Bill Lee presents The Baseball Necrology - Live

My wife, LaVonne, and I spent a number of years researching the information that went into The Baseball Necrology, a book that was published by McFarland and Company, Publishers, in 2004. The intent of that research was to find what baseball players, whose playing careers are relatively short, did after their baseball careers. In most cases that information can only be found in obituaries. Consequently, our research became a “death” thing and was compounded when McFarland put the word “Necrology” into the title of the book. Thus, our research became a short abstract of obituaries (necrologies) for every player who had appeared in a major league game since 1876.

Since the book was published in 2004 baseball players have continued to die. From that time until the end of 2013 I continued to maintain current player’s deaths on this website that contains all the material in the book plus player’s deaths since the book was published. This website also contains photos of gravesite memorials for more than 2,000 players. An index to those player’s records that have gravesite photos may be found at baseballundertaker.com/gravesites.html.

Sadly, the baseball necrology project came to a halt at the end of 2013 as more pressing projects, which had been put on the back burner, needed attention. So, with rare exception, short obituaries of every baseball player that ever appeared in a major league game since 1876 and had died prior to 2014 appears on this site. Just enter a player’s name, point, click and enjoy.

Bill Lee

Many years ago, as a much younger person, I followed the baseball world closely – both at the  major league level and the minor leagues in the West Coast area where I lived.  I saw players come and go, much as they do today.  The super-stars of the day stuck around for a few years – some as long as nearly 20 years, some longer, but the average baseball-life of most of the players was perhaps three or four years.  While they were on the baseball scene their every-move was documented, but after their lives as ball players was over, what happened to them?  Most of them were still in their 20s or early 30s.  When most of us were just getting a good start on our careers their careers as athletes was over and they still had most of their life ahead of them.  I often wondered what they did with the remaining years of their lives and where did they spend it.

In 1996 I undertook a project to find what these guys did with the rest of their lives after baseball.  Unfortunately, one can not find this information until it shows up somewhere as an obituary or on a Death Certificate.  Consequently the goal of finding this information turned into a catalog of dead baseball players, and the dead part has become the primary interest in the work.  Even my publisher titled the work The Baseball Necrology, which reeks of death – not with the after-baseball “lives.”

At any rate my wife, LaVonne, and I traversed the country, visiting some areas up to three times, looking for obituaries of dead major league baseball players, and sometimes viewing Death Certificates as well.  The end result was the book The Baseball Necrology,  published in 2003 by McFarland.  Since then a good number of ball players have died, and current obituaries are usually available on the internet for a limited period of time.  That being the case, I have been able to stay relatively current.  With the seemingly unlimited availability of space on the internet, I do not have the worry of the size of the “book”, so have been able to expand some of the information for those who were in the book and present more information on the current decedents.

Some of the players in this presentation have a great deal of available information, others almost none.  That is because we have been able to report only what we could find, mostly from obituaries.  An obituary on known baseball players quite often only goes into considerable detail on the decedents life as a baseball player.  That was not the purpose of the book, or the purpose of this website.  Our interests revolved around what the person did outside of baseball.  For that reason some of the sketches may be very short, and many times nonexistent.  Everyone goes to see what is reported on Babe Ruth.  Although one of the greatest players of all time and a colorful character on and off the field, he really didn’t do a great deal that was significant or reportable after he left the limelight of baseball.  Consequently, there is not a great deal reported on the Babe, or some of the other “greats” of their day.

Then there are those where obituaries are nonexistent.  In those cases only scant vitals are included.  Once in a while there will be a brief entry about something baseball-related.   Those are events I felt were of interest that are not included in the voluminous details available in the usual stats.

Although meant to be a publication of “life” after baseball, since the primary sources were from obituaries and other death notifications, death information is included as a by-product of the main intent of the project.  This includes cause of death and cemetery location whenever available.  This death information seemingly has become the main interest of the baseball-research community.  Whatever your interest, I hope you enjoy the fruits of the work of LaVonne and myself.

                                                                                                                      Bill Lee
                                                                                                                      LaFeria TX
                                                                                                                      October 2009
                                                                                                                     

Acknowledgments

A large portion of this information is included in the printed book, The Baseball Necrology, published in 2003 by McFarland & Company, Inc., of Jefferson NC (http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/).   

I would be remiss if I did not mention the help of the McFarland staff in publishing the hard copy of that early work.  Those I had direct contact with include Lisa Camp, Robert Franklin, Lois Grubb, Gary Mitchem, Karl-Heinz Roseman and Steve Wilson.   I’m sure there are others that played a role in publishing that first effort.  My apologies to anyone I may have left out, and many thanks to all of you.

Reference books used in that first book include:   

            Burek, Deborah M., ed. Cemeteries of the United States.  Detroit:  Gale Research, 1994.

Reichler, Joseph L., ed.  The Baseball Encyclopedia.  New York:  Macmillan, 1985.

Thorn, John, et al., eds.  Total Baseball.  New York:  Total Sports, Inc., 1999.

Turkin, Hy, and S. C. Thompson.  The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball, Jubilee Edition.  New York:  A. S. Barnes, 1951.

Wolff, Rick, et al., eds.  The Baseball Encyclopedia.  New York:  Macmillan, 1990.

