Claiming a Famous Baseball Relative

[sbfinley]

The title of this thread reminded me of an article on genealogy I read awhile back. Essentially there is a period of time, continentally about 1,000 years, where if you trace back to any random person living at that time there is a 80% chance you are descended from that person in some manner. The basis is that with every generation your number of ancestors doubles but the number of actual ancestors remains static and eventually they reach an equilibrium. So if you are of European decent you can take any living person from roughly 1,000 years ago (Charlemagne, Eric the Red, William I, or any random person slain in the Norman conquest) and by math there is an 80% chance you can trace - should such records exist - your genealogy back to find that person in your family tree.

Should that be true it’s interesting to me that my descendants a millennium from now could read about Babe Ruth, Tom Seaver, Bryce Harper, and Hawk Tuah Girl and probably be distantly related to most of them.

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by sbfinley

The title of this thread reminded me of an article on genealogy I read awhile back. Essentially there is a period of time, continentally about 1,000 years, where if you trace back to any random person living at that time there is a 80% chance you are descended from that person in some manner. The basis is that with every generation your number of ancestors doubles but the number of actual ancestors remains static and eventually they reach an equilibrium. So if you are of European decent you can take any living person from roughly 1,000 years ago (Charlemagne, Eric the Red, William I, or any random person slain in the Norman conquest) and by math there is an 80% chance you can trace - should such records exist - your genealogy back to find that person in your family tree.

Should that be true it’s interesting to me that my descendants a millennium from now could read about Babe Ruth, Tom Seaver, Bryce Harper, and Hawk Tuah Girl and probably be distantly related to most of them.

I was able to trace many lines back to William the Conqueror, so I looked it up and it was estimated that 50% of people in England are related to him, but actually being able to trace roots that far puts you in a group much smaller. I think the number was 4%. However, if you go back 11 generations earlier, they say approximately 98% of people with European heritage would be related to Charlemange. That's based on the amount of kids he had and the small population back then.

I didn't do any of this tracing work other than finding my great-grandmother on the genealogy site. She was the only one I found of my eight great-grandparents who had anything more than three generations earlier on their tree.

What's funny is that my other great-grandparent on that side is actually a Rockefeller (cousin of the rich family, though I do have a great-uncle named John D Rockefeller), so I figured he would have a tree for sure on the site I'm using. He barely does. Then I just happened to click her side and it's huge. So I have huge lines of royalty mixing with Rockefeller blood and my grandmother (their child) married a poor first-generation US Irishman, had nine kids and lived dirt poor.

Finding numerous kings was cool, but they are all so far back. I tried to find relatives who were within the tenth great-grandparents range. All of them are cousins, not direct ancestors, but besides Grover Cleveland Alexander, I found Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Harrison (not his Presidential grandfather), Franklin Pierce, John Pemberton (Coca-Cola inventor) and James Fenimore Cooper, which came in on his grandmother's side, so I didn't get the founder of Cooperstown (he was married at the time to my relative, so maybe I can count it, even though she's never given any credit).

Those results are with me checking 500+ famous people who had family trees available, including many many baseball players. As you can see, I'm doing much better with non-baseball finds.

[akleinb611]

Former MLB pitcher Bob Tufts (Giants, Royals 1981-83) married my second cousin Suzanne. He never got a proper chance to establish himself in the bigs, and retired soon after KC traded him into the Reds minor league system. He told me some not flattering stories about manager Frank Robinson, and he adored manager Dick Howser. He was managed in the minors by Rocky Bridges, and he told me that Bridges was a sweet guy, but was seriously nuts.

Bob passed away too young a few years ago; he may have married into my family, but he was probably the nicest guy I've ever known in my family.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by akleinb611

Former MLB pitcher Bob Tufts (Giants, Royals 1981-83) married my second cousin Suzanne. He never got a proper chance to establish himself in the bigs, and retired soon after KC traded him into the Reds minor league system. He told me some not flattering stories about manager Frank Robinson, and he adored manager Dick Howser. He was managed in the minors by Rocky Bridges, and he told me that Bridges was a sweet guy, but was seriously nuts.

