“Where In The World Is Big Chuck?”

So here we are driving on a beautiful Fall weekend in Upstate New York.  My wife and I.  Her face buried in a book and my eyes always on the lookout for "a great story."  And there it is.  In a tiny (population 1,100) little hamlet named after an American Revolutionary War admiral, I see it.  A monument on a little patch of green right alongside the highway.  I stop (my wife rolls her eyes).  And there it is...a great story!

This monument in the middle of nowhere pays tribute to one of the greatest legends of baseball.

He was born in this town.  He was one of the best players ever to play the game and one of the greatest, legendary team managers.  As a manager he still holds the National League record for wins (and this after nearly a century!).  The is why you can see a giant "NL" carved into the baseball atop the monument.

As a manager he was also "hell on the umpires" (sometimes even striking them with his fists!), he signed several controversial players (including the legendary Jim Thorpe) and was a dynamic personality who "owned the headlines of New York."

He was nicknamed "Little Napoleon" and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.

And here is his monument, overlooked and forgotten 70-miles west-northwest of Oneonta.

"Where in the world is Big Chuck?"  Good luck!