Elmer E. Bates was an early Cleveland sports writer who was an
original member of the Baseball Writers Association of
America(Cleveland-1908). He was a Cleveland correspondent for the
Sporting Life(as opposed to the Sporting News) as early as 1897. I
need his birth & death details.

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Clarification of Question by bluestreak-ga on 12 Dec 2002 20:03 PST

Dear bobbie7 & omnivorous,                                            
         Thanks to both of yours leads, I was able to find his
birthdate, May 22. He was born & died in Madison,OH. The only question
left is, who is he?  Is he the sports writer from Cleveland. The only
way to find that out is to write to the Ohio vital records($10.) and
hopefully the certificate will say sports writer in the occupation
window. I'm now going to check the latter day saints database, since
they sometimes list occupations too. Thank you both so much!  I will
keep yous guys up to date as I can find anything. bluestreak

Hi Bluestreak,

I am posting this as a comment for now as I was only able to find the
year of Elmer Bates birth and death and where he was buried. I found
out his parents names as well.

The following information seems to fit the description for Elmer E.
Bates:

Elmer E. Bates was born in 1860, died in 1930 and was buried in the
Middle Ridge Cemetery, Madison  Township, Lake County Ohio.
Father: John D. Bates (1833-1908)
Mother: Mary J. Bates (1831-1905)


Source:
Lake County Genealogical Society
Madison Township
Middle Ridge Cemetery -  Row 8 - East Section

Elmer E. Bates 
Section E
Row 8
Stone 4
Inscription:
Elmer E. Bates/ 1860-1930/ "The Little Old Man"/
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohlcgs/madison/mrid08.html

Bates, Mary J.
Bates, John D.
Section E
Row 8
Stone 3
Inscription:
Bates/ Mary J. 1831-1905/ John D. 1833-1908/
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohlcgs/madison/mrid08.html

Bates, S. Adell
Bates, Mary
Bates, Charles
Section E
Row 8
Stone 5
Bates/ S. Adell/ 1846-1932/ Baby Mary/ 1881/ Charles/ 1855-1932
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohlcgs/madison/mrid08.html

I hope this helps.

Best Regards,
Bobbie7-ga

Bluestreak –

I'm going to have to post this as a comment unless we can prove the
link between the information below and baseball.  Ironically, the
Cleveland Indians have just moved their class A team to Lake County
(the eastern suburbs of Cleveland), where it appears that Elmer E.
Bates is buried.  The disappointing aspect of this search is that
there is no obituary for him in the on-line records of the Cleveland
newspapers, where you'd expect to note his career as a baseball
scribe.

On the other hand, if you have anything that refers to Bates the
writer as "The Little Old Man," that's the inscription on his
tombstone.

Ohio is one of the states where you can find detailed on-line
information about births and deaths with a little luck.  The Ohio
Historical Society has an index to death certificates online for the
years 1908-1937:
Ohio Historical Society
Ohio Death Certificate Index
http://www.ohiohistory.org/dindex/search.cfm

BATES	ELMER	E
County Name: LAKE	Date of Death: 2/18/1930 
Volume Number: 6225	Certificate Number: 10324

There are several tombstone registration projects for Ohio, some with
excellent databases.  This one run by the Lake County Genealogical
Society is indexed for the entire county and says that he was born in
1860 and is buried in a nearly-inactive cemetery in Madison Township:
Rootsweb
Lake county Genealogical Society Cemetery Index
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohlcgs/alphaindex.html

The Cleveland Public Library has two databases of deaths taken from
obituaries in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Herald, Press and Call-Post.
 Unfortunately they don't have our man.  I've used the shortened URL
with the link for ease:
The Necrology File
http://www.cpl.org/

But the State of Ohio does permit non-relatives to order a death
certificate for $10, which would complete the documentation loop that
you're seeking:
Ohio Department of Health
"Application for Certified Copies"
http://www.odh.state.oh.us/Forms/Hea2709.pdf

I did the obligatory check of the NY Times and found nothing, even
though I knew that you'd have done that already.  There are copies of
the Painesville Telegraph, the newspaper in the county seat, available
on microfilm in local libraries:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohlake/newspaper/

Perhaps other researchers can make this link between the vital
statistics above and the baseball writer.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA