array(1) {
[0]=>
string(156) "Grave of Mark Sandman. Mark Sandman was born on September 24, 1952 and died in Giardini del Principe, Palestrina, Italy due to Heart attack on July 3, 1999."
}
array(1) {
[0]=>
string(174) "Grave of Bunk Johnson. Bunk Johnson was born on December 27, 1885 and died in 638 Franklin Street, New Iberia, Louisiana due to Lingering effects of a stroke on July 7, 1949."
}
Andy Leonard was one of the first professional baseball players of the 19th century (and firs of Irish descent), who played primarily left field. He played for a number of teams but was best known for his time with the Cincinnati Red Stockings (the first fully professional baseball team) and the Boston Red Stockings. His greatest success was with Boston where he won six championships during his seven seasons. He later worked for former teammate George Wright's sporting goods firm, Wright & Ditson, for several years before his 1903 death in Boston at age 57 of a stomach ulcer.
On Saturday September 9, 2017 The Leonard Family, Major League Baseball and The Society for American Baseball Research dedicated a monument for Andrew Leonard, one of the original ten professional baseball players at New Calvary Cemetery, 800 Harvard Street in Mattapan, Massachusetts. This is the second monument that MLB and SABR have erected in the United States.
Cemetery Information:
Final Resting Place:
New Calvary Cemetery
800 Harvard Street
Mattapan, Massachusetts, 02126
USA
North America
Map:
Map of New Calvary Cemetery in Mattapan, Massachusetts
Grave Location:
Section 3, Grave 186
Grave Location Description
As you enter the cemetery take the first right onto Holy Name Avenue just after the small office building. Drive ahead and then turn left onto Sacred Heart Avenue and park in the middle of the Section 3 on your right. The former baseballer is approximately 12 spaces from the road.
Million Dollar Boston Red Stockings Baseball Archive | Antiques Roadshow
Rare 1878 Boston Red Stockings Base Ball Club Team Cabinet Card SGC VG-EX 4
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Pancho González
popular name: Pancho González
date_of_death: July 3, 1995
age: 67
cause_of_death: Stomach cancer
claim_to_fame: Sports
best_know_for: Often called "The Greatest Tennis Player to Never Win Wimbledon", Pancho González was one of the greatest tennis player in the history of the sport. During his life time he won 111 titles including 15 major singles titles (including two U.S. National Singles Championships in 1948 and 1949) and 13 Professional Grand Slam titles. He also won three Tournament of Champions professional events in 1957, 1958, and 1959. He was ranked world amateur No. 1 in 1948 and in 1949. González was a prominent professional champion in the 1950s and 1960s, winning world professional championship tours between 1954 and 1961 and was the world #1-ranked male tennis player professional between 1952 and 1961. Sadly he died in near poverty, estranged from his family and few friends he had. Yet even today, in any discussion of the "best tennis player of all time," Gonzalez is named among a group that includes Bill Tilden, Ellsworth Vines, Rod Laver, Jack Kramer, Budge, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1968.
Hugh Duffy
popular name: Hugh Duffy
date_of_death: October 19, 1954
age: 87
cause_of_death: Heart attack
claim_to_fame: Sports
best_know_for: Hugh Duffy was an American outfielder and manager in Major League Baseball. He was a player or player-manager for the Chicago White Stockings, Chicago Pirates, Boston Reds, Boston Beaneaters, Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies between 1888 and 1906. A textile mill worker who had taken up baseball as a semipro for a weekend diversion, Hugh Duffy went on to set the MLB single-season record for batting average (.440 if you were wondering). In fact, from 1891 through 1900, Duffy knocked in 100 runs or more eight times. In 1894 Duffy had one of the greatest seasons in baseball history, leading the league with 18 home runs, with 145 RBI and a .440 batting average (see Major League Baseball Triple Crown). Duffy's .440 average is the major league single-season batting average record. At one point during the season, Duffy had a 26-game hitting streak. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. He worked for the Boston Red Sox until 1953 when that year, Nora Duffy died, bringing to a close a happy but childless 57-year marriage. Hugh, suffering from prostate cancer, succumbed to a fatal heart attack at his home in the Brighton section of Boston on October 19, 1954.
Jim Valvano
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date_of_death: April 28, 1993
age: 47
cause_of_death: Metastatic adenocarcinoma
claim_to_fame: Sports
best_know_for: Nicknamed Jimmy V, Jim Valvano was a successful college basketball player, coach, and sports broadcaster. Valvano had a successful coaching career with multiple schools, culminating at North Carolina State University. While the head coach at NC State, his team won the 1983 NCAA Division I men's basketball title against improbable odds. Valvano is remembered for his ecstatic celebration after winning the national championship game against the heavily favored Houston Cougars (featuring, among others, future legend Clyde Drexler). Valvano is also remembered for an inspirational and memorable speech delivered at the 1993 ESPY Awards while terminally ill with cancer. Valvano implored the audience to laugh, think, and cry each day and announced the formation of The V Foundation for Cancer Research whose motto would be "Don't give up. Don't ever give up". He gave the speech less than two months before his death from adenocarcinoma (an aggressive type of glandular cancer).