It’s not often that I write about personal stories on this website, but this seemed appropriate.
As the overseer of my family tree, there are a few things that are just assumed because of family stories.
Having spent a little time climbing the branches of the tree this week, I finally found my way to Cooperstown.
I’ve often joked that I was just one letter away from making it to the big leagues … see Don Mincher … LOL.
However, a few recent discoveries have led to me to be able to link the branches of my family tree to Baseball Hall of Fame member Earle Combs.
The inspiration for my actually spending some time checking this out is my current Strat-o-Matic replay involving the 1927 New York Yankees.
It’s really different to hold a Strat-o-Matic card and actually want a player to do well with every roll of the dice because that person is a member of the family.
The Good Connection
With the fact that many people have no interest in family tree research, I won’t bore my readers with too many specific details.
Cousin Earle’s great-great grandfather and my 5G grandfather are the same person, Nicholas Combs. In a strange twist, I actually visited Earle’s grave site a few years ago. While my family was visiting some Civil War sites near Richmond, Kentucky, we found ourselves in the cemetery where Earle is buried.
For those who might not follow baseball, Earle was enshrined in Cooperstown in 1970.
Combs was the starting centerfielder and leadoff hitter for the Yankees team that won the World Series in 1927, 1928 and 1932. He also served as a coach for the Yankees and was apart of six more championships.
There’s an interesting quote on Earle’s Hall of Fame page from teammate Babe Ruth.
“Combs was more than a grand ballplayer. He was always a first-class gentleman,” Ruth said. “No one ever accused him of being out on a drinking party and you’d laugh at the words he used for cussing. Often he’d sit in his room and read the Bible, for he came from a strict mountaineer family. But Earle was all man, and a great competitor.”
See that page here.
The Bad Connection
As with all families, there are stories of bad things that happened along the way.
Finding the link to cousin Earle led to a connection to another rather famous person in the family tree.
This story isn’t baseball related, but I had known about it for quite some time. I wasn’t able to make a connection until now.
The person that links me with Earle, the previously mentioned Nicholas Combs, is also Bad Tom Smith’s 2G grandfather.
According to several articles, Bad Tom is the first and last person hanged in Breathitt County, Kentucky.
The event took place in 1895 after Bad Tom was convicted of murdering a doctor in Jackson.
Again, not to bore everyone with details, you can read this account about Bad Tom.
The best lesson from this tree climbing experience is just how fascinating family history can be when you find a famous person, but there are things you might not want to find.