Great Uncle Mike

[dave]

I have a plethora of graphics, etc. of my great uncle Michael Griffin, mostly all of it unearthed by his great-great nephew Steven Griffin, my cousin's son.

Mike played for the Brooklyn team that became the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a star player, and he and his team are in the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame.

Mike's father, my great grandfather Patrick, ran a tobacco business on Bleecker Street with his brother John (my father's namesake) from sometime in the 1870's through 1900 or so. Patrick was quite well known in Utica for his business ability and was City Treasurer as well as Utica's only IRS agent for a time. (Just one was needed. Only well off people paid federal taxes at the time.)

Michael become known nationwide for his abilities in the sport of baseball, a summer endeavor before the turn of the century.

[dave]

Here's Uncle Mike playing for Baltimore in 1888. This was a publicity photo and he was well known by then.

Baseball was definitely a summer gentleman's pursuit. Mike luckily worked in his father's tobacco business on Bleecker Str. and got the summer off to play baseball, but the summer season was nowhere near as long as today.

[dave]

Here's a player's card from the late 1880's. Mike shares the card with another player. The likeness of Mike is not at all accurate. Interesting looking bats. I wonder if that's a weighted area on the end of the bat.

[dave]

Here's Uncle Mike as a young center fielder. He looks eerily very much like
my younger brother Mike (named after the ball player). I'd say this photo had to be taken quite early in Mike's career with Brooklyn, which lasted from 1890 to 1898. He left Brooklyn over a contract dispute, which I'll tell about later.






So, of course we need the following:

[bobbbiez]

Hey Dave, that's an awesome story about your great uncle and family. A man after my own heart. ;D

I couldn't get the video to play though. Would like to view it.

[dave]

Oops, sorry. That was an old link. It's no longer available, so we'll have to use the Fogarty/Springsteen version.

There's more to the story of Great Uncle Mike. I'll continue to post it. I'm on the road this week, but brought my netbook.

[dave]

Great Uncle Mike in his last year with Brooklyn, 1899. In this photo, he looks very much like my father (Mike's nephew) as a young man.

[virgilgal]

What a wonderful walk through family and sports history!

[dave]

Thanks, virgilgal.

[dave]

[dave]

I don't think Fiona will mind my reproducing her post in this thread that originally appeared in the MoreStories and Utica History forum:

"Fantastic, Dave! I have been wishing you would put this thread up for a while. What a handsome man! You may not recall, but in the beginning of OGH, when Mary B. mets Annie I tell the reader that Mary has a " dog eared baseball card in her little velvet purse of Mike Griffin, who incidentally happens lives in Utica, and whom she somedays hopes to meet and possibly marry." Very nice work. We need to celebrate the "heroes of Old Utica" the common man, as well as the Conklings, Seymours, ect. Thank you."

[dave]

www.windsweptpress.com/images/mikedodgers1.jpg

[dave]

This is readable, but barely. I'll try to find a more readable copy. It's from a few years ago when Uncle Mike was inducted into Utica's sports hall of fame. Use your browser to enlarge, if possible.

[dave]

Getting ahead of the story, Mike lived a short but successful life. I'll enlarge and sharpen his obits so you'll eventually see more on the pages of Utica's Daily Press and in Utica's Herald Dispatch. But for now ... after his contractual problems with the Brooklyn team (they reneged on a pay offer), he returned to Utica around 1899/1900 and became part owner of a brewery. Eight years later he was out with friends one evening when he felt sick and went home. He died of pneumonia within a matter of days.

www.windsweptpress.com/images/mg acclaim.jpg[/img]

[dave]

This was probably Uncle Mike's first year with Baltimore, 1888. He's in the center of the photograph with the bat, player no. 7. He was about 23 years old at the time. He sits at center, holding the bat, looking at that age more like my younger brother, Mike, than would seem possible.