Baseball Fans Step Up for Negro Leaguers

(July 13) -- Many Negro League stars never had a chance to play in the majors, but that certainly doesn't mean that they weren't good enough or that they didn't make an impact in the majors.

These were the men who paved the way for Jackie Robinson and the others that followed. These were the men who, while not allowed to stay in certain hotels, eat in certain restaurants or even use certain restrooms or water fountains due to the color of their skin, still managed to thrill fans and play some of the most competitive, entertaining baseball in history.

And these are men who deserve the dignity of being laid to rest with a marker identifying them.

Dr. Jeremy Krock, a Peoria, Ill.-based St. Louis Cardinals fan, started the Negro Leagues Grave Marker Project seven years ago to ensure the league's players would at least have a well-marked place to rest.

To date, the project has provided grave markers for 19 Negro Leaguers. Members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) provide the bulk of the project's funding.

On June 29, Krock joined project members Larry Lester and Dwayne Isgrig to give William "Big Bill" Gatewood a proper headstone. The 6-foot-7-inch star pitcher, who served as a mentor to the great Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell, had rested in an unmarked Columbia, Mo., grave site since 1962.

On July 15, the project will lay a stone at the grave of Sap Ivory, a first baseman for the Birmingham Black Barons in the late '50s.

That will make about 20 grave markers that Krock has placed, and he shows no signs of slowing down. "There were more than 4,000 Negro League players we've identified," Krock told AOL News, "so we've got our work cut out for us."

Krock was first inspired to create this project after hearing about Jimmie Crutchfield, a Negro League player from the tiny mining town of Ardmore, Mo. "My grandparents came from there too, and they talked about him all the time. The town was segregated, but not the baseball team."

While researching Crutchfield's resting place, Krock discovered that the player was in an unmarked grave. After collecting enough funds to place a marker, Krock decided to really get to work. That was seven years ago.

"This is just a way of paying tribute to these men," Krock said. "It's worth the effort to honor them so other fans can pay proper respect."

SABR members provide Krock with research, and, as a whole, the organization applauds what he does.

SABR Executive Director John Zajc told AOL News, "SABR is about preserving baseball history and its importance to America and to anyone who loves baseball. Making sure those who have provided baseball with so much get appropriate recognition is a part of preserving the importance of baseball to our collective experience."

Krock represents a new kind of fan, one who doesn't just follow the history of the game but looks to honor it as well by having markers placed.

He's a lot like Mike Reischl, head of the Way Out in Left Field Society in Chicago. When he noticed that the former site of the old West Side Grounds in Chicago was not marked, he spent years raising funds and getting permission to have a marker placed at the site.

Then there's David Stalker from Wisconsin. Since 2003, he has worked tirelessly to place no less than 10 historical markers -- for players of the Deadball Era -- in and around the Wisconsin area.

He obtains the permissions, raises the money and has the markers created and then placed. Among his more recent efforts are markers for Billy Sullivan, Fred Merkle, Red Kleinow and Davy Jones.

Barbara Sheinbein is another baseball history advocate. Her focus? Ballparks.

She told AOL News, "I attended the 2004 SABR national convention and went on a tour of former ballpark sites in Cincinnati. One thing struck me about the visit. The land where these ballparks used to be located is now used for other purposes, and there was no evidence that a ballpark was ever there. I thought that was sad."

So once she got home to St. Louis, she set about having markers placed in her city where the old ballparks used to be.

Today, Robison Field, St. Louis Stars Park, Handlan's Park and Red Stocking Baseball Park all bear markers, thanks to Sheinbein and several SABR "teammates."

The newest fans to enter the baseball marker process are Southern Californians J.P. Myers, a blood courier, and Maria Sotelo, who, with her husband, owns High Desert Monuments. Together, they banded together to get a formal cemetery marker placed for Jack Norworth, who wrote the lyrics to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in 1908.

They were inspired after reading a recent AOL News story on Norworth's forgotten grave site, and on July 11 a ceremony took place to unveil the marker in Anaheim, Calif., during All Star Game festivities that were taking place nearby. (Additional contributions were made by another fan, Jamie Chisick, and KinderVision, a child safety awareness organization.)

Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers was also on hand to speak and help unveil the marker.

We're used to fans making a difference inside the ballpark. Today, however, outside the parks, some extra-passionate followers are taking things further, helping to preserve baseball history based on their simple love of the game.

(Additional reporting by Susanna Baird)