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• 1869 – First international boat race (Thames River) (Oxford beats Harvard).
• 1894 – Philadelphia Phillies get 36 hits, Sam Thompson hits for cycle beating Louisville 29-4.
• 1904 – Boston Red Sox’ pitcher Jesse Tannehell no-hits Chicago White Sox, 6-0.
• 1918 – Samuel Riddle buys Man O’ War race horse for $5,000.
• 1920 – Ray Chapman, hit in the head by New York Yankees’ Carl Mays’ pitch, dies.
• 1933 – Lou Gehrig breaks record by playing in his 1,308th straight baseball game.
• 1938 – Henry Armstrong won his third concurrent boxing championship.
• 1944 – New York Yankees’ Johnny Lindell ties record with four consecutive doubles in a game.
• 1948 – Philadelphia Phillies commit 8 errors in a game.
• 1963 – Jim Hickman becomes the first New York Mets player to hit for the cycle.
• 1963 – Baltimore Orioles’ Dick Hall retires his 28th consecutive player in relief.
• 1969 – New York Jets beat New York Giants 37-14 in their first meeting (pre season).
• 1972 – Philadelphia Phillies’ Steve Carlton wins his 15th straight game.
• 1973 – At Shea Stadium, 42-year old New York Mets’ outfielder, Willie Mays, hits his 660th and final home run of his career.
• 1984 – Pete Rose returns to Cincinnati Reds as player-manager (gets two hits).
• 1985 – Dave Kingman hits his 400th home run.
• 1988 – Butch Reynolds of USA sets the 400m record (43.29) in Zurich, Switzerland.
• 1999 – Baltimore Orioles’ pitcher Jesse Orosco sets a major league mark pitching in his 1,072nd game.
• 2008 – Michael Phelps wins his record eighth gold medal of the Beijing Games, in the 4x100 medley relay, in record time of 3:29.34. Phelps now holds the record for most gold medals at an Olympics event.

THIS DAY IN SPORTS-AUGUST 17, 1920

NEW YORK TIMES

NEW YORK-The body of Ray Chapman, the Cleveland shortstop, who died early today in St. Lawrence Hospital after being hit in the head by a pitched ball thrown by Carl Mays at the Polo Grounds yesterday afternoon, was taken to his home in Cleveland tonight. A group of baseball fans stood with bared heads at the Grand Central Terminal as the body was taken through the gates to the train. The ball player’s widow, who went with the body, was accompanied by her brother and a friend, Indians Manager Tris Speaker, and Joe Wood, one of the players.

Chapman’s death has cast a tragic spell over the baseball fans of the city, and everywhere the accident was the topic of conversation. Chapman was a true sportsman, a skillful player, and one of the most popular men in the major leagues. And this was to have been his last season in professional baseball. Carl Mays, the Yankees pitcher who threw the ball which felled Chapman, voluntarily went before Assistant District Attorney Joyce and was exonerated of all blame. The game which was to have been played between Cleveland and New York was put over until Thursday and the players of both clubs joined in mourning.

Although there is some bitterness against Mays among some of the Cleveland players, Manager Speaker, in a telephone conversation with Colonel T.L. Huston, part owner of the New York club, said he and his clubmates would do everything in their power to suppress this feeling. “It is the duty of all of us,” said Speaker, “of all the players, not only for the good of the game, but also out of respect to the poor fellow who was killed, to suppress all bitter feeling.”

Chapman died at 4:40 o’clock this morning, following an operation performed by Dr. T.M. Merrigan, surgical director of the institution. Chapman was unconscious after he arrived at the hospital. The operation began at 12:29 o’clock and was completed at 1:44. The blow had caused a depressed fracture in Chapman’s head three and a half inches long. Dr. Merrigan removed a piece of skull about an inch and a half square and found the brain had been so severely jarred that blod clots had formed. The shock of the blow had lacerated the brain not only on the left side of the head where the ball struck but also on the right side where the shock of the blow had forced the brain against the skull, Dr. Merrigan said.

Mays is greatly shocked over the accident. He said he threw a high fast ball at a time when Chapman was crouched over the plate. He thought the ball hit the handle of Chapman’s bat, for he fielded the ball and tossed it to first base. It wasn’t until after that, when he saw Umpire Connelly calling to the stands for a physician, that he realized he had hit Chapman in the head. Manager Miller Huggins of the Yankees believes Chapman’s left foot may have caught in the ground in some manner which prevented him from stepping out of the ball’s way. Manager Huggins explained that batsmen usually had one foot loose and free at just such moments and Chapman had got out of the way of the same kind of pitched balls before.

Although there have been several serious beanings in the major leagues, some of which led to the curtailment of careers, Ray Chapman remains the only player to have been killed by a pitch. Batting helmets, invented in the 50’s, may well have helped to prevent deaths.

2018 RICHMOND FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

AUGUST 10…VS. DELTA 7:00 (SCRIMMAGE)

AUGUST 17…AT CONNERSVILLE 7:00

AUGUST 24…VS. LAWRENCE NORTH 7:00

AUGUST 31…AT INDIANAPOLIS TECH 7:00

SEPTEMBER 7…VS. MUNCIE CENTRAL 7:00

SEPTEMBER 14…AT MARION 7:00

SEPTEMBER 21…VS. McCUTCHEON 7:00

SEPTEMBER 28…AT LAFAYETTE JEFF 7:00

OCTOBER 5…VS. ANDERSON 7:00

OCTOBER 12….AT KOKOMO 7:00

***ALL GAMES CAN BE SEEN ON RADIOTROY.COM*****

Sept. 1 at FIU

Sept. 8 Virginia

Sept. 15 Ball State

Sept. 22 Michigan State

Sept. 29 at Rutgers

Oct. 6 at Ohio State

Oct. 13 Iowa

Oct. 20 Penn State

Oct. 26 at Minnesota

Nov. 3 OPEN DATE

Nov. 10 Maryland

Nov. 17 at Michigan

Nov. 24 Purdue

1938: Henry Armstrong won the world lightweight title in a bloody 15-round split decision over Lou Ambers at Madison Square Garden in New York, becoming the first boxer to hold titles in three different weight classes simultaneously. He also held the welterweight and featherweight crowns. Armstrong retired in 1945 with a record of 145-20-9 with 98 knockouts.

1971      After getting hit by a pitch in the third inning by a Steve Arlin fastball, Ron Hunt takes exception to being plunked again two frames later by the Padres pitcher. The combative Expos second baseman, who will be the only player ejected from the San Diego Stadium contest, shows his displeasure by ripping off backstop Bob Barton’s mask and punching the catcher squarely in the face, igniting a bench-clearing brawl.

Wilma Rudolph

“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.”