finalyear death_date debutyear statvalue finalteam birth_date death_place finaldate image statlabel debutteam name throws caption birth_place debutdate bats position article_title
1920 17 august 1920 1912 .278 17 364 cleveland indians 15 january 1891 new york , new york , u.s. august 16 ray_chapman_baseball . jpg batting average home runs runs batted in cleveland naps ray chapman right ray chapman beaver dam , kentucky , u.s. august 30 right shortstop ray chapman

ray chapman

raymond johnson chapman -lrb- january 15 , 1891 -- august 17 , 1920 -rrb- was an american baseball player , spending his entire career as a shortstop for cleveland .
chapman was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by yankees pitcher carl mays , and died 12 hours later .
he remains the only major league baseball player to have died from an injury received at a major league baseball game .
his death led to major league baseball establishing a rule requiring umpires to replace the ball whenever it became dirty , and it was partially the reason the spitball was banned after the 1920 season .
chapman 's death was also one of the examples used to emphasize the need for wearing batting helmets -lrb- although the rule was not adopted until over 30 years later -rrb- .
