It was the ultimate wish of one of baseball’s earliest pioneers — to be buried with a home plate-shaped gravestone.
James Whyte Davis made the request seven years before he died in 1899 — imploring active players to chip in 10 cents to fulfill his dream.
More than a century later, Davis’ wish was finally granted.
A monument to the former president of the Knickerbocker BaseBall Club of New York City — who was aptly nicknamed, “Too Late” — was unveiled Saturday at the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Shakespeare’s skull may be missing from tomb
“It’s important to commemorate his presence since he was such a historic figure in baseball,” said Bill Ryczek, who has written several books on the early days of professional baseball.
Danny Flinn (l.) and Jake James perform “Ball Days” at the new grave stone for James Whyte Davis in Green-Wood cemetery.
(Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News)
“Very few people are aware of what happened in baseball before 1900.”
The team — founded by Alexander Joy Cartwright, a volunteer firefighter based out of the Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 12 — organized into an official baseball club in 1845.
The Knickerbockers reportedly introduced the first baseball uniform four years later — blue wool pantaloons, a white flannel shirt, a broad-brimmed straw hat.
Davis, a former player known more for his passion than his talent, served as president of the club from 1858 to 1860. He also served as a delegate to the 1867 convention of the National Association of Amateur BaseBall Players.
James Whyte Davis, 19th century baseball pioneer, requested to be buried with a home plate-shaped gravestone.
Davis’ crowd-funding request fell on deaf ears because it came nearly 50 years after his last game as a player. By then, Davis was mostly forgotten.
The new gravestone — made possible by the Society for American Baseball Research and Major League Baseball — includes an epitaph written by Davis himself.
“He was not ‘Too late’ reaching the ‘Home Plate,’” it reads.
