Agate Type

the death of country brown, part two

Some time back I wrote about the case of longtime outfielder and baseball comedian Elias “Country” Brown, whose real name was apparently Elias Bryant, and how he was murdered by his brother-in-law in the course of an argument on Christmas Day, 1937.  I’ve obtained his death certificate, and it confirms that Elias Bryant was the victim of a “homicidal assault” on that date; but it adds virtually no information about him otherwise, aside from a purported age of 37 at the time of death, and the fact that he had worked for the WPA for about a year.  We also learn that he was buried in the Frederick Douglass Cemetery on Staten Island.

 

john preston hill

Ron Hill told me today that the Hall of Fame is changing Pete Hill’s plaque to reflect his correct full name.  Not only that, but they will be holding a special ceremony on Pete’s birthday, October 12, to re-commemorate his election to the Hall.

(Chicago Defender, October 28, 1916)

“men like us do not need holodecks”

A conversation between Wesley Crusher and J. Henry Waugh.  You will never hear anyone say the phrase “times at bat” with such relish. (The clip should end at 4:48, but the video keeps playing for some reason.)

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But this art of reconstructing baseball games from box scores can be deadlier than it first appears.  Which might explain that confusing final chapter of The Universal Baseball Association…

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UPDATE 7/17/2010 The first clip should run from 3:06 to 4:48, the second from 7:33 to 8:22.  Turns out embedded clips don’t stop when they’re supposed to.  You can see them properly clipped here and here.  Also, Splicd doesn’t seem to work at all for iPhones and iPads.  Sorry.

ad lankford

Susan Blakley has sent in some great photos of her great uncle, the pitcher Louis Adward “Ad” Lankford.  He was born in 1882 in Canton, Missouri, and according to his family he played for the Kansas City Monarchs (probably the earlier team that flourished in the 1900s, rather than J. L. Wilkinson’s Negro National League club) before moving on, by 1910 or so, to Salt Lake City, where he played for a club called the Occidentals.  By 1914 he was with the Lincoln Stars of New York, and he seems to have remained on the east coast after that.  Most of the latter part of his baseball career was spent with the Penn Station Red Caps.  He passed away in New York in 1967.

Many thanks to Susan for the photos!

history home run

Our friends Leslie Penn and Ron Hill, great-niece and great-nephew of Pete Hill, make an appearance in this article from the Culpeper Star-Exponent about their illustrious uncle.  Also note the reference (though not by name) to the Outsider Baseball Bulletin, specifically my article about Pete Hill’s 1919 home run outburst.

And yes, I will get to Part Two of the St. Louis ballparks essay soon...