The Fatal Pitch
Olde-Tyme baseball by C. Philip Francis – June 10, 2006
Quick, how many ballplayers have ever been killed in a scheduled major league game? One, two, three, maybe more, perhaps none? The correct reply to that question is an only ONE, and that man was the Cleveland Indians’ shortstop Ray Chapman who was hit in the face on August 16, 1920.
In one average game the pitcher throws over 200 pitches, multiply that by 154 or 162 games a season depending, multiply that by 16 to 30 teams depending, multiply that by something over 100 years depending, and maybe you might come up with something like 30 or 40 million pitches thrown from 1901 to this year. Yet while many players have been hit by a pitched ball from the foot to the head, Ray Chapman was the only player ever to be fatally hit by a ball or bat.
It was a muggy and dark day in New York’s Polo Grounds when Raymond Johnson Chapman dug into the batter’s box. (Note: Yankee Stadium was not built until 1923, and until then the Yankees played at the New York Giants’ Polo Grounds.) Facing Chapman was the submarining right-hander Carl Mays whose knuckles often scraped the ground during his delivery. Baseball Magazine said Mays threw the ball like an octopus. Mays had a 15 year career with the Red Sox, Yankees, Reds, and Giants winning 207 games, losing 126, and was in four World Series.
Ray Chapman, or “Chappie”, was the popular Cleveland shortstop, and one of the fastest runners and best bunters in the league. He had joined the Indians in 1912, and became the regular shortstop the following year. Chappie had a good bad hitting .300 or more two seasons, and had a .303 average with he died.
Mays was a control artist, but did have a reputation of being a “headhunter” or one who “dusting off” a batter, and hit 54 batters during his career. He was disliked by many of his teammates, and often yelled at the men behind him who had made errors. Once when Mays was heckled by a fan, the angry ballplayer drilled a ball into the heckler’s stomach. He complained to the police, but Mays had left town with his club.
On that fateful day in August the first place Indians were in New York, and ready to face the Yankees’ pitching ace Mays who was attempting to win his 100th career victory. A fog hung over the stadium, and there was a light drizzle. The visitors took an early lead in the second on a home run by catcher Steve O’Neill, and added two more runs in the fourth as the Cleveland hurler, Stan Coveleski, was keeping New York scoreless.
Chapman led off in the fifth, and always had trouble with Mays. The Cleveland batter had a sacrifice bunt in the first and popped out to first baseman Wally Pipp in the third. The count was one ball and one strike when Mays threw an underhand ball. Chapman crouched over the plate as was his style, and from the white shirts and dark suits in the bleachers came a dirty baseball that was bearing down on Chapman’s head. It is believed that he never saw the ball as he made no movement to get out of the way.
The ball hit the batter in the left temple with a resounding crack. The New York Times reported that the sound of the ball could be heard all over the stands. The ball rolled back to Mays who threw it to first for the out believing the ball might have hit the bat. Chappie took two reeling steps towards first, then crumbled. As blood gushed from the injured ear home umpire Tommy Connolly shouted for a doctor. Tris Speaker, the next batter and Cleveland manager, ran to Chapman’s aid as other players from both teams were rushing to the semi-conscious Chapman. Mays stayed on his pitching mound as the batter got to his feet and begin walking to the center field clubhouse. He collapsed again before getting to second base, and was carried off the field. Moments later he said, “Tell Mays not to worry, I’m alright.” Mays finished the game as the Indians won 4 to 3.
The ambulance took the damaged ballplayer to the St. Lawrence Hospital where the doctors decided surgery was necessary. Chapman’s wife, Kathleen, was now on the way to New York by train, but her husband died at 4:40 that morning. Mays did not attend the funeral yet several other Yankees did, and Chapman’s body was buried in Cleveland’s Lake View Cemetery.
Although Mays was absolved of any guilt in Chapman’ death, the Cleveland press urged that Mays be banished from baseball. When the New York pitcher blamed umpire Connolly for not tossing the ball out of the game the outraged arbiters fought back complaining that Mays himself as well as most hurlers usually dirtied and scuffed the ball. The baseball that killed Chapman might have been “doctored” by tobacco juice, spit, mud, or nicks, but was never recovered.
Chapman’s death changed baseball forever. New and clean baseballs were now often injected into the game, and only current spitball pitchers were legally permitted to load up the ball with saliva until they retired from the game. It would be another 25 years before protective helmets would come in regular use.
Epilogue: Carl Mays was an effective pitcher for nine more years with the Yankees, Reds, and Giants. He threw a shutout a week after Chapman died, and went on to win 26 games that season, and had an outstanding 27 and 11 the next year. He lived another 50 years, and always said Chapman ducked down into the ball. Mays ran a fishing resort in Oregon, lost a fortune in the 1929 stock market crash, and died in 1971 at the age of 79.
The Cleveland Indians recovered from the incident, won their first-ever American League pennant, and defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers for the World Series Championship.
Kathleen Chapman never attended another baseball game, and committed suicide eight years later by drinking cleaning fluid. Ray and Kathleen’s daughter, Rae, was born six months after her father’s death, and died of measles in 1929.
Mrs. Carl Mays died from an eye infection at age 36.
Cleveland catcher Steve O’Neill later became a successful manager, and led the Detroit Tigers to the 1945 World Series Championship.
Umpire Connolly’s is one of the eight umpires elected to the Hall of Fame.
Wally Pipp, the New York Yankees’ regular first baseman, later became famous because of a headache. When Pipp did not want to play on June 2, 1925, a young infielder named Lou Gehrig took over at first base and began his 2130 consecutive game record.
Carl Mays’ career pitching record was 207-126, better than many who are in the Hall of Fame, always believed it was that one fateful pitch that kept him out of Cooperstown.