<— AUG 05     AUG 07 —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1860 Jim McDonald
1864 Bobby Wheelock
1872 Sam Mertes
1875 John Davis (Brownie) Foreman
1881 Bayard Heston (Bud) Sharpe
1884 Sherry Magee
1884 Jake Boultes
1888 Hy Gunning
1889 Frank Edward (Buck) Thrasher
1890 Frank Barron
1890 Jack Wallace
1894 Bruce Hocker
1896 Ray Blades
1898 Earl Gurley
1903 Hal Wiltse
1903 Jim Turner
1904 Herb Cobb
1905 Ed Roetz
1906 Ed Crowley
1906 Clyde Elias (Chad) Kimsey
1907 Tom Hughes
1909 Al Veach
1912 Daniel Albert (Bud) Hafey
1914 Tommy Reis
1917 John McGillen
1918 Leon Culberson
1919 Bobby Sturgeon
1921 Warren Peace
1924 Van Fletcher
1926 Ralph Richard (Blackie) Schwamb

A convicted murderer for a killing committed just weeks after making his debut with the St. Louis Browns.

1926 Clem Labine
1928 Herb Moford
1936 Dave Gerard
1937 Cam Carreon
1937 Wayne Schurr
1937 Joe Schaffernoth
1941 Ray Culp
1943 Jim Hardin
1945 Andy Messersmith
1947 Jim Dunegan
1949 Mike Reinbach
1954 Ken Phelps
1955 Steve Nicosia
1955 Jim Pankovits
1955 Ron Davis
1957 Bob Horner
1965 John Ramos
1966 Stan Belinda
1968 Darryl Scott
1969 Keith Mitchell
1972 Duane Singleton
1974 Chris Heintz
1974 Luis Vizcaino
1975 Victor Zambrano
1976 Kris Wilson
1982 Justin Germano
1984 Osiris Matos
1986 Jake McGee
1991 Wilmer Flores
1992 John Gant
1996 Manual Rodriguez
1998 Woo-Suk Go
1999 Hunter Greene
1999 Matt McLain
1999 Beck Way
2001 Jared Jones

OBITUARIES:

1912 Dick Van Zant

“Foghorn” Dick Van Zant was born and died in Richmond, IN, dying of paralysis in the county infirmary.  He played ten games with Cleveland in 1888, but spent time playing in various minor leagues in the midwest, the Pacific coast, and with local Richmond semi-professional teams.

“‘Dick’ Van Zant Is Dead,” Richmond Item, August 7, 1912: 5.

1914 Edwin Curtis

Edwin Russell Curtis never played major league baseball – but he is listed as the manager of the Altoona franchise that lasted some 25 games in the Union Association in 1884. More likely his role was in running the day-to-day operations and not the on field action – and yet he is saddled with a 6 – 19 record. By 1879, he had hired someone to manage his estate and handle his creditors – but that could.

That said, Curtis’s life was one of mostly successes methinks. Born in Hartford on August 29, 1843 to Joseph Curtis and Celia Sater Jones, Curtis began adulthood as a schoolteacher, then got involved with the publishing world in Chicago and Cincinnati. He migrated to Pennsylvania briefly and eventually back to upstate New York where his second wife called home. At various times, he ran bookstores – which he was doing in Altoona when he got involved in baseball, and he spent a good amount of time with the Colt Manufacturing Company. When he settled in Bath, New York, he opened up an insurance business.

As for his days in Altoona, he was involved with the Interstate Base Ball Association, a minor league franchise. Then, in 1884, two things happened. First – he was selected president of the association franchise, and second – they were invited to join the Union Association because Altoona was a good baseball town and on the railways that connected eastern and western teams. This is how Curtis makes it into your baseball encyclopedias. Eventually the franchise was moved to Kansas City and Curtis changed positions within the baseball association, becoming the secretary and A. V. Dively named as president. They even named a manager for the baseball team.

He married twice and had a daughter by the first wife – the daughter’s name was Mary Vibbert but I haven’t found the name of that first wife. His second wife, Helen Bovier (sometimes Bevier), was a Daughter of the American Revolution. When he died in his home on August 6, 1914, a few weeks short of 71, he had been sick about a year and his body gave out. He was buried in a large plot in Grove Cemetery in Bath.

None of the obits I cite even mentioned his baseball days.

Sources:

1880, 1900, 1910 US Census
Elizabeth Gadsby, “Lineage Book, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution”, Volume 25, Washington DC, 1898, Page 286.

“Assignee’s Notice,” Altoona Tribune, February 27, 1879: 3.
“Interstate Base Ball,” Scranton Republican, January 3, 1884: 1.
“Base Ball Briefs,” Altoona Times, June 5, 1884: 4.
“Notice,” Altoona Times, September 22, 1884: 2.
“Edwin Russell Curtis,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 8, 1914: 4.
“Edwin R. Curtis,” Norwich Bulletin, August 10, 1914: 2.

