Death on the diamond

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This article was published 27/08/2019 (2412 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the history of organized baseball, only 12  players have died after being hit by a pitch.

Bob Gorman, the co-author of a book titled Death at the Ballpark, confirmed that Winnipeg is the only city where two deaths of this type happened. Both took place at Sherburn Park, the home of the Winnipeg Maroons of the Class D Northern League. The long-gone park was located just north of Portage Avenue near Sherburn Street. Home plate was in the northwest corner. In the winter, Sherburn was a popular place for outdoor hockey and skating.  

On Aug. 27, 1936, George Tkach, a second baseman for the Superior Blues, was hit in the face by Maroons pitcher Alex Uffelman. At first, recovery seemed likely, but on Sept. 2,  he died in the Winnipeg General Hospital after an emergency operation to remove a blood clot in his brain. Bruno Haas, who ran the Maroons, was the playing manager that season and Winnipeg’s great all-around athlete Hugh Gustafson was the team’s first baseman.

Two summers later the pair witnessed the second fatal beaning at Sherburn Park. On July 16, 1938, the home team’s second baseman, Linus (Skeeter) Ebnet, was hit during the first inning of the second game of a doubleheader against Grand Forks Chiefs. The game had started at twilight and to put that in perspective, three days later a game at Sherburn Park was called due to darkness after just 65 minutes. With his first two pitches called balls, Grand Forks pitcher Vince Clawson said he was trying to throw the ball over the plate, but the pitch broke inside and Ebnet ducked into it. The infielder was taken to Grace Hospital where he died on July 21. Ebnet, 23, who was in his fifth year of pro ball, had a batting average of .280 after joining the Maroons partway into the season. He had been teaching school and serving as a college baseball coach in Minnesota. In 1937, Ebnet had hit .316 for the Maroons.

Only one major league baseball player has died as a result of being hit in the head by a pitch. Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman died on Aug. 17, 1920 after being hit the previous day by New York Yankees pitcher Carl Mays. The tragedy happened in the late afternoon during the fifth inning of the game at the Polo Grounds in New York City. Mays threw with a submarine delivery and eyewitnesses said Chapman never seemed to see the ball and did not move out of the way. The last minor league beaning death happened in 1951 when Ottis Johnson of the Dothan Browns of the Class D Alabama-Florida League was hit in the temple by Harry Clifton of the Dixie Runners.

In the early years of organized baseball, pitchers tried to dirty up the ball with tobacco juice, spit and sandpaper along with dirt. That caused the ball to move erratically and was very hard to see. Our province’s most successful major league pitcher Russ Ford used an emery board to scuff the ball. Ford, who was born in Brandon, was the first Canadian to win 20 games in a major league season and had a 99-71 record over seven seasons in the early part of the 20th century.

The spitball was banned after the 1920 season. Batting helmets did not become mandatory in the majors until more than 30 years later.

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com