The KROCK Watch

Gone but not Forgotten . . . . .

Each year we raise funds to buy headstones for unmarked graves of Negro League players.  Starting in September of 2004, led by the efforts of Jeremy Krock, a dozen headstones were installed at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL, over the next nine months.  Dr. Krock had heard, from relatives, about the great outfielder Jimmie Crutchfield from his hometown of Ardmore, Missouri. Upon visiting Crutchfield's grave in Burr Oak Cemetery, Krock discovered the gravesite was without a headstone.  At the cemetery, he also found two other Negro League greats, John Donaldson and James "Candy Jim" Taylor without proper recognition.  Today, this trio of stars have headstone thanks to Krock's efforts. 

"They played in anonymity, and now they're anonymous in death." - Dr. Jeremy Krock

Visit Krock's website for more information at:  NLB Gravemarker Project

We welcome funds for the following grave sites:

• Bruce Petway - Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, IL - 1941
• Walter Ball - Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, IL - 1946
• Billy Francis - Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, IL - 1942
• William Binga - Crystal Lake Cemetery, Minneapolis, MN - 1950
• Frank Grant - East Ridgelawn Cemetery, Clifton, NJ - 1937 [TO BE INSTALLED IN 2012]
• Pete Hill - Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Alsip, IL - 1951
• Cecil Kaiser - Southfield, MI - 2011
• Henry Bridgewater - St. Peter's Cemetery, St. Louis, MO - year of death unknown.
• Gus Brooks - Oakwood Cemetery, Adrian, MI - 1895
• John Claude "Steel Arm" Dickey - New Zion Cemetery, Etowah, TN - 1923
• Sellers McKee Hall - Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh, PA - year of death unknown
• Connie Morgan - Mount Lawn Cemetery, Sharon Hill, PA - 1996
• Olivia Taylor (Mrs. C.I. Taylor) - Crown Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN - 1935
• Solomon White - Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, Staten Island, NY - 1955 [TO BE INSTALLED IN 2012]
• Clarence "Waxey" Williams - Atlantic City Cemetery, Pleasantville, NJ - 1934

A listing of headstones installed since 2004, can be found HERE.

"You have a long time to be dead and a short time on this earth to do some good," testified catcher Stanley "Doc" Glenn.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to support this endeavor please click HERE.

Wikipedia Updates: 

Or you may mail a check or money order to SABR (Society for American Baseball Research), Attn: Jerry Malloy Negro Leagues Committee, 4455 East Camelback Road, Suite D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018, with instructions to earmark your funds to the Negro Leagues Restoration Headstone Program. Their phone number is: 800-969-7227.

"This is great -- this is one of the cooler things SABR does for the baseball community."  Patrick Lagreid

"I'm proud to be part of an organization that does this." Peter Gordon

Thanks to your contibutions, we have installed 24 headstones to date.

To read the New York Times article by Alan Schwartz celebrating the installation of Big Bill Gatewood's headstone in Columbia, Missouri, click HERE.

To read the Columbia Tribune article by Steve Walentik celebrating the installation of Bill Big Gatewood's headstone in Columbia, MO click HERE.

At the 2010 Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference it was announced that a headstone has been purchased for James "Sap" Ivory from the Birmingham Black Barons.  Read  from www.SI.com what his widow Wessie Ivory had to say about this tribute HERE.

Read Greg Garber's article about ESPN's telecast on Outside the Lines,

Read Phil Taylor's Point After article in Sports Illustrated entitled "Baseball's Ghost Hunter"

"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal." Albert Pine, English author, died 1851.