Sport Misconduct

Published by: Ethan, Charles,

               James, Corey

Ray Chapman Story – Misconduct or Not?

Each year hundreds of injuries take place on the baseball field. Players suffer various injuries, everything from sprained ankles and pulled hamstrings to broken bones and torn ligaments. These injuries can keep players out a few games, an entire season, and in some extreme cases end careers. One player, however, paid the ultimate price while playing the game.
 

On August 16, 1920, life couldn’t be better for 29 year old shortstop Ray Chapman. The fast, smooth fielding Chapman, basis of the Cleveland infield, was hitting .303 with 97 runs scored and his team was in the middle of the A.L. Pennant race. The Indians were at the Polo Grounds in New York to take on the Yankees. The nasty Carl Mays was on the hill for the Yankees. Chapman was 0-1 in the game when he led off the fifth inning against Mays. Chapman was known to crowd and sometimes lean over the plate. Mays had a nasty reputation for throwing "high and tight."

Mays threw one of his rising side armed pitches inside to the Indian's shortstop who was again crowding the plate. The pitch hit him in the temple fracturing his skull. Chapman collapsed, blood ran out of his ears, nose, and mouth. His teammates rushed out and helped him to his feet. Emergency surgery was performed that night for the removal of a piece of his skull. Chapman died at 4:30 the next morning, about twelve hours after being hit by Mays' pitch. It remains the only on field casualty in MLB history.

Carl Mays that night and was cleared of all his wrong doing. Despite that fact the players of the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox threatened to start a petition to get Mays banned from baseball. 

With rookie Joe Sewell in Chapman's place at shortstop, the Indians went onto win the franchises' first World Series that year, wearing black arm bands as a tribute to their fallen teammate. Ray Chapman's wife, Kathleen, received his full World Series share, just under $4,000.

For his career Chapman hit .278 with 233 stolen bases, 1053 hits, and 671 runs in 1051 games over 9 big league seasons. He was known for his speed, he finished in the top ten in stolenbases 3 times and in runs 4 times and for his fielding - he was considered one of the finest glove men of the time. Chapman was selected as one of the "100 Greatest Indians" when the team celebrated it's centennial in 2001. Baseball historian Bill James said Chapman "was probably destined for the Hall of Fame had he lived."

With the invention of batting an incident like this would probably never happen in todays' game. “It is important to remember, however, the legacy of Ray Chapman, who was by all accounts an upstanding member of the community, a favorite of teammates and fans, as well as a great ball player.”

 - David Zingler