Missing player's picture found on his tombstone

Hard to believe, but a baseball researcher found what may be the only picture of a long-ago baseball player on a tombstone.

Here's the text of an email from Bill Hickman, chairman of the Pictorial History Research Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR):

"Fred Worth has come up with a unique method for finding an image of a missing player. He took a photo of the tombstone of John E. Bass in a cemetery in Denver, Colo. It turns out that there's a pretty nice carving of Bass in a baseball uniform on his tombstone. Fred theorizes that the carver was probably working from an authentic photo of Bass. At any rate, I've accepted it as a valid image of Bass."


A picture of the image on the tombstone appears on the website of Out of the Park Baseball with the note "Thanks to SABR for tracking this one down!"

Shortstop, catcher and outfielder John Elias Bass was a major league player from 1871-1877. He played for the Cleveland Forest Citys, Brooklyn Atlantics and Hartford Dark Blues. According to one source I saw, in 1871 Bass led the National Association in triples, with 10.

He died on Sept. 24, 1888 in Denver, Colo. No other picture of him is known.

Bass is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Denver. But who would have thought there would be a picture of him on his headstone?

Fred Worth discussed his latest trip to visit ballplayers' graves at the SABR Day event this year in Arkadelphia, Ark.

The picture is a fantastic find but, as always, you can't convince everyone. My son David points out that there is no proof that the artist who carved the stone knew what Basss looked like. If he had, wouldn't he have included more facial features?

SABR say the primary focus of its Pictorial History Committee is to develop a Player Image Index. The goal of this project is to catalog at least one photo image of every man who has played in the major leagues. That means knowing where it has been published or in what collection it has been seen.

We now know were we can find John Elias Bass.

Baseball researchers turn to Facebook

The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is turning to social networking programs like Facebook and Twitter to accomplish its mission. The non-profit organization obviously doesn't want to fall behind the times, and doesn't mind having some fun along the way.

We learn on SABR's Facebook fan page that Zip Code 20008 has more SABR members than any other (14). Ironically, that Zip Code (it's in Washington, D.C.) also includes my granddaughter Anna. Anna is not a member of SABR but she may know someone who is.

Catch up on what's going on with SABR by checking out the Facebook fan page. Unfortunately, I can't just give you a link because Facebook requires that you sign in to view the page. So, hit the SABR logo here, sign in to your Facebook account, search for "SABR", scroll past all the pretty girls named Sabrina, and there you are.

Or, just take my word for it. It's there.

Researchers help Library of Congress

They're identified only as "Chicago players."

Members of the Pictorial History Committee of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) are pitching in to help the U.S. Library of Congress identify old time baseball players in its photo collection.

The Library of Congress has begun uploading photos from the early 20th Century Harris & Ewing Photo Collection to its web site. So far, it has about 3,600 photos from that collection on the web. Search on the keyword "baseball" and you will find 295 photos.

Trouble is, most of the people in the pictures are identified only as "baseball players." Putting names to faces is a huge undertaking. The Library of Congress possesses tens of thousands of photos from the Harris & Ewing Collection. It will upload additional batches of photos gradually, and hopes eventually to have the entire collection on-line.

Photographers Harris & Ewing, Inc. photographed people, events, and architecture, particularly in Washington, D.C., during the period 1905-1945. Harris & Ewing gave its collection of negatives to the Library of Congress in 1955.

SABR researchers previously worked to improve the captions of the Bain Collection of photos on the Library of Congress web site.

Was this the mascot, or the lawn mower?

What baseball researchers talk about

Reporter Peter Holehan of the Forum Publishing Group in Florida attended the Oct. 23 meeting of the Society of American Baseball Research South Florida Chapter in Tamarac, Florida. He wrote an interesting story that neatly captures the appeal of the hobby. His story appears on the South Florida Sun-Sentinel web site. Here are a few excerpts:

"Local author Paul Proia, tells the real-life experiences of Rube Waddell, the player who had a learning disability and matured only one year for every three of the average person's life.
And then Proia speaks of how Waddell rose to become one of the game's best pitchers and held the single-season and single-game strikeout records from the early 1900s until 1973 when Nolan Ryan set the bar a few pegs higher.

"Guys in the group such as Raymond Gonzalez have followed the history of baseball so closely and so precisely that record books have been re-written. In one instance, old-time Chicago Cubs slugger Hack Wilson was found to have an extra RBI that was left off the records. Instead of 190 runs batted in, it was revealed that Wilson actually had 191.

"People come in to bring baseball memorabilia such as old-dated cards, autographs and photos. People can even pick up and swing a bat that is over 80 years old. It's all a part of the meeting among a room filled with baseball aficionados. There are stories that are so rarely told and others that remain timeless.

"Founded in 1971, the Society of American Baseball Research has nearly 7,000 members worldwide. SABR representatives include anybody who loves and is interested in the history of the baseball."

Death of a baseball researcher

Who devotes their life to researching little-known facets of a game most consider just a "pastime"? An obituary on the web site of SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research, gives us a look at one such man. Here's an excerpt:

"John Pardon, one of the 16 founders of the Society for American Baseball Research, died Sunday, Oct. 19 of cancer. He was 70.

"Born in East Meadow, New York, John was a former sports writer in Ossining and Asheville, North Carolina. John loved to be punny as possible. After he had a portion of his colon removed to combat his colon cancer, he enjoyed talking about having a semi-colon.

"A life-long bachelor, John held many leadership positions in SABR, including vice-president, secretary and director. He chaired the Minor League Committee. He was named as a Bob Davids Award winner in 1998 and was a recipient of the SABR Salute in the 1997-98 SABR membership directory. He was also awarded the Casey Stengel Chapter's Meritorious Service Award in 1995.

"John was a strong proponent of SABR's archives, always insisting that SABR's historical papers be preserved. He also kept tabs on SABR's Endowment, contributing something to it on an annual basis. A member of SABR's Legacy Circle, John made provisions for SABR in his estate planning.

"He attended 32 SABR conventions.

"Minor league baseball research was John's main focus and expertise (he and Jerry Jackson put together "The Cities of Professional Baseball"), but he also was a member of a dozen other research committees.

"John will be missed."