No active big leaguer died from the pandemic but ex-players did
This valuable study is by friend Jamie Selko. It represents old-fashioned SABR research: asking the question no one else has to ask, then digging in the files to provide a comprehensive answer.
The “War to end all Wars” ended on the eleventh of November, 1918. This conflict had cost the lives of some eighteen to twenty million people, only half of which were combatants. But even before the guns fell silent, unbeknownst to the world (at the time), the Third Horseman of the Apocalypse, Pestilence, was about to ride over the world, killing far more people than War did.
In February of 1918, a flu epidemic which was to become known as the Spanish Flu[1] began its march across the globe. It is normally considered to have begun in the U.S. on the fourth of March, 1918, at Camp Funston in Kansas, where Albert Gitchell, an army cook, fell ill.[2] (Obviously, it had existed elsewhere before this and the unfortunate Gitchell most likely caught it from one of the asymptomatic carriers passing through the camp either en route to or returning from Europe during the war.)
The disease spread quickly through the military grapevine, through the Midwest to the East coast and then to ports in France by April, whence it advanced to the Western Front.[3] By May, it had reached Poland, Russia, North Africa, India, and Japan; by June it was in China and by July, Australia.[4]
Unlike the victims of the Great War, these victims were not young, healthy men sent by old, rich men far from the fronts, to die, ostensibly for their country but actually for profits. No, these victims were the very young, the very old, and women. Some five hundred million people were infected, and perhaps as many as fifty million (a staggering 10 per cent of those infected) died from the disease.[5]
A very long time ago, way before the Covid pandemic, I wondered about how the Spanish Flu had affected major league players, and if any former players had been struck down by this scourge. I then gathered all the information I could find about the 56 players who died in the year from the spring of 1918 until the spring of 1919. When I had reached the end of my own resources, I called on my pals, the late and sorely missed Dick Thompson and Bill “Biolegend” Carle, two of the “usual suspects” who used to gather around the campfires in the hotel lobbies of SABR convention sites and go hammer and tongs in fierce trivia battles that lasted until the wee hours. I knew that if anyone had information on guys I didn’t have, it would be them, and I was correct in that assumption. In the end, of the 56, there were eight about whom I could find no information from any source to which I had access.
Following is a list of those major leaguers who died during that horrible year, the date they passed, any information related to their deaths and, where possible[6], the source of the information. Where there was additional biographical detail in either the obituary or, as in some cases, a longer article about the deceased, it has been added to the capsule story of each player’s demise. Otherwise, only the cause and date are given.
William H. Ahearn: Died on March 18, 1919 in Troy, New York. Cause of death unknown at this time.
Frank Julian Arellanes: Died of the flu on December 13, 1918 in San Jose, California. His ball career was prominently mentioned in his obituary. After leaving baseball, he was “engaged in the cigar business” in San Jose. He left a wife behind with his passing. The description of his funeral mentioned that his wife and brother-in-law were both ill with the flu. Source: Santa Cruz Evening News.
John William Bates: Died on March 24, 1919 in Oakland, California. Cause of death unknown at this time.
Ernest Joseph Beam: Died of cancer on the 12th of September, 1918 in Mansfield, Ohio. He had been a patrolman since 1901 up until a few months before his demise, after having been placed on desk duty in or around 1916. His ballplaying featured prominently in his obituary, and he was survived by his (unnamed) wife and two children, Frank and Rose. Source: Mansfield News.
Jacob Peter Beckley: Died of heart disease on the 25th of June, 1918 in Kansas City, Missouri. Source: David Fleitz, SABR.
John Robert ”Bob” Blakiston: Died on the 12th of December, 1918 in San Francisco, California. Died of tuberculosis after a long illness. Source: Bill Lee.
Alexander Thomson “Tom” Burr: Died on October 12, 1918 in Cazaux, France in a collision with another army pilot at 4,000 feet during a training exercise. Source: Rory Costello, SABR.
Edward T. Cassian: Died on September 12, 1918 in Meriden, Connecticut. Cause of death unknown at this time.
