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Today’s story is about the strange and questionable death of a man who won two batting titles.

Ed Delahanty doesn’t get talked about much, but he was one helluva hitter.

His lifetime batting average (.346) is the fifth highest in Major League history.

Ed is also one of three ballplayers in history to hit over .400 three different times.

The other two are Rogers Hornsby and Ty Cobb.

Ed’s 16-year big league career is well documented, but what we don’t know, is exactly what happened to him on the day he died.

In 1901, Ed jumped from the National League to the newly-formed American League.

While playing for the Washington Senators, he started to develop some bad habits.

Between betting on horses and hitting the bottle, Dalahanty’s personal life was declining quickly.

He even got so deeply in debt that he begged his teammates to bail him out.

It didn’t help that the Senators were absolutely terrible, and by 1903, Ed was getting tired of playing with these scrubs.

After losing a game to Detroit, Dalahanty left the team and got on a train to New York.

During the trip, he slammed five whiskeys and became intolerable.

His behavior continued to escalate and according to passengers he pulled out a razor and was threatening people with it.

As things were getting out of hand, the conductor decided to stop near Niagara Falls, and they ended up kicking Delahanty off the train at the International Falls Bridge.

Ed decided to walk across and was confronted by a night watchman named Sam Kingston.

They got into a scuffle and according to Kingston, Delahanty either fell or jumped from the bridge - he testified that it was too dark to tell.

A week later he was found near the Maid of the Mist - a boat that is used for tours of Niagara Falls.

His body was mangled and one of his legs had been ripped off.

Many suspected foul play, but nothing was ever found to be conclusive.

Ed Dalahanty was dead at 35, and to this day, it’s still a mystery.

BASEBALL TRIVIA

Answer at the bottom of this email!

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Somehow, someway, they fit this entire ridiculous last name on a jersey.

VanLandingham sounds like he’d be from somewhere over the pond, but the guy was actually a country boy from Tennessee.

He only played four years in the big leagues - all for the Giants.

William won’t be remembered for his performance, but that name is absolutely unforgettable.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

If you like this story, check out some of our past favorites:

• The Wild Horse: Puig’s insane journey to America

• The Anomaly: One of the most improbable career in MLB history

• The Louisville Slugger: Meet the ballplayer who inspired the famous brand back in the 1800s

BASEBALL TRIVIA ANSWER: Pete Rose