1927 Chick Pedroes

When Charles Pedroes died in 1927, the Chicago Tribune obituary only noted his brother Philip as the next of kin and no story otherwise notes his demise. Pedroes played two hitless games with the Orphans in 1902.  The Tribune, in reporting the two games, noted that Pedroes was a local amateur getting a tryout in right field (he played with the Gunthers and Edisons that year as a centerfielder) and that his nickname was “Cinch” – not Chick.  Who was wrong here?

1929 Andy Cusick

Irish immigrant who landed in Fall River, MA and learned baseball there (it was a great baseball town in the 1870s and 1880s); became a police officer in Chicago when his playing days were over and died there at the age of 71.

1936 Charlie Girard
1937 Bruno Block

James Block died at his home in Milwaukee.  Trivia: The White Sox traded Block (along with Lena Blackburne, cash and a player to be named later), to Milwaukee for Ray Schalk.

1940 George Johnson

Negro League centerfielder and a great hitter – Johnson died in Philadelphia at 52.

1942 Gordon McNaughton

McNaughton was shot by one of the three (at least three) women he was allegedly seeing at the time…  In fact, Eleanor Williams shot McNaughton as he was getting dressed at the apartment of Dorothy Moos; Moos greeted Williams at the door in her birthday suit and initially tried to hide the gun Williams brought with her to do the deed.

Gordon McNaughton was a postal worker by day and a dice man by night; he’d meet platinum blondes and hire them to be dice girls who would work various clubs. Gordie would take a cut (and also steal these women from their husbands).  It’s a story from a bad 1940s detective drama featuring a some bad approximation of Humphrey Bogart as the detective.  If I ever write a book about ballplayers with untimely deaths (which I have threatened to do from time to time), McNaughton’s demise will be included for sure.

Jean Lightfoot, “He Wasn’t Going to Make a Bum Out of Me,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 16, 1942: 3H.

1946 Tony Lazzeri
1947 Gene Good
1953 Bill Phyle
1955 Hooks Cotter
1962 Bob Williams
1963 Frank Ray
1964 Curly Ogden
1983 Tip Tobin
1983 Jimmy Wasdell
1984 Johnnie Dawson
1993 Tex Hughson
1993 Bob Miller
1998 Jonas Gaines
1999 Allen Reed
2000 Marv Felderman
2001 Jim Mallory
2008 Karl Kuehl

Don’t remember him as a player? That’s because he was a manager for the Montreal Expos in 1976. They weren’t very good that year and he was fired with a few weeks left in the season…

That said, he was a long-time coach, beginning in the minors in 1959 (he was 21 when he managed his first team!) and he spent a number of years working under Gene Mauch in Montreal and Minnesota. Total baseball lifer.

2017 Darren Daulton

Great catcher; tough player.  We lost him to Glioblastoma, which also took Gary Carter, Johnny Oates, and Tug McGraw…  (Over time we have learned that so many players who played on the turf in Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium or Olympic Stadium in Montreal have since developed brain cancer.)

2023 Lee “Bee Bee” Richard

Spare parts infielder with the White Sox and, for a year, Cardinals – he had a little speed, not much pop, but a heavier dose of charm. His career floundered because he was error prone and his bat couldn’t cover it. (To be fair, the Sox rushed their 1970 first round draft pick and made him a starter in 1971 and he wasn’t really ready for the big time. )

That said, Richard was a great story. He went undrafted and virtually unscouted out of high school because he was tiny – about 5′ 4″ and 125 pounds. He ran away from his Texas home to try out for Southern University in Baton Rouge and made the team. Thankfully he grew while in college and hit .385 as a senior. The White Sox were enamored with Richard and got him as quickly as the draft would allow.

Richard Dozer, “Baseball Under Glass,” Chicago Tribune, March 6, 1971: Section 2, Page 2.

His obituary didn’t mention what took him to the next league, but for kids of a certain era, we remember him kindly.

2024 Billy Bean

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

1952 Satchel Paige shuts out the Tigers as the Browns win, 1 – 0. For Paige, he is the oldest pitcher to throw a complete game shutout. (As to how old, he won’t tell you.)

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1897 Boston signed New Castle’s Charlie “Piano Legs” Hickman.

1937 Brooklyn purchased Pete Coscarart from Portland of the PCL.

1967 Philadelphia signs amateur free agent hitter Andre Thornton.

1974 Kansas City signed free agent DH Orlando Cepeda.

2003 The Yankees sent Armando Benitez to Seattle for Jeff Nelson. The Yankees got Benitez from the Mets in July – but it didn’t work out.

2004 Colorado sent Larry Walker to the Cardinals for a minor leaguer and two players to be named later.

2018 Detroit sent pitcher Mike Fiers to Oakland for two minor leaguers (later).