection of his cards

[Matvoo]

Thank you guys for sharing
Didn't expect this many people were related to players

[Tabe]

Pre-war, best I can do is a friend from my former church being related to Cap Anson.

As for relatives, I gotta go post-war - my brother-in-law reached AA with the Durham Bulls.

[leftygrove10]

Lefty Grove was my first cousin twice removed. (He was my grandmother's first cousin.)

[GehrigFan]

Not a player, but my grandfather was instrumental in building amateur baseball in South Dakota, including working with Ray Antonen (Baseball writer Mel Antonen's father) on building a baseball field and the South Dakota Baseball Hall of Fame in Lake Norden. Sounds like my relatives have always wanted a ballplayer in the family, so I'll be hoping my daughter plays little league!

[Republicaninmass]

Not a player, but a boxer. My grandfather (carrying him) and Jack Dempsey were tight!

[RTK]

Only the low minors, My great uncle by marriage played in Midwest back in the 20's. I remember him telling me the bus driver was the manager and that he had played for the Pirates at one time.

[Peter W Thomas]

Ira Thomas was my grandfather's cousin. My grandfather died in 1917, when my dad was only 6 so the only information on this came from my grandmother. who lived a long life.

[whaler]

My great-grandfather:
Frank Miller

[Andy Baran]

Sid Gordon was a cousin of mine. He started his career during WW2, served in the military for part of the war, then finished his career after the war. He had a pretty solid career:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...ordosi01.shtml

I have been able to collect almost every card ever produced of him. Just missing a few, but haven't focused on the collection in years.

Unfortunately, he passed away when I was only 4 years old, so I never had the opportunity to meet him.

[Jayworld]

My great-uncle (my paternal grandfather's youngest brother) was Rudy (Rudolph) Shelton, who pitched for Baylor University in the mid-1920s and played in the Texas League for Waco in 1928 and the West Texas League for Abilene in 1929. According to my grandfather, Rudy had a wicked curveball and a good fastball. He was a left-handed pitcher.

[pbspelly]

I've already mentioned this on the forum a few times, but Billy Sullivan Sr. was my great-grandfather, and Billy Sullivan Jr. was my grandfather. My grandfather once roomed with H20ya311's "third cousin, twice removed" (Bob Feller), and was on the Pirates with T206Hound's uncle Pete. A lot of my collection is shown here http://www.collectorfocus.com/collection/pbspelly

[Matvoo]

Nice responses loved reading all of em

[sb1]

One of the most humble members of the board is still remaining quiet.

[darwinbulldog]

Yes, where is the good doctor anyway?

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by sb1

One of the most humble members of the board is still remaining quiet.

shhhhhhhhhhh..lol

[steve B]

My wife is related to Ellis Blackstone who played for Greenville 1909-12 and Petersburg 1912-13.

We found out about his baseball when I was looking at the T209 site and came across his card. I asked her if she had any baseball playing relatives and she didn't think so. After looking up the name I showed her the picture of the card. She's done a lot of geneology, so finding out he'd played minor league ball was a surprise.

I'm still occasionally doing a bit of research on him. Not much to find so far.


There was a Joe Birmingham that played major league ball, but I don't think he's related at all.

Steve B

[DaClyde]

Lewis "King" Brockett, a pitcher for the NY Highlanders sporadically from 1907-1911 is my first cousin, thrice removed. He also played in Buffalo, Montreal and Newark, when not playing in New York. He played when teams were willing to meet his contract demands. When they weren't, apparently he could make better money by staying home and farming, which he did a couple times during his career.

Sadly, once I learned he was related, all of his cards were well out of my price range.

[obcmac]

Distantly related to Billy Southworth...now someone take pity on me and sell me a zeenut or middy bread.

Mac

[peterb69]

I think I'm related to Cuke Barrows who played breifly for the White Sox 1909-1912. I know I'm related to other Barrows from the same section of Maine he was from, so I assume he must also be related.

[darwinbulldog]

As discussed in another recent thread, Herbert Dessauer, probably of the Cotton States League's Greenwood (MS) Indians, and allegedly once offered a big league contract, was my great-grandfather.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=193046

[clydepepper]

My grandmother was Whitlow Wyatt's wife's first cousin.

[Cerberus]

.........my wife's uncle (father's brother) was George "Whitey" Kurowski, a very solid player for the Cardinals in the mid-late forties, who had particular success in the World Series ('48 Leaf SP)

[ZenPop]

My friend is related to Art Fromme My friend's aunt inquired about selling some of his memorabilia recently. If she gives me some snapshots of what that entails, I'll drop a line on the board and share.

On my side not much... except my grandmother was best friends with with the wife of George "Highpockets" Kelly of the NY Giants. I met him when I was a kid and he gave me an autographed ball and showed me the trophy room. ...so cool.

When he was inducted my grandmother went to the ceremony in Cooperstown and brought back a signed program from the festivities. Bunch of autographs on there, including Kelly, Lefty Grove... and a few others... I've got it packed away somewhere... I'll have to dig it out, scan it and post it here.

[otismalibu]

This fellow was a cousin to my grandmother.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedie_Himsl

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by sb1

One of the most humble members of the board is still remaining quiet.

I'm virtually certain that I know whom Scott is referring to. This gentleman is not the sort of person to "blow his own horn." So, I feel compelled to inform those newer Board members who may not be aware that Walter Johnson's grandson is an active member of out Board. And, this WaJo biography he wrote in 1995 is a great read.
Val