Major League Baseball

Safe at home: Baseball pioneer gets long-overdue gravestone

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:29 p.m. ET

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NEW YORK (AP) A baseball pioneer who has rested in an unmarked grave since he died in 1899 will finally get the recognition he craved when a New York City cemetery unveils his gravestone.

The monument honoring James Whyte Davis will be unveiled at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn on Saturday.

From 1858 to 1860 Davis was president of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York City, one of the earliest baseball teams.

In 1892, when he was long retired, he put out a request for every active baseball player to chip in 10 cents for his grave marker.

It never happened. But thanks to Major League Baseball and the Society for American Baseball Research, Davis is finally getting the home-plate-shaped gravestone he wanted.

The gravestone refers to Davis by his nickname, Too Late.

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