further antedating of "screw ball" 1919

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:31 PM -0600 2/21/04, Jim Parish wrote:
>Sam Clements wrote:
>>  As a side note, I wonder if Carl wasn't what was called in modern terms =
>>  a "submarine" pitcher?  Did he "really" pitch underhand?  I doubt it.
>
>Bill James' _Historical Baseball Abstract_ says of Carl Mays: "Threw
>underhand, real hard."

Hard enough to kill--which in fact he did, an Indians infielder named
Chapman, if memory serves.  (Oh, that's memory of reading about it,
in case you were wondering.  It's a bit before my time.) Anyway, that
was the only instance of a player being killed by a pitch in major
league baseball.  I seem to recall Mays was never the same after
that.  (Although that was even more true of Chapman...)

>This isn't decisive, but James is a Kansas City
>fan, very fond of Dan Quisenberry, who was a submariner; I would
>expect him to be precise on this matter.
>
Yes, I would too.  James's HBA (first edition) is pretty reliable to
begin with.

larry