Minor League Photo Request
 

I'm writing an article on a minor league ballplayer named Bill Niemeyer. He was killed in action in 1945 and I would like to write a story to remember him on Memorial Day. He played for a total of 7 teams and I'm coming up empty when it comes to finding and photo reference of any of the teams he played with. I want to illustrate him in the uniform of one of his old teams but so far nothing. I was wondering if anyone here might have something on one of these ball clubs:

1940 Erwin Mountaineers - Appalachian League

1941 Harrisonburg Turks - Virginia League

1941 Greeneville Burley Cubs - Appalachian League

1941 Kingsport Cherokees - Appalachian League

1941 Johnson City Cardinals - Appalachian League

1942 Greeneville Burley Cubs - Appalachian League

1944 Erwin Cubs - Appalachian League

I figure if anyone would have a team photo or something, someone on Net54 would!

Photo
 

Gary,
Not an easy task. You might try www.baseball-reference.com, type in his name (you may know all this) and then see who might have been his teammate on one of those clubs. (you can click on the team name and year to get the full roster). From there, you may have another angle at getting a photo--sometimes a prominent player is in the mix. A longshot but if you have the time and energy, there'll be a clue in there somewhere. But Memorial Day is coming up fast! Good luck

Eric,
I already went through the rosters for the teams he was on, besides Rube Walker and Billy Pearce there wasn't anyone else of note to give me a foothold in getting a picture. This is proving to be a tough one!

Hello Gary, real tough project but I hope this helps. Stumbled onto this article about 1939 Appalachian League Yearbook with photos. Doubt there would be a yearbook produced during the war but you may get lucky with 1940. Might even try to contact the individual, Brumley Greene, since you are close. Sounds like he likes to talk baseball. Good luck, Ty

http://www.greenevillesun.com/Sports...e%0D-id-266220

Ty,
That's a great lead! I'm going to try to track down a way to contact the guy in the article, thanks again, I knew Net54 would be the place to get a line on such an obscure request!

Found this article from 2006, maybe you could contact the author and see if he could put you in touch with the family

http://www.baseballinwartime.com/in_...meyer_bill.htm

Thanks to everyone who helped me try to track down a picture of one of those obscure teams. No luck, but I decided to depict Bill Niemeyer in a Chicago Cubs uniform which he never got a chance to wear.

His story, in honor of Memorial Day 2012, can be seen here:

http://infinitecardset.blogspot.com/...-day-2012.html