I have one more out to get
We all could feel the tingle of the electric shock running through our systems
Jumping Joe Dugan stepped up to the plate, representing the potential final out in the top of the 9th. It had been another dismal year for the Athletics. The team would go on to lose 104 of the season’s 140 games, finishing last in the American League in both wins and attendance. The shortstop wasn’t having a career year, exactly, but he was beginning find his bat. After two years of hitting a combined .195, he’d pushed himself up to a respectable .271. He would end the following season at .322.
Dugan earned his nickname not for his defensive prowess (impressive, though it was), but rather a rare sensitivity. When his early career struggles were met with boos from the raucous home crowd, he skipped town without notice, fleeing to his family house in Connecticut. He returned to the team a few days later, bringing the “Jumping” nickname with him. As his offensive struggles mounted, Philadelphia fans began to yell “I want to go home!" at the 20-year-old.
The veteran spitball pitcher he was facing was, in many respects, Dugan’s polar opposite. Five days prior, Ray Caldwell signed to a Cleveland team desperately looking to build up its roster a month out from the playoffs. The 31-year-old righty had been unceremoniously dropped from two teams in as many years. Like Dugan, Caldwell had a habit of disappearing. He’d failed to complete two consecutive seasons for the Yankees.
1917 found him facing grand larceny charges over a stolen ring. That same year, his wife filed charges over unpaid alimony, culminating with another arrest, this time at the Yankees’ home field, the Polo Grounds.
“The New York club officers decided to take the money out of the gate receipts to make up the required bail of $1,000,” The Times wrote of the incident. “The attendance was less than 1,000 and a large number of those went in on passes, so Caldwell had to arrange for bail elsewhere to avoid going to Ludlow Street Jail.”
The following season, Caldwell found work at a shipbuilding firm, to avoid the draft in the final year of the first World War. He had failed to discuss the plan with the team, and the frustrated Yankees traded him for pitcher Ernie Shore and left fielder, Duffy Lewis. For all of his issues, it was Caldwell’s hard partying, heavy drinking ways that most troubled the team. It would ultimately prove the downfall of a career that might have otherwise placed him in the pantheon of all-time greats.
“Caldwell might have been the Mathewson of the Yankees, but he turned out to be the Bugs Raymond of the local Americans,” The New York Sun wrote that year, contrasting the New York Giants hall of famer with a mediocre teammate. “His irregular habits destroyed his effectiveness.”
The Red Sox looked to address those concerns by forcing him to room with star pitcher, Babe Ruth. It wasn’t a partnership conducive to sobriety for either party, as Ruth had also developed “a penchant for ‘outbreaks of misbehavior.’” The Sox cut Caldwell in early-August.
Despite his struggles and baggage, he’d sign with Cleveland mere weeks later. His new team instituted a novel strategy to address his penchant for nightclubs. He could drink to excess following a start, skip practice the following day and then rejoin the team the next. Upon returning to the field, he would be made to run laps to sweat out the remaining booze before preparing to pitch.
His first game with Cleveland found Caldwell in fine form. That he was facing a team as utterly dismal as the 1919 Philadelphia Athletics certainly didn’t hurt. In spite of the inclement weather, 20,000 fans had descended on League Park to watch him pitch, and Caldwell held the crowd – and the Athletics – in the spit-soaked palm of his hand. Philadelphia had only managed to score a single run on four hits, and the pitcher was clearly eager to end the game before the weather got any worse.
Setting up to face Dugan, the weather intervened. Where, precisely, the lighting struck is a matter of some dispute, but there’s some belief that the bolt splintered, connecting with both Caldwell and the press box. Players dove to the ground, and the media scattered as the field ignited in flames. Cleveland’s catcher threw off his mask, for fears it might attract the bolt. "We all could feel the tingle of the electric shock running through our systems, particularly in our legs," umpire Billy Evans would later tell reporters.
Caldwell fell to the ground lifelessly on impact. He lay stretched out on his back, as startled teammates rushed his body in what remains one of the most freakish occurrences to grace a major league baseball field more than 100 years later. "[He] lay stretched out in the pitcher's box,” The Sporting News noted, adding that his teammates believed "he may have been killed.” They refused to touch him over fears the body might still be carrying a charge. Caldwell maintained the position for five minutes, before coming to.
The relieved players asked whether he needed to go to the hospital, but the pitcher refused. He had a game to finish.
"I have one more out to get,” he reportedly told his teammates. "Give me the danged ball and turn me toward the plate."
Dugan obliged, stepping up to the plate. Once again, Caldwell set up, this time completing the task. The newly confident shortstop made contact, sending a grounder bouncing into the infield, where third baseman Willie Gardner struggled to field the play on the wet dirt. In a moment, he gained control of the ball, throwing it to first for the game’s final out.
Caldwell had tossed a complete game, notching his first Cleveland win and the worst headache of his life in the process.
Sources:
Ray Caldwell https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ray-caldwell/
The incredible story of Ray Caldwell, the MLB pitcher who survived a lightning strike to finish a game https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/32061845/the-incredible-story-mlb-pitcher-survived-lightning-strike-finish-game
Pitcher struck by lightning, unconscious, stayed in https://www.mlb.com/news/ray-caldwell-struck-by-lightning-while-pitching
Ray Caldwell Arrested https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/09/14/96270703.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0