NY Times
NEW YORK – Wednesday – August 18, 1920. The body of Ray Chapman, the shortstop of the Cleveland Indians who died early yesterday at St Lawrence Hospital after being hit in the head by a pitched ball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds Monday afternoon, was taken to his home in Cleveland last night. A gathering of baseball fans stood with bared heads at the Grand Central Terminal as the body was taken through the gates to the train. The ballplayer's widow, who went with the body, was accompanied by her brother, Daniel Daly of Cleveland; Miss Jane McMahon, a friend; Tris Speaker, player-manager of the ball club, and Joe Wood, one of the players.
Chapman's death has cast a tragic pall over the baseball fans of the city, and everywhere the accident was the topic of conversation. Chapman was a true sportsman, a skillful player and one of the most popular men in the major leagues. And this was to have been his last season in professional baseball.
Carl Mays, the New York pitcher who threw the ball which felled Chapman on Monday, voluntarily went before Assistant District Attorney Joyce and was exonerated of all blame.
The game which was to have been played between Cleveland and New York was put over until Thursday and the players of both clubs joined in mourning.
Although there is some bitterness against Mays among some of the Cleveland players, Tris Speaker, in a telephone conversation with Colonel T. L. Huston, part owner of the New York club, said he and his club mates would do everything in their power to suppress this feeling.
"It is the duty of all of us," said Speaker, "of all the players, not only for the good of the game, but also out of respect to the poor fellow who was killed, to suppress all bitter feeling. We will do all in our power to avoid aggravating the unfortunate impression in any way."
Chapman died at 4:40 o'clock yesterday morning following an operation performed by Dr. T. M. Merrigan, surgical director of St Lawrence Hospital. Chapman was unconscious when he arrived at the institution.
The operation began at 12:20 o'clock and was completed at 1:44. The blow had caused a three-and-one-half inch long depressed fracture in Chapman's head. Dr. Merrigan removed a piece of skull about an inch and a half square and found the brain had been so severely jarred that blood clots had formed. The shock of the blow had lacerated the brain not only on the left side of the head where the ball struck but also on the right side where the shock of the blow had forced the brain against the skull.
For a time following the operation, Chapman breathed easier and his pulse improved. His teammates who had been waiting anxiously in the hospital were relieved. They went back to their hotel with the hope that the dawn would bring encouraging news. They were notified, instead, of Chapman's death.
This news spread rapidly. Among Chapman's club mates and among their rivals for the American League pennant alike, it caused universal grief. With all the players, Chapman was popular. To many of them he had confided his hopes and plans. If Cleveland got into the World Series this season, he would retire from baseball and enter business in Cleveland. He wanted to be with the wife whom he had married only a year ago, and to whom he gave his last conscious thoughts. As the injured ballplayer was being taken from the club house at the ballpark on his way to the hospital, he tried to speak to Percy Smallwood, trainer of the Indians. Before the game the player had placed in the trainer's custody his diamond ring, a gift from his wife. Several times the stricken man tried to say "ring," but he could not speak. He pointed to his finger. Smallwood then understood and gave him his wife's gift.
Mrs. Chapman had been notified of the accident shortly after it occurred and before it was believed to be so serious.
Unaware of her husband's death, Mrs. Chapman arrived in New York at 10 A.M. to be at Chapman's bedside. She was met at the train by Father Connors, a Philadelphia friend of the ballplayer, who had come to New York immediately on hearing of the accident. Father Connors accompanied Mrs. Chapman to a hotel. There he told her of her husband's death. She fainted.
Chapman's body was removed Tuesday afternoon to the undertaking establishment of James F. McGowan, 153rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue. There it was viewed by hundreds of baseball fans, many of who had gone to the Polo Grounds expecting to see a game only to learn that it had been postponed until Wednesday. The players of both the New York and Cleveland teams also viewed the body. Several completely lost control of their emotions, and at one time there was not a dry eye among the scores of men who thronged the room about the bier.
Carl Mays is greatly shocked over the accident. He said he had tried to be unusually careful this season to avoid just such an accident. Mays said that when close friend Chick Fewster was seriously injured in the same way last spring, the horror of the accident made a deep impression on him. Mays believed that one of the reasons for his failure to pitch successfully earlier in the season was due to the fact that he pitched the ball too far away from the batsmen because he was always thinking of the Fewster accident.
Mays said he threw a high fastball at a time when Chapman was crouched over the plate. He fielded the ball and tossed it to first base because he thought the ball hit the handle of Chapman's bat. It wasn't until after he saw umpire Tom Connolly calling to the stands for a physician that he realized he had hit Chapman in the head.
"Chapman was one of the gamest players and one of the hardest men to pitch to in the league," said Mays. "I always dreaded pitching to him because of his crouching position at the bat."
The pitcher first learned of Chapman's death through a telephone message from a newspaper. He immediately communicated with the District Attorney's office, and visited Assistant District Attorney Joyce of the Homicide Bureau at 1 o'clock..
"It is the most regrettable incident of my baseball career," he said, "and I would give anything if I could undo what has happened. Chapman was a game, splendid fellow." After hearing Mays's version of the accident, the Assistant District Attorney exonerated Mays from all blame, and as far as the office is concerned, the case is closed.
Manager Tris Speaker stayed in his room at his hotel and received no callers.
Manager Miller Huggins of the Yankees believes Chapman's left foot may have caught in the ground in some manner which prevented him from stepping out of the ball's way. Huggins explained that batsmen usually had one foot loose and free at just such moments and Chapman had got out of the way of the same kind of pitched balls before. The fact that he did not move his feet made Huggins believe his spikes might have caught when he tried to duck.
Ray Caldwell, one of the Cleveland pitchers, and a former member of the Yankees, said that, as it looked to him from the Cleveland bench, Chapman ducked his head right into the path of the ball. He said that if he had stood up straight and not attempted to duck, the ball probably would have hit him on the shoulder.
The fatality is expected to have a depressing effect on the Cleveland and New York players. It is feared that it may impair Mays's effectiveness as a pitcher, although he said if would do him no good to brood over something which seemed unavoidable. The Cleveland players are so badly affected by the loss of one of their star players that their chances of winning this year's pennant have received a severe setback. Manager Speaker has no seasoned played to put in the vacant position, and grief among the players over Chapman's death is sure to affect their playing for some time to come.
When Colonel Huston of the New York club was asked about the reported action of the Boston and Detroit players to have Mays barred from organized baseball, he said the New York club viewed the fatality purely as an accident, and he did not care to express an opinion on any action which the players mentioned might anticipate. If these players, however, do send a petition to the League asking for the removal of Mays, the New York club will then take action.
John Heydler, President of the National League yesterday ordered all flags at National League parks at half-mast for a week. Similar action is expected by American League President Ban Johnson.
Raymond Chapman was born in McHenry, Kentucky on January 15, 1891. He had been a member of the Cleveland American League team since August 30, 1912, and was considered one of the best shortstops in the game.
Chapman played his first professional baseball in 1909 with Mount Vernon, Illinois. In 1910 he went to Springfield, Illinois and from there to Davenport, Iowa in the Three I League.
Cleveland first obtained Chapman from Davenport in 1911 and sold him to Toledo in the American Association on option. He was recalled to Cleveland in 1912 and had played in more than 1,000 games in an Indians uniform.
Chapman was one of the fastest men in baseball. On September 27, 1917, Tim Murnane Day in Boston, he won a loving cup for the fastest time in circling the bases, doing it in fourteen seconds.
In 1917 he broke all major league sacrifice hit records with a total of sixty-seven and also led the American League in sacrifices in the following two years.
