Greg funding and and more important sore. Says he probably divined from my music choices today. I like a lot of other music. Fans have been lamenting the loss of rolling stones drummer. Charlie watts who died at eighty. This week i love the stones. Of course but i was also just drawn to watts for a few reasons. I think for one thing. He never got driver's license. Just like me so sort of a kindred spirit but i also think i have a soft spot for people who break the mold a bit. Don't look like all the others have never really felt like someone who belongs to things as watt said. He never filled the stereotype of the rockstar. And of course he was extremely important to the stone sound but he never led their lifestyle or really had their look although he was quite a snappy dresser and a cool cat i always enjoyed when watching the stones live either on video or a few times in person you'd see what sitting behind mick jagger who's princeton strutting around the epitome of the flamboyant frontman. Then you'd see. Charlie watts perched right behind him looking like he'd dropped in from some other much more restrained band or another profession in different social circle in seeming. Very blase about it sometimes. Maybe even making a roof face as if wondering how he got there. He was never very enthused about touring. And so i'll admire the mix. And keith's i sorta see more myself in the charlie's maybe that's why when i was a yankees fan bernie williams was my guy not really your usual jock amore. Soft spoken gentle soul and jazz guy. Just like watts was and also like watts was kind of content to be in the background pit and maybe even not to be included in that quote unquote core for even though he was just as integral to the yankees offenses watts was to the students. Rhythm section watts was always himself he led his hair go white while so. Many of the rockstars tried to maintain some of the appearance of youth. Even during the band's heyday he was sort of the eye of the rolling stones storm and everyone jokes about keith richards. Outliving everyone but i always sorta suspected it would be what even though he slightly older he had to figure. There was a lot less mileage on his odometer. So that's part of why. I was sorry to see him go. Also the stones are such an institution and during my lifetime their longevity has been such a big part of their brand that it was kind of a shock to learn that. Actually they can't keep going forever. And even the drummer of the energizer. Bunny of bands can't keep the beat indefinitely and not for the reasons that brian jones couldn't but just because of old age infirmity which comes for us all now because this is a baseball podcast. I figured i should tie this little tribute into baseball. Watts never missed a rolling stones concert after he joined the band. He was an iron man and appropriately. He was born on the day. That lou gehrig died and he died on cal. Ripken's birthday beyond that. Though i was just talking to a somewhat obscure major leaguer we just met a major leaguer john path and as i said to him there's been more of an effort lately to get to know some of the lesser known players of the negro leagues and one such player who recently received major league status from an lpn at baseball reference. Is a man named charlie watts. Charlie watts played in the negro national league from nineteen twenty four to nineteen twenty seven mostly for the saint louis stars and as it happens. Estonians are slated to play their first post watts concert in saint louis of all places. Now i hope charlie watts drummer would have appreciated. Charlie bots the baseball player because back in two thousand fifteen. The day after the stones played kansas city. Charlie watts visited the american jazz museum and the negro leagues baseball museum. Making keith did not attend now. The more recent charlie. Watts probably would not have seen anything about the older. Charlie watts on display in the museum and in fact not much is known about the baseball charlie. Watts this is one of the tragedies of the fact that the negro leagues were overlooked for so long. There's generally ample information available about any twentieth century player in the white major leagues. You can look up the sabre bio of john path. And it's thousands of words long but a player like charlie watts mostly a mystery. Of course we know the josh gibson's in the central pages but the more marginal players. I think that's where the difference in name recognition and just in general knowledge is stark. So if you go to charlie watts as baseball reference page you can see his stats. Courtesy of seam heads who is not much of a hitter six eleven oh s in the games that were recorded although he did have a fine offensive season in one thousand nine hundred and five for the stars he hit two thousand eight three eighty three or four sixty eight in fifty four games. It's known that he threw right handed. But it is not known whether he batted right or left who is an infielder. He played first second short but his birthday is not listed either. I wanted to find out a little bit more about him. And so i emailed a few negro leagues researchers and they and i scoured some archives. And it's tough to find much. Maybe if you were to dig into the microfilm in a library somewhere you could come up with more. But more cursory search at slim pickens in fact if you look on newspapers dot com. There's really nothing there. When reference we found actually uses the wrong name for charlie watson. Qasim eddie watts. There is some confusion about the name but it does note that he was fast at fielding a ground ball and had a great throwing arm. however i do have a fine photo that gary ashville sent me and a link to that on the show page. It shows charlie watts sending next to the hall of famer willie wells. He has his glove on his left. Hand and gary did some more digging. Found some records of a charlie watts. Say charles austin watts who was born in benton missouri on october eighth eight ninety seven of. There's even some disagreement about that date. We don't know for sure that. That's the same charlie watts but it would seem to match up and it was sim as five foot. Six one fifty. Which seems to match the photo of watts that we have standing next to wells who is five nine one. Seventy and some further digging revealed. That watts was a favourite or a protege of candy. Jim taylor uniquely league's player and manager. Who was the teammate. And manager of watts with the stars and then brought what's with him when he went to the cleveland elites in nineteen twenty six and beyond that the trail goes pretty cold. There's a lot less known about the baseball charlie watts. Then the drummer charlie. Watts you can find. Sporadic mentions of watson game stories. And of course he shows up in box course but based on the search. We just don't know much about who he was what he was like beyond the stats heat produced on the field..