On 16 August 1920, Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was struck by a pitch and killed. His death is still remembered in Cleveland to this day
It takes an instant for a baseball to travel from the pitching mound to home plate. In that short span, disaster unfolded during a game between the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees over a century ago.
On 16 August 1920, with the two teams locked in a pennant race, the Indians’ star shortstop Ray Chapman faced Yankees pitcher Carl Mays at the Polo Grounds in New York. Mays sought to intimidate batters by pitching inside. This time, his high pitch struck Chapman in the head and the batter fell to the ground. He was eventually taken to St Lawrence Hospital, where he underwent surgery, but died. He was 28. Of the tens of millions of pitches thrown over the history of Major League Baseball, this was the only one that killed someone. Chapman’s death is the subject of a new documentary film, War on the Diamond, directed by Andy Billman.
