Has anyone ever been killed by a ball at a baseball game?

Answer 1

I was

Answer 2

I've never seen anyone killed, although I believe the previous answers were correct regarding the MLB player hit in the head with a pitch.

I've seen a few gruesome head shots too.

One was in baseball, a player leading off of 3rd base when the batter hit a HARD line drive down the line. it hit the runner in the face right below his eye. His check bone was shattered and he missed loosing his eye by less than an inch.

The second one (I wasn't at the game but it was on a team I now play for) was in slowpitch softball. A line drive hit the pitcher in the face. I'm not sure exactly what happened but he had major reconstructive surgery where they litterall cut his face part-way off and repaired the damage behind it. To make this one even worse it was Church league softball, one church with two teams and those teams were playing against each other, so the batter that hit the ball was from the same church as the pitcher that was injured. The pitcher still plays and pitches but now wears a batting helmet with a full face mask in the field.
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Answer 3

In major league baseball, the only player killed by a ball in a game was Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians in 1920. He was hit in the head by a pitch while not wearing a helmet, and died the next day of a cerebral hemorrhage.

However, there are many accounts of players and spectators who have been killed by a thrown or batted ball at the high school, legion and little league levels. Many of these deaths occurred not when the player was hit in the head, but in the chest, causing the heart to go into arrhythmia.

Answer 4

Kentuckian Ray Chapman holds the unusual distinction of being the only pro baseball player ever killed during a game.

Chapman, a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, was killed on August 16, 1920, by a "spitball" thrown by New York Yankees pitcher Carl Mays. Contrary to popular belief, spitballs were often not treated with spit but with all manner of gooey substances such as grease, oil, lard, or peanut butter. The purpose for this trick was to make the slippery ball harder for the bat to glance a proper blow off of, but it also had the effect of making the ball travel in an erratic pattern, quite difficult for the batter's eye to follow. The spitball was outlawed after Chapman's death.

Answer 5

In 1920 -- long before batting helmets were mandated -- Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman took a pitch from Carl Mays to his head. He collapsed, eventually was helped up, left the game, was taken to a hospital, and died the next day, cerebral hemmorage. Baseball, ever ready to make changes to the way it does business, mandated constant clean balls in play soon after (the ball that hit Chapman was dirtied up, which at the time was both permitted and standard), and likewise mandated batting helmets -- over 30 years later, in the late 1950s.

Chapman (thankfully) remains the only play-related on-field fatality in major league history.

Answer 6

Yes there have been cases of that happening, it's worse in softball.
Especially slowpitch softball, Pitchers getting hit in the chest causing the heart to defibulate and without a quick response by medical people and or a coach licenced / trained on an AED chances aren't very good for the player

Answer 7

a boy was killed, in an american legion game, he was the pitcher and the ball hit him in the head, his parents are trying to create a law that only wooden bats be used in games instead of metal because they don't hit the ball as hard

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/sports/baseball/16bats.html?ei=5088&en=bc65539595b5ee8c&ex=1310702400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Answer 8

Yes, in fact a 30ish man died in the same intensive care unit that my brother was in 8 years ago. Just an evening baseball game after work. Clunked right in the temple and his brain bled causing his death.

Answer 9

Randy Johnson killed a bird with a fastball while the bird was in mid-flight.

Answer 10

I don't know but i know a girl who got killed on her birthday by a hockey puck

Answer 11

I don't think so, but please pay attention we don't want to know the FIRST!