Harry Edward Chapman: Died of flu-caused pneumonia on October 21, 1918 in Nevada, Missouri. Source: Death Certificate, Missouri Board of Health.
LaVerne Ashford “Larry” Chappell: Died of the flu at Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco on November 8, 1918. He had been a corpsman in the Army. Source: Alton Evening Telegraph.
Eugene Holmes Curtis: Died of the flu on the first of January, 1919 in Steubenville, Ohio. Source: Indianapolis News.
Alfonzo DeFord “Lefty” Davis: Died from the effects of paralysis on February 7th, 1919 in Collins, New York. Source: Dick Thompson.
Frederick Demarais: Died after an eighteen-month illness on March 6, 1919 in Stamford, Connecticut. Source: Bill Carle.
Walter Raleigh Dickson: Died of the flu on December 9, 1918 in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Source: Dick Thompson.
Lester Carrington Dole: Died after a lengthy (but unnamed) illness on December 10, 1918 in Concord, New Hampshire. He had spent forty years as an athletic instructor and coach at St. Paul’s School in Concord. Source: Hartford Courant.
John Edward “Jack” Farrell: Died of flu-caused pneumonia on March 24, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois. Source: Chicago Tribune.
David W. “Davy” Force: Died on June 21, 1918 in Englewood, New Jersey. Cerebral thrombosis was noted as the cause of death. Source: Bill Lee.
William T. Fouser: Died of a heart attack while waiting for a train on March 1, 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. No mention of his having played in the Majors or any other personal information was noted. Source: Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger.
John Edward Frill: Died of the flu on September 28, 1918 in Westerly, Rhode Island. Source: Norwich Bulletin.
Frederick Jacob Gaiser: Died on October 9, 1918 in Trenton, New Jersey. Cause of death, flu-related pneumonia.
Harry Melville Glenn: Died of “pneumonia” on October 12, 1918 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was learning to be an aircraft mechanic for the Army at the Aviation Mechanics Training School in St. Paul, Minnesota. He had enlisted in August, when the International League season ended. Sources: Indianapolis News, the Louisville Courier-Journal [7]and The Leader Post, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Edward Leslie Grant: Died as the result of direct hit by an artillery shell on his position on October 5, 1918 in the Argonne Forest in France. He had been in the process of organizing a troop to rescue the “Lost Battalion.” Source: The Tribune, Scranton, Pennsylvania (see also Tom Simon’s biography of him at the SABR BioProject site).
Newton Schurz Halliday: Died of the flu on April 6, 1918 while stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois, a week after returning home from leave. He had enlisted in October 1917. Sources: Chicago Tribune, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Kentucky.
Michael Francis Hickey: Died on June 11, 1918 in Springfield, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe states that he died after a four-day illness, but gets no more specific than that. Because of the rapid decline into mortality, I am banking my money on the flu. After his playing career, he became a respected umpire in the Connecticut League. Several papers mentioned him having “stage fright” during his one-game trial with the Beaneaters in 1899 (even though he was 1 for 3). He had had a fifteen-year career playing for many teams in the Northeast and always hit for a decent average, batting over .300 at least seven times (many league averages are missing or incomplete).
George Kaiserling: Died after an extended battle with tuberculosis on March 2, 1918 in Steubenville, Ohio. Source: Indianapolis Star.
Patrick C. Larkins: Died on November 25, 1918 in Brooklyn, New York. Cause of death “Lobar Pneumonia.” Source: Standard certificate of death.
Michael H. Lawlor: Died on August 3, 1918, in Troy, New York after a long unspecified illness. Source: Los Angeles Evening Express.
George Lewis LeClair: Died of the flu on October 10, 1918 in Farnham, Quebec, Canada. Source: Yves Chartrand, SABR BioProject.
Harold Murray McClure: Died of “Neuralgia of the Heart”[8] on March 1, 1919 in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He had been a judge and “was stricken while walking on the street” (The Standard). At the time of his death he was serving on the State Public Service Commission. He had graduated from Bucknell and was a trustee of the school. Although his major league career consisted of two games in right field, apparently he was a noted local catcher; after his pro career was over, he toured the nation with a team that included noted curve baller Monte Ward. He was elected judge in 1891 and was survived by his wife Margaret and his children James and Margaret. Sources: The Evening News, Harrisburg Pennsylvania (which mentioned his having been a ballplayer) and The Standard, Lykens, Pennsylvania (which didn’t).
