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The Pitch of Death
Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The baseball newsletter that still believes in the Easter bunny.
We’re spending the holiday with the fam, so we pulled one from the vault today.
Let's dive in.
Today's story is about the only ballplayer who has ever died from an injury that happened on the field.
Back in the dead-ball era, home runs were few and far between; usually about one per team every six or seven games.
Spit, excessive dirt, foreign substances, and lacerations were all fair game for pitchers.
On top of that, they rarely ever switched out the balls because of the cost.
By the end of the day, the baseball was barely even recognizable.
As we now know, this is SUPER dangerous, but back in 1920, they really didn’t give a shit.
Unfortunately, Ray Chapman paid the price for that negligence.
Chapman was the shortstop for the Cleveland Indians back in 1920.
He was a teammate of Ray Caldwell - the guy who was struck by lightning and finished his complete game.
Chapman was a prolific bunter and very popular player of the time; fans and players alike admired him.
It was August 15th, and the Indians were playing the Yankees at the Polo Grounds on a gloomy day.
In the fifth, Chapman led off the inning against submarine pitcher, Carl Mays.
The first pitch out of Mays' hand hit Ray right in the temple, and he crumbled in the batter's box.
Tommy Connolly, the home plate umpire, signaled for a doctor immediately.
Chapman was taken to a nearby hospital and had immediate surgery on his skull.
He survived the surgery, but unfortunately died in the early morning hours of August 17th.
Fans and players were outraged at Carl Mays, and they even tried to get him banned from baseball.
Mays said the ball was wet and it sailed on him.
He described this event as the "most regrettable incident" of his baseball career.
The worst part of the situation was that Chapman left behind his wife and their unborn child.
MLB banned the spitball, but not much else was done.
Matter of fact, the league didn't even mandate helmets until 50 years later.
The only silver lining in this tragic story is that the Indians went on to win the World Series that year in a beautiful tribute to their fallen brother.
Ray Chapman was inducted into the Indian's Hall of Fame in 2006.
The Little Things
There’s a lot of bland and generic sports art out there.
S. Preston is pretty much the exact opposite.
He’s a talented artist who is famous for his minimalist-styled designs of sports stadiums and logos.
Super unique pieces:
Right now, our partners at Fanatics are running some of these prints for 25% off the normal price - no code needed.
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:
Clutterbuck played nine years in the minor leagues.
He pitched in the big leagues for a bit in ‘86 and made it back in ‘89 - finally making the starting rotation for a bit.
Unfortunately, Bryan was only able to snag two wins during that ‘89 season.
After the minor leagues, he played in Taiwan and also spent a couple of years in the independent leagues before retiring.
THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE
If you like this story, check out some of our past favorites:
That's it for today. Tomorrow we're back at it like a bad habit. See ya!
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