____________ THE ------------ National G Pastime A REVIEW OF BASEBALL H y George Davis: Forgotten Great William R Lamb 3 Alston Takes A Seat Steve Daly 9 Lou Gehrig on the Air Steve Smart 13 The Curse of Mickey Haefner Phil Bergen 17 Forgotten Champions Greg Beston 22 Negro League Diary G. Edward White 25 Lifting the Iron Curtain on Cuban Baseball Peter C. Bjarkman 30 A Monument for Harry Wright ]erroldCasway 35 The Rochester Hop Bitters Tim Wolter 38 The Baseball World of Frank O'Rourke Darryl Brock 41 The Haddie Gill Story Dick Thompson 46 Nick Whips Blackwell Eddie Gold 48 Rochester, 1928 Brian A. Bennett 50 Uncle Albert Alan Schwarz 54 Nineteenth Century Franchise Moves Ray Miller 57 Schoolboy Rowe and the 1934 Tigers Herbert S. Hofmann 62 William Clarence Matthews Karl Lindholm 67 The Dauvray Cup Larry Bowman 73 The Harlem Globetrotters Baseball Team .. Lyle K. Wilson 77 The 1956 Los Angeles Angels ]ay Berman 81 ~ The Bernice Gera Story o ••••••• Bob Fulton 85 An Appreciation of Uncle Robbie ]ack Kavanagh 88 Wild Jim McElroy A.D. Suehsdorf 91 Herb Washington Scott Pitoniak 95 Tim Hurst, Umpire ]oe Dittmar 98 The Earliest-known Baseball Photo Tom Shieber 101 Ron Shelton Rob Edelma·n 105 Fritz Maisel for Joe Jackson? Lyle Spatz 108 Home Run Derby David Gough 111 A Tragic Link ]. Kent'Steele ~ 117 The '37 All-Star Game Oscar Eddleton 119 Eddie "Smoke" Stack Ray Schmidt 121 Hitting Bob Feller Larry Mansch 125 Harold Seymour (1910-1992) George Grella 128 Baseball's Megaphone Man Robert Hardy 131 Apocrypha in Pittsburgh David Marasco 134 The Supreme Compliment Ev Parker 138 The Signal Tipping Scam of 1909 Kevin P. Kerr ~ 140 We're Now a Baseball Town Charles P. Tre/t 142 THE NATIONAL PASTIME (ISSN 0734-6905, ISBN 0-910137-68-4), Number Editor 17. Published by The Society for American Baseball Research, Inc., P.O. Box 93183, Cleveland, OH 44101. Postage paid at Birmingham, AL. Copyright Mark Alvarez 1997, The Society for American Baseball Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Copy Editor Designated Reader Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Printed by EBSCO Media, Birmingham, AL. A.D. Suehsdorf Dick Thompson SABR Publications Order Form Baseball Research Journal The National Pastime SABR/5 Books on the Minors The BaseballResearchJOllrnalis the annual publication ofthe society The National Pastime features articles by members n10re Minor League Baseball Stars feahuing some ofthe best research done by members. 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To join SABR., send check, tl10ney order., Visa., 1\/1aster or Discover Card in US funds or equivalent (dues are TOTAL $35 US., $45 Canada, J.\1exico; $50 Overseas) to SABR., PO Box 93183, Cleveland ()H 44101. Discover, Master Card & Visa Accepted Name: Card # Address: -'--- _ City, State, ZIP: _ Exp Date TNP17 A look back at a forgotten star George Davis William F. Lamb Late in the morning of October 17, 1940, a failing the Hudson River. It also lay within the Albany-Troy­ 70-year-old mental patient was found dead in his bed at Schenectady triangle, then a hotbed of the newly a Philadelphia asylum. The old man's passing went un­ popular sport of baseball. noticed by the public and in little more than Apart from the fact that George Davis was raised and twenty-four hours his widow had him buried in an un­ presumably schooled in Cohoes, little is known of his marked grave at a nearby suburban cemetery. For a early life. Although there is no hard evidence, it seems quarter century thereafter, he would lie there in total safe to assume that a future baseball star like the anonymity. young Davis would have followed the fortunes of Things, however, had not always been like this for Troy's National League entry of 1879-82. While not a the deceased. In his heyday at the turn of the century, pennant contender, the Trojan squad featured such the man had been perllaps the best all-around baseball destined Hall of Famers as Roger Connor, Tim Keefe, player in America. A potent switch hitter at the plate, a Mickey Welch, and Buck Ewing. Buck, considered by superb shortstop in the field and twice player-manager some the greatest player of the nineteenth century, of the renowned NewYorl{ Giants to boot, the old-timer would figure prominently in several inlportant events had compiled the kind of record that turns today's ma­ in the later career of George Davis. jor league players into first-ballot Hall of Famers. In In the early 1880s, however, Ewing, Connor, Keefe 1903 his obdurate refusal to comply with directives and Welch were just starting their playing days. The assigning his services to the Chicago White Sox had dominant force on the Trojan team was veteran player­ almost wrecked the fragile peace agreement that had manager Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson, been reached between the established National League himself a significant figure in the early years of profes­ and its fledgling rival, the American.