Big Ed

My dad took my sister and I out for a casual dinner tonight. He got to talking about family history. We've got some great family history. My grandfather's father and his sister walked across NY state after disembarking from a transatlantic journey. My grandmother's father served 9 years and 14 days in the service b/c he had 14 days to make up for the "hiatus" (read as AWOL) he took in Puerto Rico.

My favorite story was about Big Ed Delahanty, cousin of my grandmother. Rowdy, irish drunk with a mean streak and a vicious stick. The way dad tells it was that after being bounced from another MLB team, he was on the train home. He got terribly rough on the train, he got kicked off in Fort Erie, ON. Three days later, he was found at the bottom of Niagara Falls with a severed leg lost under the Maid of the Mist. The official report was that he was "swept over" the falls, but the family lore was that he was actually murdered.

That is the colorful part. The cool part is that he is a Baseball Hall of Famer and about 20 years ago on my family trip to Cooperstown, my dad was reduced to tears when he was faced with this.


signed,
Not a sports nut, but duly impresssed!!!!

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/Delahanty_Ed.htm