October 21, 1918: Harry Chapman Dies In Service

Harry Chapman

October 21, 1918: Harry Chapman dies of the Spanish Flu epidemic at a U.S. Army base in Nevada, Missouri. He was 30 years old, and 1 of 8 Major League Baseball players to die in the service during World War I -- in his case, in Nevada, Missouri, having been returned to the U.S. to treat combat injuries, unsuccessfully as it turns out.

A native of Severance, Kansas, Chapman was a catcher, who played for the Chicago Cubs in 1912, the Cincinnati Reds in 1913, the St. Louis Terriers of the Federal League in 1914 and 1915, and the St. Louis Browns in 1916. Only in the FL was he anything like a regular player. His lifetime batting average was just .198, with 1 home run and 44 RBIs.

There is no memorial to him at Wrigley Field in Chicago, home of the Cubs; Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, home of the Reds; or Busch Stadium in St. Louis, home of the Cardinals.

Eugene Mayer also dies while serving in World War I on this day. The former halfback, sprinter, long jumper, shot putter and law school graduate at the University of Virginia, a native of Norfolk, never gets to play in the nascent NFL, because he dies at Camp Joseph E. Johnston in Jacksonville, Florida, a casualty of the Spanish Flu Epidemic. "Buck" Mayer was 26, and was posthumously elected to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

Buck Mayer

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October 21, 1918 was a Monday. The War Department had ordered that the baseball season end a month early, in September, and that all players obey the "work or fight order": Enlist, or get a job in an industry essential to the war effort, or get an otherwise necessary job (like police or firemen), or be subject to the military draft. Football was in midweek. Professional basketball barely existed. And hockey season hadn't started yet. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 7, 1914: A Pennant For Indianapolis

Benny Kauff

October 7, 1914: The Indianapolis Hoosiers defeat the St. Louis Terriers, 4-0 at Federal League Park in Indianapolis, and win the 1st Federal League Pennant. They finish a game and a half ahead of the Chicago Whales, and 4 1/2 ahead of the Baltimore Terrapins.

The Hoosiers, managed by Bill Phillips, had a future Hall-of-Famer, Indiana native Edd Roush, but he was still a rookie, and was not yet a starting player, let alone the great center fielder he would become. The outfielders they did have all batted at least .300: Al Scheer, Vin Campbell and Benny Kauff. 2nd baseman Frank LaPorte also did, and led the team with 107 RBIs. Kauff batted .370, with 95 RBIs. And Bill McKechnie, later to be a Pennant-winning manager, played 3rd base and batted .304. Cy Falkenberg was their ace, going 25-16 with a 2.22 ERA, and pitched a 3-hit shutout in the Pennant clincher.

However, their 4-2 win over the Terriers the next day will turn out to be the last Major League Baseball game ever played in the State of Indiana to this day -- if, that is, you consider the FL to have been a "major league." (MLB did not then, but it does now.) Financial losses lead them to be moved to Harrison, New Jersey, where they will become the Newark Peppers.

An Indiana-based team, the Fort Wayne Kekiongas, was a member of the 1st professional baseball league, the National Association, but only in its 1st season, 1871. Teams named the Indianapolis Hoosiers played in the American Association in 1884, and in the National League from 1887 to 1889.

But, despite Indianapolis being one of the 3 largest cities in the Midwest -- and, eventually, surpassing Detroit to become the 2nd-largest behind Chicago -- it's never had a major league team again after 1914. The Indianapolis Indians of the Class AAA version of the American Association won Pennants in 1920, 1908, 1917, 1928, 1949, 1956, 1963, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1994. They moved to the International League, and won the Pennant in 2000, giving them 14 Pennants.

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October 7, 1914 was a Wednesday. Elsewhere in the Federal League, the Baltimore Terrapins swept the Pittsburgh Rebels, 5-3 and 4-3 at Terrapin Park in Baltimore (later renamed Oriole Park); and the Brooklyn Tip-Tops beat the Buffalo Blues at Federal League Park in Buffalo.

No games were played in the National League. In the American League, at Fenway Park, the Washington Senators and the Boston Red Sox wound up the season in a meaningless game. Washington manager Clark Griffith, age 45, made his final mound appearance‚ while Boston's star center fielder Tris Speaker does the only pitching of his career‚ giving up a run in an inning. Babe Ruth‚ in relief of starter Hugh Bedient‚ pitches 3 innings for Boston. The Senators win, 11-4.

And the Philadelphia Athletics beat the New York Yankees, 10-0 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The A's had won their 4th Pennant in the last 5 years, while the Yankees were 30 games behind them. Oddly, Connie Mack used 4 pitchers to complete a 4-hit shutout: Rube Bressler for 3 innings; and, for 2 each, Bullet Joe Bush, Bob Shawkey and Herb Pennock. Those last 3 would all eventually pitch for the Yankees, and help them win Pennants.