Monday, April 21, 2008

A Little Spring Cleaning

I have a few notes laying around that I need to do something with and I thought I'd just throw them up on the blog, Joe Falls style:

-I got an email from Bill Burgess the other day sharing some information about David Reid and George Munson. Bill said that after ten years of searching he has finally discovered that Reid was born on May 14, 1848 in Nashville, TN. Ten years of searching-that's dedication. You have to hand it to Bill. Great work. He also discovered that Munson was born on August 15, 1858-not in 1860, as it was previously believed.

-Richard Malatzky has found the elusive death certificate for Packy Dillon. Dillon died on July 27, 1902 in Mehlville, Missouri. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis on July 29, 1902. Thanks to the fantastic work of Richard and others, we now know that Packy Dillon was Patrick Henry Dillon (b. January 2, 1853, St. Louis; d. July 27, 1902, Mehlville).

-Peter Morris sent me the following piece from the July 29, 1868 issue of the Cincinnati Daily Times:
"Base Ball has not a good foot-hold in St. Louis. There is a great spirit of hostility between the two clubs (the Empires and the Unions), and this hurts both. Neither has much chance for practice, except with each other, which they will not do...We should judge the Empires to be a club of workingmen, unable to bear much expense, and with small opportunity to bear much practice..."
This is rather interesting because it illustrates a point that I don't think I've ever made here at TGOG. St. Louis is seen as one of the country's great baseball cities and it is. But it hasn't always been. While it appears that baseball was popular in the city from the beginning, the game's popularity has waxed and waned in St. Louis over the years. The story of baseball in St. Louis is not one of constant growth from 1859 to the present. There was been set-backs and desperate moments when the very survival of the game in St. Louis was in question.

-I should also take this opportunity to thank the friends and readers of this site. I get a tremendous amount of support and encouragement from a variety of people who take time out of their busy day to help me. It's an amazing thing, I'm truly blessed, and I thank them all.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

While I don't have anything substantial to contribute - I just have to tell you I am so thankful I found a mention of this blog on Baseball Fever. I love baseball, and there is something just wonderfully nostalgic about this era - not only regarding baseball but life in general (and baseball is always a slice of life).

(In fact I take my screen persona from the slang for baseball fan - have often thought of changing it due to the negative connotations it means now.)

Jason Christopherson said...

Packy Dillon? Didn't he play for Eau Claire? :)

Jeffrey Kittel said...

just a crank-

Don't change the screen name. I knew what it meant immeadiately and I like it.

Jason-

The Dillon/Eau Claire connenction demands further research. Seriously though, it's amazing that the whole Dillon angle has now been pretty much put to bed. Thankfully, there were smarter people than me on the case.