Before Their Time

Bygone baseball:  The unfamiliar, the unusual, the dramatic

By C. Philip Francis

Part 1

---Aurelio Rodriguez had nine years with the Tigers in the 1970’s, and eight more with five other teams.  He had recently come from his home in Mexico to attend a Detroit area sports show.  Rodriguez was standing on the sidewalk in the Mexican area in the city when a 40-year-old female motorist apparently had a seizure and jumped the curb striking the ballplayer.  The Tiger infielder later died in a Detroit hospital at the age of 52. 

---He was not a ballplayer in the usual sense, but the name of Eddie Gaedel has his own line in The Baseball Encyclopedia.  Eddie was the 3’7” midget who was sent to bat by promoter and St. Louis Browns team owner Bill Veeck in a 1951 game between the Browns and Detroit Tigers.  In his only ML appearance, Eddie walked on four pitches by the Tigers’ Bob Cain, trotted down to first base, and was immediately replaced by a pinch-runner.  Ten years later little Eddie was beaten by a mugger on a Chicago street, but made it back to his home where he died of a heart attack at the age of 36.  The only baseball personality to attend Eddie’s funeral was – Bob Cain.   

---The most bizarre baseball death might be that of Len Koenecke (A) who died aboard a small plane high over Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  Len was an outfielder with the Brooklyn Dodgers for most of 1935, but near the end of the season he was released for “behavior and erratic play.”  The Dodger left St. Louis by passenger plane, but was ordered off in Detroit because of intoxication.  Len chartered a three-seater plane for Buffalo that included both the pilot and the co-pilot.  The ballplayer began to play with the airplane controls, and would not stop when ordered.  Koenecke and the pilot’s pal were soon fighting on the floor.  Knowing that it was either him or us, the pilot grabbed a fire extinguisher and while still flying the plane he continued to whack on the offender’s head hard enough to knock him out.  When the pilot finally landed near Toronto, Koenecke was dead at the age of 31.           

---The tallest catcher in the Major Leagues might be Larry McLean who played for the Cincinnati Reds and four other teams from the birth of the Major Leagues in 1901 through 1915, and listed at six foot five and 228 pounds in The Baseball Encyclopedia.  McLean was one of the many players of the era whose careers and even their lives were jeopardized by excessive alcohol.  In  1915 New York Giant manager John McGraw dropped his catcher from the team after the staggering McLean challenged McGraw and the coaches to a fight.   Fine when sober but an aggressive fighter when drunk, McLean was shot to death by a Boston barkeeper during a fight in1921 at the age of 39. 

---Air tragedies shortened the careers of the three following ML stars:  Roberto Clemente (A) of the Pittsburgh Pirates died when his plane crashed just after takeoff at San Juan, Puerto Rico.  It was a mercy trip carrying supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua.  The Pirate outfielder saw his 3000^th and last hit as the season ended that fall, and the following year he was voted into the Hall of Fame after the mandatory five-year waiting period was waived.  Clemente died at the age of 38.

Thurman Munson (A) was the first string catcher for the New York Yankees from 1970 until he died in 1979 while practicing landings and takeoffs at the Akron-Canton, OH airport in his own new jet aircraft.  The airplane hit the ground 1000 feet short of the runway, and although two companions aboard did survive the Yankee catcher did not.  Munson won the Rookie of the Year award in 1970, was voted the American League MVP in 1976, and on his way to becoming a member to the Hall of Fame.  Thurman died at the age of 32.

A ballplayer who had also earned a license to fly an airplane was Ken Hubbs the regular second baseman for the Chicago Cubs in 1962 and ‘63.  He won the National League Rookie of the Year award in ’62, and became the first rookie to claim a Golden Glove award (best gloveman at that position).  “Hubbs of the Cubs” had a promising baseball career, but died near Provo, Utah just after taking off in a snowstorm.   Hubbs and a friend had flown from California, and were on their way back home.  The Cub player toof off in difficult weather although he was not licensed for instrument flying.  He died at the age of 22.

Before Their Time

Bygone baseball:  The unfamiliar, the unusual, the dramatic

By C. Philip Francis

Part 2

We continue with more active and retired baseball players who died in unique and untimely ways Before Their Time.  An (A) after the name of the player indicates he was active at the time of death.

