Ray Chapman was a nine-year major league veteran shortstop whose two ambitions were to play on a pennant winner in Cleveland and then then to retire in favor of his family. In mid-August of 1920, all of that was in front of him, especially the long-elusive pennant, since his Indians led a thrilling three-way chase with Chicago and New York. The Cleveland team was in New York that cloudy Aug. 16 afternoon to face the Yankees and their mound ace, submariner Carl Mays.
Chapman, batting .303 and enjoying his finest season, led off the fifth inning. In those days, batters wore no protective headgear, balls remained in play after they were discolored, and pitchers booked no hesitation about throwing inside, a combination that proved lethal. Chapman froze as a Mays fastball veered toward him; the ball struck him flush on the temple. He fell, was revived briefly, then collapsed again as he was being assisted from the field.
Chapman was taken to a nearby hospital where surgery was performed in an effort to relieve the pressure of a fractured skull. His case, however, was hopeless. By the next morning, Ray Chapman was dead, the first and to this day the only victim of a fatal on-field accident. In Cleveland later that week, his funeral sermon was preached by Billy Sunday, the famed preacher and himself a former major leaguer.
But Ray Chapman's funeral was not the end of the story. Cleveland slumped through August and fell briefly out of firstplace. But the Indians rallied in September, pulling away from the Yankees and holding off the White Sox down the stretch to capture their first pennant.
In the World Series against Brooklyn that October, Cleveland players wore black armbands. They won the world's championship.
Rube Foster organizes the Negro National League at the Kansas City YMCA Feb. 13.
Indian second baseman Bill Wambsganss turns the only unassisted triple play in World Series history in the fifth inning of the fifth game agianst Brooklyn.
IN THE WORLD
The 18th Amendment, ratified a year earlier, goes into
effect prohibiting the sale of alcohol. The 19th Amendment iss ratified, giving women the right to vote that November for either Warren Harding or William Cox for president. Harding won.