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An MLB Player Got Struck By Lightning And Still Won The Game

Raymond Benjamin Caldwell was an American Major league pitcher from 1910 to 1921. He was known for throwing the spitball, and he was one of the 17 pitchers allowed to continue throwing the pitch after it was outlawed in 1920, a fact that could be a chapter on its own. However this chapter is what happened to Ray Caldwell on August 24, 1919. Prior to the 1919 season, the Yankees traded the 31-year-old Caldwell to the Red Sox after he had left the team without notice during the 1918 season, though it wasn't the first time but it was the last time he'd do it to the Yankees. He then was released in early August and taken in by Cleveland

To which, "Cleveland manager Tris Speaker had an unusual plan to find a sustainable balance between work and play for Caldwell: After every game he pitched, he would be encouraged to get drunk and would not report to the clubhouse the next day. When he returned the second day following his start, he would run a bunch of laps around the park to get it out of his system. Then he would begin the process of preparing for his next start." - www.mlb.com/news/ray-caldwell-struck-by-lightning-while-pitching

So the history day of August 24, 1919 on the ninth inning, Caldwell stood on the mound in the top of the ninth inning about to seal a 2-1 win for his new team and get the game in before the forecasted summer evening thunderstorm rolled in. What happened is a bit of a mystery but two things we know for sure;

1. A bolt of lightning struck somewhere within the confines of League Park.

2. It most definitely knocked Caldwell out cold.

"Some reports say the lightning struck an iron rail near the press box and made its way down to the field and out to the mound."Franklin Lewis, author of a history of the Indians, saw it differently. "A bolt came hurtling from the sky and smashed into the ground near the pitcher's mound," he wrote. "'A direct hit would have killed any mortal. Caldwell was struck, a glancing blow fortunately. He was flattened and knocked unconscious for five minutes.'" - www.mlb.com/news/ray-caldwell-struck-by-lightning-while-pitching

Caldwell had a theory of his own: The bolt entered him through the metal button atop his cap. He said the experience felt like someone hit him on the head with a wooden board. After the game, he claimed to have discovered a burn mark on his chest, which he obviously attributed to the lightning strike.

Others on the field had received electric shocks as well. The strike knocked off catcher Steve O'Neill's mask and cap. Third base coach Harry Davis lost his hat. Umpire Billy Evans said he felt the tingle of electricity in his legs. Ray Chapman - who would die after getting hit by a pitch a year later - reported numbness in his legs that nearly caused him to fall while running to Caldwell from shortstop. One of Caldwell's teammates also claimed to have gotten a second shock from touching the pitcher on the head.

After waking up around 5 minutes later to the surprise of his teammates -who believed he had died- he simply went back to the mound instead of seeking medical help. (Though if you ask me it was 1919, they didn't have much idea to help a lightning strike except to give pain medication which might have screwed him over considering he liked his alcohol.) He had one thing on his mind at the time to get Dugan out and ending the game. And that's just what he did, quickly inducing a ground ball to third base, winning the game.