Deadball

July 9, 2006 1:45 PM

We all have to go sometime.Frank Russo has an obsession, dead ballplayers. Some died in accidents, some were murdered, some couldn't take it anymore, and some were cursed. They were all human. (via HNT)
posted by caddis (14 comments total)

Obit for Len Koenecke.
posted by beerbajay at 1:52 PM on July 9, 2006

I really hate that damned embedded music.
posted by stavrogin at 1:53 PM on July 9, 2006

Heh, Koenecke got "walloped". How bizarre.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:56 PM on July 9, 2006

Looking into Koenecke's walloping I came across Wikipedia's List of unusual deaths...
posted by runkelfinker at 2:27 PM on July 9, 2006

music?
posted by caddis at 2:31 PM on July 9, 2006

The music is on the cursed page. What a great way to keep people away.
posted by skallas at 2:52 PM on July 9, 2006

The publisher I worked with was, in the same year, selling my book as well as The Baseball Necrology which contained information on the deaths of 7600 baseball players. Bizarrely, its author is NOT the same as the guy caddis posted about.
posted by jessamyn at 3:06 PM on July 9, 2006

Thanks for the reminder.... I always get ballplayers and nonhumans confused. :)
posted by Malor at 6:54 PM on July 9, 2006

Russo has a lot more than I ever knew about the Mays-Chapman incident, the only time a player has been killed by a pitched ball. His background on Ray Chapman's death in 1920 is fascinating: World War I's contribution to the start of the live-ball era, the ban on spitballs and the like, and the subsequent tendency of pitchers to throw inside more often as a result of the rule change. Thanks for the link.
posted by diddlegnome at 7:02 PM on July 9, 2006

the only time a player has been killed by a pitched ball.

I see three other people killed from a pitch on the accident list.
posted by puke & cry at 8:45 PM on July 9, 2006 [1 favorite]

players, anyway.
posted by puke & cry at 8:46 PM on July 9, 2006 [1 favorite]

diddlegnome, if you're interested in Mays and Chapman, there's a good book about the incident, The Pitch That Killed by Mike Sowell.
posted by staggernation at 6:36 AM on July 10, 2006

You're right, puke. I should have said "major-league player."

And thanks for the suggestion, staggernation.
posted by diddlegnome at 4:19 PM on July 10, 2006

Interesting post caddis! And runkelfilter's link was also quite fascinating.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:34 PM on July 11, 2006