Topeka ? After spending 30 years buried in an unmarked grave, a headstone now marks the final resting spot of a former Negro League baseball player remembered as one of the most versatile in history.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that about 40 family friends and baseball fans gathered over the weekend at Topeka’s Mount Hope Cemetery to pay tribute to Carroll Ray “Dink” Mothell.

The Topeka native played 15 seasons in the Negro Leagues starting in 1920. Most of the time was spent with the Kansas City Monarchs.

The Society for American Baseball Research has set out to honor former players who died in anonymity. Mothell’s headstone marks the 22nd installed since the group started the effort in 2004.

“He was a great ballplayer all around and was part of two championship teams in 1924 and 1925 for the Kansas City Monarchs,” said Larry Lester, a Negro League author and member of SABR. “He was a great utility ballplayer. He played at least one game at every position.”

Author Phil Dixon said Mothell led him to write books on the Negro Leagues.

“I think Dink Mothell deserves greater recognition than probably history will ever give him, but Topeka should be proud,” Dixon said. “I kind of think when we met, I was trying to reach my arm in the past and he was reaching his arm for the future. I think that together something wonderful happened. And that’s why we’re here today to celebrate a man that when he died had just a little obituary. But we can’t determine how many things have been written about him since that day.”

Jocelyn Lyons knew Mothell as her grandfather’s best friend — a man she called “Uncle Dink.”

“It’s with great satisfaction to be able to witness this recognition and to see the community come out the way it did — black and white,” Lyons said. “To be able to have this history known for my children and my grandchildren and great-grandchildren is wonderful, and for them to know the African-American history that is tied so close to the Negro Leagues baseball teams.

“It is wonderful to hear it and for this history to be kept alive and for Topeka to recognize an African-American’s accomplishments,” she said.