Whirty: The grave marking effort soldiers onward
From SABR member Ryan Whirty at Home Plate Don’t Move on April 21, 2017:
For the next couple posts I want to give an update on the status of the various efforts of the Negro League Baseball Grave Marker Project. In addition to the sterling projects recently wrapped up by the NLBGMP (some of which I’ll discuss further down), right now, according to Dr. Krock and Larry Lester, there’s only a couple currently in the pipeline.
One of those is Billy Francis, a third baseman/manager from the deadball era/early 20th century who starred for influential teams like the Philadelphia Giants, the New York Lincoln Giants, the Chicago American Giants, the Hilldale Club, the Detroit Stars and the Bacharach Giants, as well as clubs in Cuba.
Francis is buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Ill., where numerous other blackball figures are also interred, including past NLBGMP beneficiaries like Bruce Petway, Walter Ball and Ted Strong.
Read the full article here: https://homeplatedontmove.wordpress.com/2017/04/21/the-grave-marking-effort-soldiers-onward/
Originally published: April 21, 2017. Last Updated: April 21, 2017.