They pioneered in sports, then were lost to time; a new project changes that
TOPEKA, Kan. — Amid headstones of chiseled and polished granite at a Topeka, Kansas, cemetery lies a new tombstone. With a baseball and the figure of a baseball catcher etched in stone, it is dedicated to “Topeka’s ‘Super Substitute’” — Carroll Ray Mothell, better known as “Dink.”
Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, African American baseball players were segregated from white players and played in the Negro Leagues.
After their baseball careers ended, many of the Negro Leagues' greatest players went on to work menial jobs and were buried in unmarked graves.
Jeremy Krock, the founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project, is trying to change that.
“They played in anonymity and I don't want to see them buried forever in anonymity,” said Krock.Eight years ago Krock, an Illinois anesthesiologist, discovered that one of his hometown heroes, John William “Jimmie” Crutchfield, was almost forgotten in death.
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2 comments:
Glad they got tombstones just hope it wasn't paid for with taxes.
I would think that current major league players, especially minority players, would have kicked in money for this kind of thing a looooonnnggg time ago.
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