Friday, August 12, 2011

Historians' goal: headstones for all Negro League players


From The Pittsburgh Tribune Review-

For decades, the "Black Babe Ruth" lay in an unmarked hillside grave at Allegheny Cemetery.

Josh Gibson's friend and former Negro League teammate Theodore Roosevelt "Ted" Page made it his mission to install the red granite headstone that reads "Josh Gibson, 1911-1947, Legendary Baseball Player." Yet, when Page died in 1984, no one made sure he was buried in a marked grave in the Lawrenceville cemetery.

A group of historians wants to change that. The Negro League Baseball Grave Marker Project would memorialize all Negro League players, including Page and others with the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays.

"I know we will take care of Ted Page's grave here in the next year," said project founder Jeremy Krock, 53, an anesthesiologist from Peoria, Ill. He needs to raise $1,500 to cover the expense of moving Page's cremated remains from a community vault to a grave with a headstone.

Krock will visit Pittsburgh on Saturday for the Josh Gibson Centennial Negro League Celebration to receive the 2011 G.I.B.S.O.N. Award for community service.

"I think what he is doing is phenomenal," said Sean Gibson, 41, the baseball legend's great-grandson who heads the Josh Gibson Foundation in the Hill District.



Read more:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_751210.html#ixzz1UoxZkoZT


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