Also involved in that first effort were thousands of miles of travel with our fifth-wheel trailer and hours of research in libraries and county courthouses.  Although we did enjoy our travels and saw parts of the country we would not have otherwise seen, there was lots of intense work as well.  During those years of research we came in contact with many people and are grateful for all their help and assistance.  They include service station personnel, R V park operators, librarians, county courthouse workers, cemetery caretakers and funeral directors.  These include literally hundreds of people doing their everyday jobs that I can’t begin to know the names of, but I thank each and every one of you.

Sources used in the printed book, other than the reference books listed above, include:

Newspapers, too numerous to mention individually, from all parts of the United States and Canada. 

Public records at county courthouses, primarily in California.

Telephone conversations with hundreds of cemetery caretakers and funeral directors from all over the country.

Additional printed reference books used in the work subsequent to the hardcopy version of The Baseball Necrology include:

Nemec, David, et al.,  The Baseball Chronicle: Year-By-Year History of Major League Baseball.  Lincolnwood IL:  Publications International, Ltd., 2003.

Palmer, Pete and Gary Gillette, eds.  The Baseball Encyclopedia.  New York:  Barnes and Noble Books, 2004.

Russo,  Frank and Gene Racz.   Bury My Heart at Cooperstown. Chicago:  Triumph Books, 2006.

A wealth of information is available today on baseball reference websites on the internet.  The following websites, each with its own emphasis, has been used in the compilation of The Baseball Necrology – Live:

Sean Forman’s Baseball-Reference  (http://www.baseball-reference.com/)

Sean Holtz’s Baseball Almanac  (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/)

Dave Smith’s Retrosheet  (http://retrosheet.org/)

A goodly portion of the World War II veteran information comes from the fine work that Gary Bedingfield  has done on that subject.  http://www.baseballinwartime.com/ is Gary’s website that deals with baseball and its contribution to the World War II effort.

Stew Thornley has traveled to virtually every known burial location of deceased baseball Hall of Famers.  Precise locations of those sites came from Stew’s website (http://stewthornley.net/halloffamegraves.html/), that also includes pictures of those sites as well.

Tim Wiles, Director of Research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Museum and Library, and his fine staff, have been quite helpful during my altogether too infrequent visits to Cooperstown.  Many thanks, Tim, to you and your staff.  By the way, Cooperstown is great place to go, and every true baseball fan should spend some time there.  Not only is the Hall of Fame well worth the trip, but a visit to Cooperstown is like taking a step back to a time we will never see again.

Another gravesite birddog extraordinaire is my friend, Dr. Fred Worth, Professor, Department of Mathematics, Henderson State University in Arkadelphia AR.  Fred seems to have a long-range goal of visiting the graves of every deceased major league player, and is well on his way to doing just that.  He furnishes me, and other researchers as well, with gravesite locations, including GPS coordinates.  Fred, I thank you, and I’m sure the others do as well.

My friend Rex Hamann is another gravesite searcher.  His interest is the minor league American Association during its heyday from 1902 to 1952 when it was one of the primary jumping off places to and from the major leagues.  Rex produces The American Association Almanac (http://theoldaa.wordpress.com/) on a quarterly basis and has been helpful in correcting places where I have been wrong and adding valuable insight to my after-baseball narratives.  Rex, I thank you. 

If anyone was chasing information on deceased major league players before me, it was my friend Frank Russo.  Whereas my website has abstracts from player obituaries, Frank’s website, http://www.thedeadballera.com/, has copies of actual obituaries and also copies of Death Certificates.  Good job, Frank, and many thanks for sharing.

Richard Malatzky and Peter Morris are two baseball researchers of extraordinary ability and stamina.  They have gone through the original printed version of The Baseball Necrology line-by-line and called many errors to my attention that have been rectified by more current research.  Richard and Peter, I thank you.

Bill Carle, Chairman of the SABR Biographical Research Committee, does an unbelievable job of keeping the large number of SABR researchers in line, and publishing a bi-monthly newsletter with updates on the latest findings.  Although Bill and I sometimes disagree on the validity of some sources, his efforts do keep the whole research effort of many individuals working together as a team.  Bill, thank you for all you do.

My good friend, Rod Nelson, Managing Editor of Emerald Guide to Baseball, is, perhaps, my greatest supporter.  Although sometimes annoying, it is due to Rod’s persistent efforts that I am still involved in this project that started over 16 years ago.  I’m not sure whether that’s good or not, but if it had not been for Rod, I would have been spending my time these last six years doing something else.  Rod, thank you for being my friend.

Finally, I thank Enrique Hernandez of Allstar Office Solutions in Harlingen and McAllen, Texas.  Enrique has been most helpful in helping me bridge the gap between second and third generation computing to whatever generation this newer thing is.  Without Enrique’s help this presentation of The Baseball Necrology – Live would not be possible. 

My apologies to any I’ve failed to mention.  Without the contribution of all those mentioned, and others I have unintentionally omitted, this work would have been impossible.
 

Dedication

Since this project began sixteen years ago, my companion and best friend for the last forty + years has been with me every step of the way.  She has spent hundreds of hours, hour after hour, searching through boring micro-film looking for some scant documentation of evidence that some little-known baseball player of yesteryear ever existed and had died.  And, worse yet, she put up with a grumpy me, always (almost) with a smile on her face.  For reasons only known to her, she has always been by my side as I have traveled my circuitous path through the last forty years.  If there is a finer example of humanity on this planet, I haven’t seen it.  For those reasons, and many uncountable other reasons, I dedicate this work to my loving wife, LaVonne.