Literary birthday greetings: Wee Willie and Monte

March 3, 2011

Celebrating a couple of 19th-century Hall of Famers today.

Wee Willie Keeler was born this date in 1872. He was a prominent member of John McGraw’s first group of rowdies as described by Burt Solomon in Where They Ain’t: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball.

Also marking the date, John Montgomery Ward, one of the early proponents of a union to protect ballplayers’ rights.

  • A Clever Base-Ballist: The Life and Times of John Montgomery Ward, by Di Salvatore
  • Baseball’s Radical for All Seasons: A Biography of John Montgomery Ward, by Stevens
  • Base-Ball: How to Become a Player, With the Origin, History and Explanation of the Game, by Ward, originally published in 1890.
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    Tagged as: John Montgomery Ward, Wee Willie Keeler, Willie Keeler

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