The List: Class of 1879, 2/2: James Whyte Davis

James Whyte Davis (1826-1899), Builder
Eligible: 1876
Contributions: Played with the Knickerbocker Club from 1850-1880, most of that infamous club's history. Synonymous with the club and the sport at the time.

In an excellent article on the matter, John Thorn tells the tale of 'Too Late' James Whyte Davis, a man who was so tied to the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club that he has the unique distinction of being buried in the club's original 1855 flag. While he was not an original member of the club, Davis was one of the most respected men in baseball for almost three decades.

Born in 1826, in New York to a shipmaster and liquor seller, Davis found gainful employment as a broker of produce and merchandise, ending up in stock brokerage. Like so many young professionals, Davis grew up on bat-and-ball games and drew an invitation to join the Knickerbockers through his fire house connections (Oceana No. 36) in September 1850. In one of his early games, he was a few minutes late to the match and was not allowed to play. He argued viciously, but repeatedly told, 'too late.' The name stuck.

Woodcut of Davis

'Too Late' was a well-regarded as a player and played center field for the New York 'All-Star' team against the Brooklyn clubs in the 1858 Fashion Course games. He had a penchant for landing on the wrong side of history: at an 1856 meeting of the Knickerbocker rules committee, he stuck by Duncan Curry when Curry's 'old-fogies' won a motion to bar non-Knicks from joining games and keep the minimum players and innings both at seven. The following year, 1857, fellow Knick Louis Wadsworth led a contingent of New York baseball men (under the guise of founding a city-wide rules commission) to overthrow Curry and set the number of players and innings at nine. Ten years later, Davis was one of three delegates at the 1867 NABBP convention who rejected the Philadelphia Pythians, a black club, membership into the Association. There is no evidence of his own racism, and Davis's intention seems to have been keeping politics out of baseball and avoid dividing the Association, but in doing so, Davis drew baseball's first color line.

In 1875 the Knickerbockers held an exhibition match celebrating 25 years of play from Davis featuring players from all of Knicks history, including founding member Duncan F Curry. He quit the club in 1880, and the club folded following the 1882 season, long passed over for the professional game. Davis's wife died in the late 1880s and he died, penniless, in 1899. He was buried in his Knickerbocker uniform and wrapped in the tattered old flag of the Knicks, which had flown at the Elysian Fields from 1855-1875 and had hung over Davis's desk until his death.

Davis was the subject of recent controversy, as the 2005 Thorn article pointed out that he was thrown in an unmarked grave and erroneously recorded as James 'White' Davis. Despite an 1893 letter requesting money from old ballplayers, not a dime was ever raised, and his grave went unmarked. In 2016, as part of their ongoing campaign to mark and maintain old baseball gravesites with the help of donors and a grant from MLB, SABR placed a new headstone on the grave, giving 'Too Late' the memorial he always asked for.