---Ballplayers have had their careers aborted or severely slowed by on-the-field injuries including:  Herb Score (A) (Cleveland Indians pitcher) – hit in eye by batted ball in 1957;  Tony Conigliaro (A) (Boston Red Sox outfielder) – hit by pitched ball in 1967; and Mickey Cochrane (A) (Detroit Tigers catcher) – hit by pitched ball 1937.  And while about 30 million pitches have been thrown since Major League Baseball began in the late 1800’s, there has been only one death during a game.  It occurred on August 16, 1920 when Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman (A) was hit by the Yankee’s submarine (underhand) pitcher Carl Mays.  Chapman usually hugged the plate in a crouching manner, and this time it resulted in tragedy.   

There was a loud crack that seemed to come from ball hitting the bat, and then Chapman started for first.  Actually he had been hit in the left temple, walked several feet, then collapsed.  Chapman was now conscious and tried to speak, but could not.   He was quickly surrounded by player/manager Tris Speaker, many of his teammates, and a few Yankees.  Mays did not move away from his pitching mound.  The reeling Chapman again made it to his feet and began the long walk toward the center field clubhouse before he again crumpled, and now had to be carried off the field.  The Cleveland player died in the hospital early the following morning.  Some of the New York team members attended the funeral, but not Mays who said, “I knew that the sight of his silent form would haunt me as long as I live.”  (Note:  Seven minor league ballplayers are known to have died from pitched balls.)

---Luke Easter was a 6’4” 240 pound veteran of the Negro League brought up from the minors by the Cleveland Indians in 1949 at the age of 34.  “Luscious Luke” hit 28 home runs as a rookie, one a 477-foot missile that could be the longest hit in the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium.  Bad knees forced him out of the big leagues in 1954, but he continued as a player and coach in the minors for the next ten years.  After leaving baseball Luke got a job with TRW, Inc. in the Cleveland suburb of Euclid, and as a shop steward he often took his employees’ paychecks to a local bank for cashing.  In March of 1979 Easter was leaving the bank with $5,000 when he was met by two men with a sawed-off shotgun and a pistol.  When Luke refused to give up the money, he was killed instantly with a shotgun blast into the heart. 

---The game also has its mysteries.  It will never be known if Ed Delahanty (A) took his own life or was murdered.  There were seven Delahanty brothers from Cleveland, four of which followed Ed into the Major Leagues.  He once said regarding their upbringing, “We were given bats instead of rattles.”  In 1888 Big Ed began his ML career as both infielder and outfielder with the Philadelphia Phillies where he played 13 of his 16 years in the game.  He was one of the great hitters of the time once hitting four home runs in one game – and that was in the deadball era.  The elder Delahanty hit over .400 times four times, is the owner of the fourth highest career batting average in baseball, and is the only man to win batting titles in both leagues.

Like many of his contemporaries their lives were a mixture of baseball and alcohol.    In June of 1903 he was suspended for excessive drinking and missing a game, and was also angry and upset due to contract and marital problems.  He was in Detroit on July 2, 1903 when he bought a train ticket to Buffalo.  As they neared Fort Erie, Ontario, Delahanty was apparently drunk and began terrorizing the other passengers.  The conductor put him off, but as the train continued to enter the United States Big Ed followed down the tracks on foot.  He went past a night watchman that yelled that the span was open for an oncoming boat.  Big Ed Delahanty was never seen alive again.   

A week later his mangled body was found in the Niagara River below the Falls near the docked Maid of the Mist.   His money and jewelry was missing, and he had recently taken out a large insurance policy with his daughter as the beneficiary.  Was he robbed and murdered, was it a suicide, or simply was it an accident by a drunken and disorderly person?   Officially it was listed as “death by accident”, but the real answers will be never known.     

---Could the oddest death in this series by that of Terry Lyons who played in one game with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1929?  Lyons was asphyxiated by gas given by his dentist during a routine dental procedure in Dayton, OH at the age of 50.  Obviously the dentist was a little too painless.    

Next week:  Part 3 of Before Their Time

Before Their Time

Bygone baseball:  The unfamiliar, the unusual, the dramatic

By C. Philip Francis

Part 3

We continue with more players who have died in unique and untimely ways Before Their Time.  An (A) after their name indicates he was active at the time of death.

