(MSC News)--Joe Tinker, who played Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs,  was born on July 27th, 1880, in the Atchison County community of muscotah, which is continuing its goal of constructing tangible reminders of Tinker's local heritage. 

As part of the effort to draw attention to Tinker's Muscotah roots, construction of “the World's Largest Baseball” continues, with 45-volunteers, and nearly $6,000 dollars in donations, recently moving that project closer to reality. 

Being built from the community's former 20-foot in diameter water tower tank, those volunteers, courtesy of the non-profit Kansas Sampler Foundation worked with the donated funds to paint the tank, complete with red rebar seems, making it look like a large baseball. 

Volunteers also worked to construct an outfield fence around a mini-infield, next to the giant baseball, in an effort to construct a small replica of a Tinker-era Wrigley Field. 

More work in coming months will include interpretive signage, placement of a scoreboard, the planting of roses and ivy, and cutouts of the “Baseball's Sad Lexicon” poem, which focuses on Tinker. 

Eventually, the inside of the giant baseball will serve as museum focused on both local and rural baseball history. 

Meanwhile, Muscotah will be the destination for old time baseball enthusiasts on July 27th.  That date, commemorating Tinker's birth, has also been proclaimed by the Kansas Legislature as “Joe Tinker Day.” In conjunction, Muscotah will host a vintage baseball game between the Hodgeman Nine and the Wichita Redstockings at Joe Tinker Field at the city park. 

The public is invited.