As some of you may know, my husband is a little obessed with baseball, and for good reason. Trevan's Great-Grandfather's Spencer Adams was a professional baseball player in the 1920's. He played on 5 different teams and one of them was the New York Yankee's. In 1925 the Yankee's team had some very famous players on it including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. For Father's Day I found a bunch of these pictures and enlarged them and put them in frames. Trevan really loved it and I thought it would be cool to post some of these pictures. I mean who do you know that was a Pro-Baseball Player in the 1920's and had the oppurtunity to play wiht the original "greats". Pretty rare....
Spencer Adams and Babe Ruth
The 1925 New York Yankees
Grandpa Spener Adams showing Young Roger and Matt the basics of Baseball.
1 comment:
Hi Cousins!
My name is Dan Candland. I live in Seattle, WA. I am a huge baseball fan, ever since I got my first pack of baseball cards when I was 7 in 1977 when the Seattle Mariners became a MLB team.
I had hoped for years to find someone with my same last name in MLB, but I never could. I collected cards with my older brother and other boys from church, the Harmons and the Cheneys. The Harmons and the Cheneys each had players with their last names in MLB and they had cards of those players.
I eventually had to settle for players with my mom's maiden name of Cox.
I became the best player on my Little League teams in Seattle, as a Leadoff Hitter, and Leading not just the team, but the League in Hits, Walks, Batting Average, Fewest Strikeouts, etc.
I went on to play in High School and after my Mission in Wisconsin, I went on to play at Ricks College (shortly before they did away with the sports programs and became BYU-Idaho).
Just after my mission, when I was home in Seattle, the church Bookstore came out with a book, "Mormons in the Major Leagues" and I knew that my best chance of being related to anyone in MLB, would be if it was from someone who was a member of the church.
In this book, it does list "Spencer Adams" but it didn't have much to say about him and only list 1 Baseball Card for him. I thought that he might be the one that I would most likely be related to, as my Mother and Grandma Cox would talk about being related to the 2nd President of the USA, John Adams.
As I looked at our lineage, I could see that Abigail Adams' Father, Grandfather and Great-Grandfather all had the name "Peter Brittan Adams" through the years of John Adams (2nd Pres) and John Quincy Adams (5th Pres). So they were 1st Cousins, as my Grandma would say things like he his your 7th Cousin, once removed. That's like, 7 up and 1 over on a family tree/pedigree chart.
I recently thought about doing some research (now that there's the internet) and it took a lot of searching before I found a website about MLB Grave-sites, before I found out about Spencer "Sparky" D. Adams' lineage.
It doesn't mention John Adams either, but if I remember correctly, it's Henry Adams that came from England and had 2 sons, John and Joseph. Joseph named one of his sons after his brother (to make things confusing for us, haha) and the son of Joseph Adams became the 2nd President. I think that the oldest of the 3 Peter Brittan Adams was also the son of Joseph Adams, because I couldn't find any John Adams in my lineage.
This MLB Grave-site webpage didn't mention a John Adams in his lineage either, so it appears that our common ancestor is Joseph Adams, the father of U.S. President, John Adams. Which sounds like it makes us 7th or 8th Cousins or something like that.
This MLB Grave-Site website was super-informative, as I was really surprised to hear that Spencer "Sparky" D. Adams was roommates with Lou Gehrig as they would travel throughout the 1926 season!
I have also shocked and well-pleased to hear that Spencer Adams also played for the Seattle Indians Minor League Baseball Team (in the Pacific Coast League) in 1922. He even has a Zeenut Baseball Card that you have pictured on your blog, when he was with the Seattle Indians.
I loved the photos you posted and I would LOVE to see any more photos that you might have of your Grandpa Spencer Adams!
Your Cousin,
Dan Candland
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