Speaker 1: M m August nine, one years ago. Major League baseball
Speaker 1: is playing under a dark cloud, not from a deadly disease,
Speaker 1: but from a growing scandal. Rumors are swirling that members
Speaker 1: of the reigning American League champions, the Chicago White Sox,
Speaker 1: intentionally lost the World Series the previous season, as the
Speaker 1: so called Black Sox scandal threatens to engulf the sport,
Speaker 1: two other American League teams, the Cleveland Indians and the
Speaker 1: New York Yankees, square off on a rainy afternoon at
Speaker 1: the Polo Grounds in New York. The Yankees trail the
Speaker 1: Indians by just half a game in the standings, and
Speaker 1: on the mound, they have their right handed ace, Karl Mayze.
Speaker 1: He's what's known as a submarine pitcher. His contorted underhand
Speaker 1: motion is so extreme that his knuckles sometimes scraped the ground.
Speaker 1: Do up first for the Indians in the fifth inning,
Speaker 1: as they're scrappy. Young twenty nine year old shortstop Ray Chapman,
Speaker 1: a fan favorite. Chapman is newly married. He and his
Speaker 1: wife have a daughter on the way. Chapman stands in
Speaker 1: crowding the plate. Mays's first pitch is a fastball, high
Speaker 1: and tight, and it's met with a loud crack that
Speaker 1: can be heard throughout the ballpark. The ball dribbles back
Speaker 1: towards May's, who throws it over to Yankees first baseman
Speaker 1: Wally Pip. Pip catches the ball and then freezes in horror,
Speaker 1: looking towards home plate. It was then that the Yankees
Speaker 1: players and others in the ballpark realize that the crack
Speaker 1: they heard is not the crack of Ray Chapman's bat.
Speaker 1: Welcome to another special bonus episode of Flashback. I'm Sean Braswell.
Speaker 1: There have been millions of pitches thrown in Major League
Speaker 1: Baseball games during the sports history, only one has been lethal.
Speaker 1: That was the pitch that ended Ray Chapman's life, ruined
Speaker 1: Carl Maze's chances of reaching the Hall of Fame, and
Speaker 1: helped change the course of baseball history. As players and men,
Speaker 1: Mayze and Chapman could not have been more different. May's
Speaker 1: was probably the most unpopular player in the game. Off
Speaker 1: the field, he was a moody loner. His teammates likened
Speaker 1: Enid to someone with a permanent toothache. On the field,
Speaker 1: he was a fierce competitor on the mound, one with
Speaker 1: a reputation as a headhunter who was always among the
Speaker 1: lead leaders and hitting batters. In one game against the
Speaker 1: equally despised Hi Cob maze through at the Detroit Tiger's
Speaker 1: legend every time he came to the plate, Cobb reciprocated
Speaker 1: by throwing his back at maze May's often yelled at
Speaker 1: his own fielders when they made an error. Once he
Speaker 1: threw at and hit a heckling fan in the stands.
Speaker 1: Ray Chapman, on the other hand, was popular with both
Speaker 1: players and fans. Before the season, the infielder had married
Speaker 1: the daughter of a wealthy Cleveland businessman. His new father
Speaker 1: in law wanted him to retire from the low paid
Speaker 1: job of baseball and take up a more stable occupation
Speaker 1: in the family business, but Chapman, considered the best shortstop
Speaker 1: in the league, continued to play m h When Chapman
Speaker 1: was in the batter's box, he stood unusually close to
Speaker 1: the plate and hunched over it. It would be more
Speaker 1: than fifty years till batting helmets were mandatory muddy rule.
Speaker 1: The Yankees catcher on that fateful day later told a
Speaker 1: reporter simply his head was in the strike zone. Chapman,
Speaker 1: by all accounts barely moved an inch when Mays's first
Speaker 1: submarine pitch smashed into the side of his head. Muddy
Speaker 1: Rule helped catch Chapman as he collapsed. The home plate
Speaker 1: umpire motioned for a doctor, and the fallen batter was
Speaker 1: carried from the field. At the hospital, doctors found a
Speaker 1: fracture on the left side of Chapman's skull that was
Speaker 1: more than three inches long. His brain had lacerations on
Speaker 1: both sides. Doctors operated into the night, but shortly before sunrise,
Speaker 1: Chapman died. When his young widow was greeted with the
Speaker 1: news as she stepped from a train in New York,
Speaker 1: she fainted. Some blamed the incident on visibility fog was
Speaker 1: hanging over the dreary field that day. Others blamed the ball, which,
Speaker 1: like most from that era when throwing spitballs was allowed,
Speaker 1: was covered in spit and tobacco juice. And some people
Speaker 1: blame Carl Mays, But despite Mays's re mutation as a headhunter,
Speaker 1: most observers felt that he was not throwing it Chapman
Speaker 1: on purpose because the Yankees were trailing in a game
Speaker 1: with pennant implications. The death was ruled accidental. The accident, though,
Speaker 1: would haunt May's until his own death. It cast a
Speaker 1: dark shadow over a career in which he racked up
Speaker 1: two hundred and seven wins in fifteen seasons, among the
Speaker 1: best numbers for a picture not in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Chapman's team, the Cleveland Indians, won the first World Series
Speaker 1: in franchise history that year in honor of their falling shortstop,
Speaker 1: and the following season, Major League Baseball instituted rules requiring
Speaker 1: that new, clean baseballs be introduced into games more often.
Speaker 1: The scandal of Chapman's death had long term consequences for baseball.
Speaker 1: Along with the spit Ball band and the rise of
Speaker 1: a certain home run hitting slugger named Babe Ruth, it
Speaker 1: helped usher in the so called live ball era of
Speaker 1: the modern game, an era in which high scoring contest
Speaker 1: with more home runs would electrify a new generation of fans.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and please stay tuned to this feed
Speaker 1: for more bonus episodes on fateful moments from history and
Speaker 1: the weeks ahead. Flashback is written and hosted by me
Speaker 1: Sean Braswell senior writer and executive producer at Azzie. It
Speaker 1: was edited by Maybe mcgarren and produced by Tracy Moran.
Speaker 1: Chris Hoff engineered our show. Make sure to subscribe to
Speaker 1: Flashback on the I Heart Radio app or listen wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Have you want to learn more
Speaker 1: about the death of Ray Chapman, check out the book
Speaker 1: The Pitch That Killed by Mike Soul