Anyone related to a pre war player?

[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.

[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

[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.