Whirty: John Bissant, a muddy, shambled reminder of the past and present

From SABR member Ryan Whirty at Home Plate Don’t Move on August 19, 2016:

Walking through Carrollton Cemetery in New Orleans in 92-degree heat at 1 p.m. in August is rough enough. But doing it after several days worth of rain in the cemetery’s potter’s field — where little grass and no paved walkways exist and your feet slip and slide in the mud — is even more of a challenge.

So why would I do that this past Monday? Because somewhere in that section of one of NOLA’s many historic burial grounds is the grave of John Bissant, one of the Big Easy’s best baseball products, Bissant played for the Chicago American Giants and Birmingham Black Barons, among other teams, in the 1930s and ’40s before retiring from professional ball by the end of that decade..

In 1942, for example, the New Orleans kid joined with Jimmie Crutchfield and Hall of Famer Cool Papa Bell in the American Giants’ outer garden to form what wire columnist R. S. Simmons deemed “one of the greatest combinations of fly ball chasers in the league.”

Read the full article here: https://homeplatedontmove.wordpress.com/2016/08/19/john-bissant-a-muddy-shambled-reminder-of-the-past-and-the-present/



Originally published: August 19, 2016. Last Updated: August 19, 2016.