---Eddie Grant was the first Major League player to die in combat, and the only one to lose his life in World World I.  Eddie graduated from Harvard in 1905, and played two  games for the Cleveland Indians at the end of that same season.  Harvard Eddie had three hits in his ML debut, but was sent down after playing the next day.  Following one year in the minors Grant was called up by the Philadelphia Phillies as a third baseman.  He spent time with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants before retiring from the game in 1915 and open a law practice in New York City.

1917 the United States entered the war in Europe, and Eddie Grant was among the first in line to enlist.  Captain Grant of the 77^th Infantry Division was killed on October 5, 1918 in France while leading a mission to rescue “The Lost Battalion” that was trapped behind the German lines.  A monument to Eddie’s memory was placed in the New York Giants’ Polo Grounds, but disappeared after the ballpark was demolished in 1964.

---Two big leaguers died in action in World War II. Elmer Gedeon was a good runner for the University of Michigan track team, but gave up a chance to perform in the Olympic Games for baseball.  Outfielder Gedeon was in five games for the Washington Senators in 1939, and died as a member of the United States Air Corps when his plane was shot down over France on April 20, 1944.

Harry O’Neill, a late-inning catching replacement during a 1939 game with the Philadelphia A’s, gave up his life during the fierce battle on Iwo Jima on March 6, 1945.  The only player to die in the Korean War was Bob Neighbors who had 11 at-bats in seven games for the St. Louis Browns also in 1939.  Bob was listed as missing in action, and apparently died on August 8, 1952 after he was captured by the North Koreans.

---The first ML player to lose his life in an airplane crash was Marv Goodwin (A) who pitched for the Washington Senators and St. Louis Browns from 1916 through 1922 with a year off as an Air Corps flying instructor during World War I.  Goodman remained in the Air Reserves, and was attempting to restart his baseball career in 1925 with the Cincinnati Reds.  Shortly after the season ended Lt. Goodman took off on a practice flight near Houston, but the plane crashed when the engine failed.  Marv died four days later at the age of 34.  He was one of the spitballers allowed to use the pitch after it was barred in 1919.

---When gastric ulcers kept New York Yankee second baseman George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss out of military service during World War II in the 1940’s, he was able to win the American League batting title in ’45 with third lowest ever number of .309.   Snuffy, a nickname coming from a sinus condition, had a ten years career with the Yanks, Browns, and the Indians from 1943 through 1952 before he went into the banking business.  In September of 1958 Stirnweiss caught a Jersey Central commuter train in Red Bank, NJ for a meeting in New York.  The train went through an open drawbridge and plunged into the Newark Bay.  Snuffy left a wife and six children when he died at the age of 39      

---Stormin’ Norman Cash of the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers finished a 17-year career with a .271 batting average, but had a year players dream about.  In 1961 Norm hit a .361, had 41 home runs, and led the league in hits with 193.  The following year he fell to earth with a ,243 batting average, a record 118-point dip.  Cash drown in 1986 at the age of 51 when he slipped on a boat and fell into the water.    

The first known MLer to die by drowning was Al Thake who played for the Brooklyn Atlantics.  Al was fishing off Fort Hamilton, NY in 1872 when he fell out of the boat.  Arky Vaughan held down shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1930’s before ending his 14 years with Brooklyn.  The Arkansas-born Vaughan was forty years of age in 1952 when his boat capsized when fishing.  Baseball’s only multiple fatality happened in March, 1993 when Cleveland Indian pitchers Tim Crews (A) and Steve Olin (A) died after their eighteen-foot boat smashed into a dock after dark.  Cleveland hurler Bob Ojeda (A), a third member of the ill-fated party, survived and returned to the pitching mound.    

---Other ballplayers who left us Before Their Time were Jimmie Foxx - choked to death in 1967 at age 59; pitcher Al Benton of the Indians and Tigers - burned to death in 1968 at age 50; the nation mourned when Lou Gehrig, The Iron Horse, died at 37 from a disease that the public could neither spell nor pronounce; and Addie Joss (A) who succumbed from tubercular meningitis in 1911 at 31.                   

As the Chatter from the Dugout reader wrote, “Ballplayers are really just mere mortals like the rest of us.”

Chatter from the Dugout welcomes comments, and may be reached at:  dugoutchatter@ejourney.com

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