The half-named players of the 1929 Knoxville Smokies

Baseball-Reference.com does good work. But some of their data is lacking. Not surprising when one considers the thousands of players that have suited up professionally.  I'm going try to correct some of the missing info.

Here's bbref.com's page about the 1929 Knoxville Smokies.  I've snipped a portion of the roster and will try to determine if I can find more info about these half-named players.

Players are listed with limited info, most noticeably no first name.  Digging into the newspapers reveals a bit of info about some of the players.

Brillheart (Sabr ID: 9994f9b9).  That would be Walter Brillheart.  Now we've got a first name.  And we know that he was a right-handed pitcher.

Dietrick (Sabr ID: e9e69bc3).  That would be Bill Dietrick.  Or as spelling sometimes gets mangled, Bill Deitrick.  I think that these two players need to be combined.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - April 13, 1929

Erwin (Sabr ID: 625ec687).  That would be "Babe" Erwin.  I couldn't find a real first name for him.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - June 18, 1929

Fowlkes. That would be Hi Fowlkes. 

Baseball-Reference already has a Hy Fowlkes.  Based on other newspaper accounts I would bet that these two players are one in the same.  Time for a merge.  That would be unnamed Fowlkes (Sabr ID: 8335997c) and Hy Fowlkes (Sabr ID: e43c5e32). 

Top center (2), is Hi Fowlkes.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - March 31, 1929

The Fowlkes family has a website featuring Hy Fowlkes, complete with a different photo.

Gore (Sabr ID: 36fe0a97).  That would be Joe Gore.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - April 29, 1929

Could it be that this Gore and Joe Gore (Sabr ID: 2b5a9b36) are the same player?  The scant info in the newspaper article hints towards it.  And we know that this Gore was a right-handed hitter.


Since this was a test run or exercise, I didn't fully pursue Johnston (or Smith, Stafford [Harold Stafford, probably this Harold Stafford], Tashjian [it is Bert T. Tashjian], or Turner [Glenn Turner, probably this Glenn Turner]).

There's a lot more biographical info to be researched.  Dates and places of both birth and death.  School and burial info.  But this is a start.

Newspaper images from the Papers to Pixels campaign of the Knox County Public Library.