Bob passed away too young a few years ago; he may have married into my family, but he was probably the nicest guy I've ever known in my family.

I was a regular poster in the now-defunct Baseball Think Factory forum. Bob posted there from time to time as well. Came across as a really nice guy, and of course it was great to have the perspective of a former Major Leaguer. We were all saddened by his health struggles and untimely passing.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by sbfinley

The title of this thread reminded me of an article on genealogy I read awhile back. Essentially there is a period of time, continentally about 1,000 years, where if you trace back to any random person living at that time there is a 80% chance you are descended from that person in some manner. The basis is that with every generation your number of ancestors doubles but the number of actual ancestors remains static and eventually they reach an equilibrium. So if you are of European decent you can take any living person from roughly 1,000 years ago (Charlemagne, Eric the Red, William I, or any random person slain in the Norman conquest) and by math there is an 80% chance you can trace - should such records exist - your genealogy back to find that person in your family tree.

Should that be true it’s interesting to me that my descendants a millennium from now could read about Babe Ruth, Tom Seaver, Bryce Harper, and Hawk Tuah Girl and probably be distantly related to most of them.

I believe it was a RadioLab episode where the host stated if you go back to 700 AD, we are all related.

[Casey2296]

-
I once got into a drinking contest with Don Larsen when I was a kid.

He Won...

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

-
I once got into a drinking contest with Don Larsen when I was a kid.

He Won...

Not really a surprise, though. Even the most avid 9 year old chugging kid would have a tough time matching up against an experienced adult drinker.

[biggies]

In 1894 Grand Pop Jimmy was 2nd in the majors with 13 HRs. In 1895 he batted .347 only to be cut the next season ending a 4 year run at .320. Today he'd be getting 30mm a year and kids would be gasping at the prospect of ripping a pack open with his card inside.
Instead, only 1 card ever. I was able to buy mine a few years ago, thank you Leon. And a Whitehead & Hoag pin, WHICH I NEED if anyone has one.
By comparison, my son was drafted by the KC Chiefs in 2011, stayed with the organization for barely 2 seasons, never played a regular season down and has 154 unique cards. Crazy.

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by biggies

In 1894 Grand Pop Jimmy was 2nd in the majors with 13 HRs. In 1895 he batted .347 only to be cut the next season ending a 4 year run at .320. Today he'd be getting 30mm a year and kids would be gasping at the prospect of ripping a pack open with his card inside.
Instead, only 1 card ever. I was able to buy mine a few years ago, thank you Leon. And a Whitehead & Hoag pin, WHICH I NEED if anyone has one.
By comparison, my son was drafted by the KC Chiefs in 2011, stayed with the organization for barely 2 seasons, never played a regular season down and has 154 unique cards. Crazy.

Not only do you have a cool 19th century player, you also have a great-uncle as well in the majors. Is there anything out there for uncle Tom?

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by z28jd

Not only do you have a cool 19th century player, you also have a great-uncle as well in the majors. Is there anything out there for uncle Tom?

Uncle Jimmy, but, yes. How about an autographed 1914 College schedule?

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

-I once got into a drinking contest with Don Larsen when I was a kid. He Won...

Keating and I had dinner with Larsen in Chicago when he was an old guy, and he drank us under the table. We walked him, so to speak, back to his room afterwards, and we were bouncing off the walls. He lived to 90, bottled in bond, I guess!

[akleinb611]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Keating and I had dinner with Larsen in Chicago when he was an old guy, and he drank us under the table. We walked him, so to speak, back to his room afterwards, and we were bouncing off the walls. He lived to 90, bottled in bond, I guess!

Wasn't Larsen the Yankee who crashed his car into a light pole during spring training one year at 5 am? When reporters asked Casey Stengel to comment, he said, "Well, he was either out real late, or up real early."

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by akleinb611

Wasn't Larsen the Yankee who crashed his car into a light pole during spring training one year at 5 am? When reporters asked Casey Stengel to comment, he said, "Well, he was either out real late, or up real early."

Those Yankees were a partying bunch!

[Yoda]

One of the many drinking stories about Larsen, is that he had a terrible hangover the day he pitched the the impossible I have a '57 Topps card autographed by him with the WS particulars.