A belated Lest We Forget

August 25, 2020

Lost in all the drama of the continuing pandemic, presidential election conventions, and other items: August 17 marked the 100th anniversary of the only fatality on a major league baseball field.

Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Naps (as the Indians were known at the time) was killed by a pitch from the New York Yankees’ Carl Mays.

Several books marked the sad event, including The Pitch That Killed: The Story of Carl Mays, Ray Chapman, and the Pennant Race of 1920 by Mike Sowell; Hit by Pitch: Ray Chapman, Carl Mays and the Fatal Fastball, rendered in graphic novel form by artist Molly Lawless (here’s my Bookshelf Conversation with her from 2012); and, most recently, Do It for Chappie: The Ray Chapman Tragedy by Rick Swaine, which came out just last year.

There’s talk of Sowell’s book being made into a documentary. I’m surprised this hasn’t already happened.

The Pitch That Killed: Carl Mays, Ray Chapman and the Pennant Race of 1920 (Summer Game Books Baseball Classic).  Do It for Chappie: The Ray Chapman Tragedy.  Hit by Pitch: Ray Chapman, Carl Mays and the Fatal Fastball

Baseball card artist Gary Cieradkowski, who specializes in the underreported side of the game, posted this on Mays.

0Shares

Tagged as: Carl Mays, Gary Cieradkowski, Mike Sowell, Molly Lawless, Ray Chapman, Rick Swaine

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post:

script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-5496371-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();