On October 3, 1920 Jim Bagby wins his 31st game, clinching the pennant for the Cleveland Indians with a 10 – 1 win over the Detroit Tigers. Tris Speaker contributes three hits to finish the year at .388, second to George Sisler’s .407. The Red Sox’s 10 – 7 victory over the Browns is not…
The first-place Indians top the A’s, 9 – 3, while the White Sox, behind Red Faber, are again beating the Yankees, 6 – 4. Faber gets 1st-inning help from Eddie Collins, Joe Jackson and Happy Felsch who all hit two-out triples: Collins and Jackson triple later as Chicago totals an American League record six triples. The 3rd-place Sox are 1 1/2 games back.
On August 17, 1920, 29-year-old Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman dies in a hospital, one day after being beaned by New York Giants pitching star Carl Mays. Chapman, whose skull was fractured by the pitch, becomes the first and only major league player to die from an injury sustained on the playing field. @ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF90YWdzIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiTGVhcm4gTW9yZSBhYm91dCB0aGUgdGVhbXMsIHBsYXllcnMsIGJhbGwgcGFya3MgYW5kIGV2ZW50cyB0aGF0IGhhcHBlbmVkIG9uIHRoaXMgZGF0ZSBpbiBoaXN0b3J5IC0gLSAtIC0gLSAtIC0gIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIiLCJsaW5rX3RvX3Rlcm1fcGFnZSI6Im9uIiwic2VwYXJhdG9yIjoiIHwgIiwiY2F0ZWdvcnlfdHlwZSI6InBvc3RfdGFnIn19@…
1920 – Cleveland SS Ray Chapman, 29, is beaned by a Carl Mays pitch. A righthanded batter who crowds the plate, Chapman freezes and fails to get out of the way of the submarine delivery. He is carried from the field and dies the next day from a fractured skull. Mays, a surly, unpopular pitcher, is the target of fans’ and players’ outrage. Chapman, a Cleveland favorite since breaking in in 1912, had been married the previous year. In October his wife will receive a full World Series share, $3,986.34. The incident has no effect on Mays’s pitching. One week later he will blank Detroit, 10 – 0, and go on to win 26 and lose 11. Joe Sewell will be called up to take Chapman’s place, and for 14 years he will be the hardest man to strike out in the Major Leagues.
Tris Speaker, who has collected 11 consecutive hits, is finally thwarted by Washington hurler Tom Zachary. The “Grey Eagle’s” effort establishes a record, which will not be broken until 1938 when Red Sox third baseman Pinky Higgins hits 12 knocks in a row.
Cleveland’s right-hander Ray Caldwell no-hits the Yankees in the first game of a doubleheader sweep in New York, 3-0. The right-handed spitballer, released by the Red Sox in July, finishes the season winning five of six starts for the Tribe with an ERA of 1.71.
1919 – Philadelphia Athletics owner Connie Mack makes one of his biggest player mistakes, trading third baseman Larry Gardner, outfielder Charlie Jamieson, and pitcher Elmer Myers to the Cleveland Indians for OF Braggo Roth. Veteran writer Ernest Lanigan predicts that Roth will lead the circuit in home runs at Shibe Park, but Roth will be shipped to the Boston Red Sox by midseason. Gardner will put in six more .300 years, and Jamieson will be a top leadoff man and .303 hitter for the next 14 years.
Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians physically confronts umpire John Connolly
Stan Coveleski of the Cleveland Indians pitches a 19-inning, complete game to defeat the New York Yankees 3 – 2. Former P Joe Wood hits a home run in the 19th inning – his second of the game – to end the 3:45 marathon. For New York‚ Home Run Baker’s 11 assists tie the American League record for a third baseman in an extra-inning game.
With the anticipation of crime rates decreasing in the city, officials in Washington D.C. lift the prohibition on playing baseball on Sunday in the nation’s capital. In five days, 17,000 enthusiastic fans, the largest crowd in the history of Griffith Stadium, will be treated to a dramatic, 1-0 extra-inning victory against Cleveland in the first contest played on a Sunday in the District.
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