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19th century baseball pioneer's contracts hit auction block (The Associated Press)

BOSTON (AP) -- One of the nation's first professional baseball players lies largely forgotten by history in an unmarked grave in Boston.

Now, nearly 150 years after Andrew Jackson Leonard began his professional career, his grandson hopes to raise enough money for a marker to honor his relative and his contributions to the game by auctioning his grandfather's contracts, which are among the oldest known in existence.

''He was one of the original boys of summer and we need to do what we can to promote his legacy,'' said Leonard's grandson, 82-year-old Charles McCarty, a Boston native who is now retired in Folly Beach, South Carolina.