Book chronicles dark day for Cleveland Indians

SANDUSKY — In 1920, the Cleveland Indians won the American League pennant and a World Series championship — so it was a great season for the team. But it also was a very bad year for the Tribe. The team's star shortstop, Ray Chapman, was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by a New York Yankees pitcher. Chapman died hours later on Aug. 20, 1920, in a New York hospital. He's apparently the only person who died as a result of an injury during a Major League Baseball game. "Love and Loss: The Short Life of Ray Chapman" by Scott H. Longert is a new book that provides a biography of Chapman. It also gives a fascinating glimpse into what pro baseball was like more than 100 years ago. Before Longert's scheduled appearance on April 15 at the Sandusky Library, he spoke about his book and why he focused this work on Chapman. What happened? Chapman played shortstop for the Indians, now known as the Cleveland Guardians. He played before the All-Star Game began in 1933, but press reports routinely described him as the best shortstop in the American League. On Aug. 16, 1920, New York Yankees pitcher Carl Mays, known as a beanball artist, threw a pitch at Chapman's head. Chapman failed to duck, and the ball hit him on the head. As blood gushed out of Chapman's ear, the umpire called for a doctor, and Chapman was taken to the hospital where he died despite emergency brain surgery. Batting helmets did not come into use in the major leagues until the 1940s. And they did not become mandatory until the mid-1950s. His best book yet Longert, a historian and writer in Beachwood, Ohio, who has penned three other books about the history of Cleveland's baseball team, said his Chapman book is his best. "I probably put the most effort into this one of all of my books. I like the results. It's not just that it's my latest book," Longert told the Register. Longert's book isn't the only one that discusses Chapman's terrible death. Mike Sowell, an Oklahoma sports author and sportswriter, penned a book in 1989, "The Pitch That Killed," that won widespread recognition. Longert said he loved Sowell's book but noted that it focused much of its attention on Mays. Longert decided a book that focused on Chapman's life also should be written. Aside from describing Chapman, a beloved player who was with the Toledo Mud Hens before coming to Cleveland, Longert's book depicts a different era of American sports. Baseball was by far America's most popular team sport. There was no TV or even commercial radio, but every city had several newspapers. As bad as 1920 was for the Indians, it would have been even worse if Chapman's death had prevented the Indians from going all the way and winning a championship, Longert said. "It would have really hurt the families even more," Longert said. Fans rising to the occasion Perhaps the most moving section of Longert's book described how the team's loyal fans saved the team's season. The Tribe, on a road trip when Chapman died, went into a losing skid and fell out of first place. The team returned home to League Park on Sept. 3 for a long homestand. On this day, the team lost to the Detroit Tigers, 1-0, but the fans rallied around the team, Longert writes. "Despite the loss, those 18,000-odd fans managed to cheer mightily for the players from the onset," Longert writes. "They applauded during fielding and batting practice, then stood, shouting encouragement, as each player came to bat throughout the game … when Elmer Smith (who was born in Sandusky) smashed a triple, several hundred straw hats from the crowd were hurled onto the field in celebration." Longert believes the fan support during that first home game picked up the team, which finished 20-6 in September 1920. The team then defeated the Brooklyn Robins, later to become the Dodgers, in the 1920 World Series. That series was a best of nine, and Cleveland won five games compared to two victories for Brooklyn. Cleveland second baseman Bill Wambsganss made an unassisted triple play in one game, still the only one in postseason baseball history. And Smith became the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit a grand slam in the World Series.