Arranging for a decent burial

With no one else stepping forward, National League president Ford Frick 75 years ago today pays $350 to cover the cost of the coffin and funeral for future Hall of Famer Hack Wilson.

The hard-drinking and destitute Wilson dies only three days earlier in a Baltimore hospital, where he is identified only as a White male.

Ford Frick

Wilson is 48 when he passes. His ex-wife is long gone at this point, and his son refuses to claim the body.

Frick’s act allows Wilson to be buried in his adopted hometown of Martinsburg, W.Va.

A memorial service there is organized by Joe McCarthy, Wilson’s manager with the Cubs from 1926-30.

A granite stone measuring 10 feet high is placed above the grave.

Wilson plays all or parts of 12 seasons in the major leagues with half of those years spent with the Chicago Cubs after three seasons in New York with the Giants.

His final three seasons are with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies.

His 191 runs batted in for the Cubs in 1930 remain a single-season, major league record.

Overall, Wilson hits .307 in 1,348 games in those 12 seasons in the majors with 244 home runs and 1,063 RBIs. He totals 100 or more RBIs in five straight seasons from 1926-30.

Wilson eventually reaches the Hall of Fame in 1979 – 31 years after his death.

“There are kids, in and out of baseball, who think because they have talent, they have the world by the tail. It isn’t so,” Wilson says in a CBS interview only days before his death in 1948.

“In life you need things like good advice and common sense. Kids, don’t be too big to take advice. Be considerate of others. That’s the only way to live.”