Killer Fastball

I found this story fascinating.
He found this story fascinating. 

I created a podcast. 
He created a documentary. 

For this bonus episode of "Killer Fastball," I talk to Andy Billman (director of ESPN's 30-for-30 documentary "Believeland") about his new documentary called "War On The Diamond." 

Yes, it's about Carl Mays, Ray Chapman, and the pitch that killed. But Andy says it's about way more than that. 

Great interview! 

MAKE SURE YOU LIKE, RATE AND SUBSCRIBE! 

Can one pitch curse an entire family? 

It sure seems like it.

Because within a decade of Mays' fastball killing Ray, Ray's wife and daughter were dead too. The family called it their "ghost story."

Meantime, Mays lived on, never able to escape the shadow of that single fastball.

Ray Chapman's teammates couldn't even make it through the funeral without getting into fistfights. 

Carl Mays couldn't get through a single sentence without tossing out another excuse. 

And the Indians couldn't believe it when they stumbled on a Hall of Fame replacement. 

*** 

Courtesy: 
Bull Durham/Orion  

Everything changed in the 5th inning.

The fastball. The cracking sound when the ball hit Chapman's skull. The gasps. The mad dash to the hospital. The surgery. And the moment Ray's wife told the priest: 

"We'd been too happy together and it couldn't last." 

She just knew.

Why was Ray Chapman not wearing a batting helmet when a fastball to his temple killed him? 

How come Babe Ruth was there? 

And what do John D. Rockefeller, 'No No Nanette,' the toaster and the zipper have to do with this story? 

I answer those questions in this episode. 

*** 

Courtesy: 
Sandlot/20th Century Fox 
The Babe/Universal  
Eight Men Out/Orion 
Major League/Paramount  
Field of Dreams/Universal 

Ray Chapman had it all. 

A beautiful wife. A baby on the way. A thriving baseball career. And a future in business waiting for him when he hung up his cleats. 

Then a hated pitcher threw a fastball high-and-tight... and killed him.

The wife. The baby. The career. The future. Ray's whole life... was gone. 

*** 

Courtesy: 
Field of Dreams/Universal 
Major League/Paramount
The Natural/TriStar 
Moneyball/Sony

One fastball took a man's life. 
One fastball wrecked another man's life. 
One fastball cursed an entire family. 

This is the true story of the only time in major league baseball history that a player died from injuries sustained on the field. 

And the drama surrounding that one pitch feels like it came right out of a movie.