Our weekly round-up of letters published in the Citizen.
1
My name is Michael Ricci. Some of you will remember me from 2010 to 2016 when I wrote the column Watch Your Language. Recently have been repairing a broken knee at a local nursing home.
On Nov. 9 I read an article in 新加坡多多开奖记录 by Frank Clarke in his Eco Talk column. It dealt with Major League Baseball's use of a mud cover, which was meant to help control the pitches thrown to the batters.
Clarke wrote that a player being hit and killed by a wild pitch in the 1920s ultimately led to the use of the mud. He was referring to Aug. 17, 1920, when Carl Mays, a Yankee submariner, threw a pitch that struck and killed Ray Chapman, suggesting that Mays lacked control of the baseball and that is why the pitch struck Chapman.
It is unfortunate that Clarke seems to be unaware about the real reason for Chapman's death. The game was played at the Polo Grounds in New York. During that season, all of the owners of teams in the American League complained that the umpires were throwing too many baseballs out of games. They directed that problem to American League president Ban Johnson, who then instructed his umpires to keep all baseballs in the games as long as possible. Two negative situations were present on the fateful day: The sky was very dark and almost black, and the pitch was very gray to black in color. The situation was further exasperated by Chapman's tendency to stand too close to home plate, and Mays throwing his pitches in a submarine fashion. After his pitch struck Chapman, he said to Mays, "It's not your fault" as he died.
Reference: "The Greatest Game: Our Lifelong Romance with Baseball," Michael Anthony Ricci, 2018.
