Hit by Pitch: Ray Chapman, Carl Mays and the Fatal Fastball

If you've ever watched a player get beaned by a baseball, you've experienced the sickening feeling that occurs merely from watching. In 1920, fifty years before the mandated use of batting helmets, Cleveland Indian shortstop, Ray "Chappie" Chapman, became the first and only major league baseball player to be killed by a pitched ball. This is his story and the story of pitcher, Carl Mays of the New York Yankees.

In some ways, it is easy to write about sports as the statisticians make the research simple - dates, times, players, locations, runs, hits, balls, strikes, averages - it's all recorded history. However, the single entry in the scorer's book for the game at the Polo Grounds between the Cleveland Indians the New York Yankees, "hit show more by pitch," cannot explain the tragic story of baseball's only fatal beaning on August 16, 1920. Molly Lawless uses black and white drawings, period quotes, newspaper articles, and sportswriter commentaries to animate this story for a new generation.

A more perfect tragedy could not be conceived if it were a work of fiction - the odd, sullen and nearly friendless "villain," Carl Mays, versus the cheerful, handsome and beloved athlete, businessman, husband and friend, "Chappie." One will live and one will die. Both stories end in tragedy.

Fascinating, well-researched, and told with a keen eye for the game and all its intricacies and idiosyncrasies. Ms. Lawless' respect for (and love of) baseball is apparent in every page. Her black and white illustrations evoke the time and spirit of the game in the "deadball era," and an American public, still processing the effects of the 1919 Black Sox Scandal and the relatively new phenomenon of Prohibition. Fans of baseball, graphic novels, history or tragedy will love this book.

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The excellent graphic novel depicts the lives of Ray Chapman, the only major league player to have been killed by a pitch and Carl Mays, the N.Y. Yankee who threw it. While not very sympathetic to Mays, who apparently no one liked, it does show how he became the man he was. Lawless makes the story leading up to the fatal pitch come alive. It sticks in your mind long after you have finished reading it. Highly recommended.

Molly Lawless had my attention and interest in her first few sentences; "Every game of baseball is it's own drama. Some moments forgettable and routine . . . and others epic for reasons no one watching even knows yet." This for me captures the nature of the game and it's appeal to those of us who love and follow the game.

The specific game in this case takes place in 1920 and involves the fatal pitch delivered by Carl Mays to Ray "Chappie" Chapman. Chapman was an outstanding shortstop for the Cleveland Indians and had as many as 67 sacrifice bunts in one year. Mays was also known to have good control (few walks per innings) but he also hit a number of hitters. However, it is also known that when the pitcher knows a bunt is likely, the show more hitter can typically expect a high inside fastball.

But is just part of the overall story. The two principle characters could not be more different. Chapman was loved, respected and revered by his team mates and fans while Mays was more of a taciturn personality widely disliked and alienated from others. Lawless does an excellent job of giving background of these two individuals. We also learn about other players, owners and managers of the era as well as the aftermath of the "hit by pitch".

The artwork is evocative and "spot on". I look forward to future work by this artist and author. show less

Ray Chapman is known to certain baseball fans as the only Major League batter to have died as the result of being hit by a pitch. The pitch was thrown by Carl Mays.

Despite the fact that other books have been devoted to the incident, it might seem a little thin for a book-length treatment, even if the book is, like Hit By Pitch, is 195 pages of cartoon drawings. But I loved Molly Lawless' book. I think in addition to her simple but elegant drawings which capture the action and character of the people and events she is depicting, Lawless demonstrates a mastery of narrative, if you ask me. She tells, with multiple frames and side excursions, the background of the two main characters and some others besides, and follows the aftermath for show more Mays and for Chapman's teammates. Her sense of narrative detail, in which her pictures fill in the details or dialogue the record leaves us to guess at, strike me as accurate and funny besides.

I really liked this book. show less

Ever since I heard of it, 25 years ago or so, I've wanted to learn more about the only on-field death in Major League Baseball history. This book provides a fine introduction, with some caveats. Lawless is a terrific artist, and she really brings the people involved to life. She has strong biases based on circumstantial evidence - and it shows in her art - Mays looks positively evil throughout most of the book, scowling and beady eyed. There is something strange about how she draws eyes, actually - Chapman and several others look like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange.

These are minor quibbles, and I thoroughly enjoyed learning a bit about this small, but important, incident in the history of the game. She does give a bibliography show more in the back of the book, which is useful. I wouldn't count on this book as the only account of this incident, and plan on reading more about it to get a more balanced view. show less

I was fortunate enough to receive a free copy of this work through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.

This graphic novel tells the true life story of the only baseball player to die from an injury on the field, Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians, who was beaned in the head by a pitch from the New York Yankees' Carl Mays in a 1920 ballgame in New York's Polo Ground. Lawless finds some common history among the two men both born in Kentucky in the same year building up their parallel stories leading to the fateful fastball in a similar fashion to Hardy's "Convergence of the Twain." Chapman is charismatic and popular with his teammates and fans while Mays is an outsider who is not well-liked setting up the perfect hero and villain show more scenario. Yet, Lawless makes sure to give Mays his fair due. Lawless details the indicident and its aftermath with grim and fascinating details. For example, did you know that Mays and Yankees' first baseman Wally Pipp fielded the ball that bounced off Chapman's head thinking that it was a bunt? This is a great work of baseball history as well as the graphic arts. show less

This graphic novel is well done and very much humanizes the story of Carl Mays and Ray Chapman. Describing the fatal pitch thrown by an unliked Carl Mays to a well-liked Ray Chapman, this book shows the personal side of this story through Ms. Lawless' artwork. It shows how Carl Mays' personality made it easy for the media and the public to make him the bad guy, how the beaning stayed with Mays throughout his life, and how there were a variety of other factors that go beyond the simple story that is often passed along urban legend-style. The book gives due credit to Mike Sowell's 'The Pitch That Killed', a thorough book on the topic, and does a good job of summarizing material while simultaneously being thorough in the research.
More show more than a summary but less than a research book, this book does a good job of bringing the story to light, especially the human element. show less