Year Inducted – 2002

After youth baseball in Marion, Ohio, he started his pro career as a shortstop with Dallas Texas in 1907 and became manager as well in ’09. Then came stops at East Liverpool (Ohio Penn), Columbus (Amer. Assoc. second base), Akron (Central League), Cleveland (Federal League with Cy Young), Nashville, Newport, KY, Grand Rapids, Topeka (Western League hitting .289, .248, .300). Back in Akron in 1916 he bacame a well-known player, organizer and promoter of amateur and semi-pro baseball. He put together a team called Akron Numatics that was later called Akron Gaylords to keep semi-pro action alive in Akron after Judge Mountain Keneshaw ruled that Akron’s International League Team would be awarded to Newark, N.J. Because of his baseball ventures, the field now known as Summit Lake was named Lattimore Field before becoming Orphans Field. With the exception of Akron’s Greates Hall of Famer, George Sisler, Ralph was the best known and most popular of Akron-area players in the first quarter of the 20th century. He passed away at the young age of 47 in 1931.