--- In thewashingtonsenators@yahoogroups.com, "Michael and Linda
Marmer" <mlmarmer@...> wrote:

The last time I tried to help someone out on this list with
something like the below, it was the guy with the grandfather who he
thought played for the Senators. I did a search on Google and found
out he is more know for killing someone in a batched robbery. The
grandfather went to jail for shooting a guard at a bank, I printed
the article that talks about the grandfather and someone sent me a
personal email, basically telling me to go to you know where, as he
did not understand, I guess, that the article had mention the guy's
grandfather, the cause they were involve with, etc. No, I did not
like the cause either, as I was just reporting back what I found
out, as we never heard again from the grandson nor did the guy who
email me, apologize for blasting me, as I explain why I sent the
article, which the moderator put on the list.

Mike Marmer

Mike,

I recall that over 30 years ago, I purchased one of the very
first editions of "The Baseball Encyclopedia". Back then, before the
evolution of this thing we call the "Internet", much research was
done using microfische, perusing old copies of newspapers, in
libraries. Additionally the old Sporting News publications
(i.e. "Who's Who in Baseball", "The Baseball Register") were much in
demand.

The editor of "The Baseball Encyclopedia" was interviewed in
Sports Illustrated, IIRC, and said that they had gained some
enemies, mainly because they had debunked so many family legends
that Uncle So and So had once played for the (insert your choice of
team here).

More recently, I became the co-moderator of the Washington
Nationals forum at a popular baseball website. At this site, there
is a section called "Teams Of Yesteryear" that includes, besides our
beloved Senators, the Boston/Milwaukee Braves, Philadelphia/Kansas
City Athletics, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants and the Seattle
Pilots. It seems that almost weekly, some poor soul comes looking
for a relative who played for one of these teams. Almost invaribly,
the individual in question NEVER appeared in a major league uniform.
I find it interesting that the teams that have been gone the longest
(Boston Braves, Browns and Senators) seem to draw most of these
inquiries.

I'll leave the conclusion up to you, but my thought is that
some of these folks who have maintained for years that they once had
a cup of coffee with a given team are now being found out due to the
abundance of information that can be found on the net-information
that was generally unavailable only 10 or 15 years ago.

That does not excuse the rude and hostile treatment that you
received-when someone asks for information and doesn't like the
answer, a polite "Thank you", before going elsewhere looking for a
better answer, would have been sufficient.

Like you, I looked up the last two requests for information on
individuals on at least three baseball websites in addition to
checking my old standby "Baseball Encyclopedia". And, like you, I
found that neither of these individuals had ever donned a major
league uniform.

Unfortunately, the thousands of minor league records have yet
to be put on a publically accessed database. (There is one you can
purchase for about $ 70.00.) I can only guess that some of these
folks who once said that they played with a major league team will
be demoting themselves to the high minors until those records become
publically available.

Kindest Regards,

Art Audley
La Plata, MD
Still a Senators fan!