A town that is not very far from where I live is Watertown, Wisconsin which is the home of none other that Fred Merkle. Watertown does have a Fred Merkle field as well as a small monument to the towns famous son.
The inscription is as follows:
This memorial is
dedicated to the life of
FRED C. MERKLE
Born in Watertown, WI, Dec. 29, 1888. His father, Ernst Merkle, was a school teacher at Immanuel Lutheran School in Watertown at the time of Fred's birth. Fred made hismajor league debut on 9-21-1907. His outstanding talent, intelligence, and dedication to the game of baseball spanned 2 decades, having been a member of 6 World Series teams: 1911, 1912, 1913, 1916, 1918 and 1926. He was a potent line-drive hitter, agile first baseman and a speedster on the basepaths. He played for the New York Giants, Brooklym Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees.
Donated in 2005 by
The Merkle Family, David J. Stalker & Archie Monuments
I thought the placement of the monument could have been better
Now to be fair, the monument is on the grounds of the "Octagon House" in Watertown that does get a decent amount of traffic...but still.
I know GraceCollector has some photos of my in-laws hometown, Marengo, Illinois where Carl Lundgren, who played for the Cubs and is featured on a t206 card (among others) grew up and is buried. He has a field named after him there and interestingly enought, that same field is one that Cap Anson played an exibtion game on as well. There is a historic marker at the field for Lundgren and is GraceCollector doesnt post his photo I will be heading to Marengo next weekend and can take one if needed.