In 1920, major league baseball player Ray Chapman was killed by a pitch made by Carl Mays. This book tells the backstory of the players involved in this tragic event as well as that of the year’s pennant race. Notable names, such as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, make an appearance to give the story context. I had mixed feeling about this book.

On the plus side:
• I learned the details about this tragedy, which ultimately led to mandatory use of batting helmets many years later
• It was interesting comparing modern day baseball to 1920’s baseball, where a player might get a “ground rule” double because his ball hit a policeman’s horse or a game getting called due to darkness or parents handing small children onto the field to shake Babe Ruth’s hand after a home run or fans being charged with petty larceny for keeping balls hit into the stands

On the minus side:
• Too much detail for my taste, including blow by blow accounts of many individual games
• Numerous formatting issues, such as spelling errors, inconsistent use of quotation marks, and misplaced hyphens in the e-book
• It lacked a personal connection to the players; instead, it was a straight-forward narrative telling what happened first, second, third, etc. I guess I just didn’t care for the style of the author, which is an individual taste.

Recommended to those who enjoy detailed stories of the history of baseball. ( )

Elegaic. Any baseball fans who like to read have already discovered it, but this tale transcends baseball. ( )

The most facinating book on baseball that I've ever read. ( )

2261 The Pitch That Killed, by Mike Sowell (read 6 Jan 1990) This is the story of Ray Chapman, Cleveland Indian shortstop, killed by a bean ball thrown by Carl Mays, New York Yankee pitcher, on Aug 11, 1920, at the Polo Grounds in New York, where the Yankees then played their home games. The book is written in sportswriter language--a 15-year-old can understand every word. But I found it very good in recreating that simpler age in baseball, when a dollar was worth a dollar. The book tells of the 1920 American League pennant race (deemed no. 21, on the list of 25 Greatest Pennant Race [as of 1987]). It also says that Mays was accused of throwing a game in the 1921 World Series, and that that suspicion is what kept Carl Mays out of the Hall of Fame--not the fact that his pitch killed Ray Chapman. Chapman is the only person killed in major league play. The book is well-researched, full of things one wants to know about all involved in the year. ( )