It should be noted that some have declared this telling of his demise as nothing more than a humorous tale invented after his death.
Nailed by a Pitch
In 1920, during a twilight game at the Polo Grounds in New York City, a young batter was struck down by a ball he apparently never even saw. Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians, also known to fans as Chappie, in a game against the New York Yankees, was hit in the head by an incoming pitch from Carl Mays on August 16th and was dead from his injuries only 12 hours later.
It was common practice at the time to dirty up a fresh ball in order to make it harder to see and many believe this is what caused Chapman to fail to detect the ball.
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The sound of the ball hitting Chapman’s head was said to have been so loud thatMays fielded the ball and threw it to first. Mays was quickly exonerated of all wrong doing.
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Fatal Facial Hair
In 1567 in Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian town on the Salzach River, the town councilman, Hans Steininger, lost his life because of his facial hair. The patriarch and respected town leader had been growing his beard for years. It was so long, in fact, that it reached to his feet.
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While this Herculean beard was a sight to see, it was less convenient to actually wear. Usually Steininger wore it rolled up into a pouch. But, on that fateful day, he did not. When a fire broke out he ran for his life, tripping on his beard and falling down a set of stairs, dying from the injuries.
The now-infamous beard, which was preserved by the family and has at times been on display, measures just over 6 1/2 feet long. However, this is not the longest recorded beard in human history. That honor goes to Hans Langseth, a Norwegian immigrant who settled in the U.S. His beard was over 17 feet long!
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