Christopher A. McFarland: Died of “acute indigestion”[9] on May 24, 1918 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He had been the superintendent of the New Bedford Dried Goods Company and he had just seated himself in a chair at work after having had dinner at his home. Before moving to New Bedford in October 1917, he had “been prominent in the dry goods business” of Fall River. There was no mention of his having been a ballplayer in his obituary. He left an (unnamed) widow[10] and a daughter, Lena. Source: Fall River Globe.
Edward M. Mincher: Died on December 18, 1918 in Brooklyn, New York. Cause of death unknown at this time, and there is no death certificate in New York Department of Health files.
John A. Newell: Died of “apoplexy” on January 23, 1919 in Wilmington, Delaware. His obituary noted that he was a “…well known former ball player” and had been part owner of the Wilmington team in the Atlantic League. He had been a contractor in the twelve years preceding his passing and was a member of the Eagles. Apparently, he had been in fine health when he made a visit to Philadelphia two days prior to his death. He left a son, John. Source: Wilmington Evening Journal.
James Henry “Orator Jim” O’Rourke: Died on January 8, 1919 in Bridgeport, Connecticut from pneumonia he got after going out for a walk in a blizzard a few days earlier. Source: Bill Lamb, SABR BioProject.
Michael “Fancy” O’Neil: Died on December 7, 1918 in Hartford, Connecticut. His funeral notice was printed in the Hartford Courant, but no cause of death was mentioned. Fortunately, Bill Carle came through again and informed me that “Fancy” O’Neil died of uremia.
Laurence Albert Pape: Died from “glandular cancer,” possibly as a result of having been hit by a line drive in a game in 1914, on July 12, 1918 in Swissvale, Pennsylvania. Source: Mark Z. Aaron, SABR BioProject.
Thomas Henry Reilly: Died of the flu on October 18, 1918 in New Orleans, Lousiana. Source: Dick Thompson.
Lawrence P. Ressler: Died of gastritis on June 12, 1918 in Reading, Pennsylvania. His obituary noted that he had enlisted in the Union Army at age 14. He had been a molder in the Scott Foundry for many years before becoming proprietor of the Eagle Hotel for fourteen years, the “hotel at Lauer’s Par” for eight years, and latterly of the “White House Hotel on Neversink Mountain” until shortly before his death. He also served as a volunteer fireman and as police officer and county detective. He was an Eagle and a member of the G.A.R. Source: Reading Times.
Charles Anderson Rhodes: Died of pneumonia resulting from the flu on October 26, 1918 in Caney, Kansas. He left a wife and two children. Source: The Caney News.
Arthur Ramon Rico: Died of peritonitis on January 3, 1919 in Boston, where he had been a star athlete at The English High School and the Huntington School for Boys where he excelled in baseball, “basket ball,” the hurdles, and throwing the shot. He had enlisted in the Navy and had served on the battleship USS Georgia . He was in the hospital recovering from a tonsillectomy when his appendix ruptured. Source: Boston Globe.
Philip John Routcliffe: Died of flu on October 4 in Oswego, New York. Source: Dick Thompson.
Albert Herman Schellhase: Died of stomach cancer on January 3, 1919 in Evansville, Indiana. He had been a saloonkeeper and was married to the former Nettie Vanbibben in 1914 and had a daughter named Grace, who lived until 1989. The photocopy of the Evansville Press which reported his death was unfortunately too dark to read, but help in solving this mystery came from another source, Bill Carle.
Owen Dennis Ignatius Shannon: Died of the flu on April 10, 1918 in Omaha, Nebraska. Source: Bill Carle.
Ralph Edward Sharman: Drowned while stationed in Camp Sheridan, Alabama on May 24, 1918. Ralph, a Cleveland boy, had been assigned to Battery F of the 136th Field Artillery, 37th Infantry Division, which had been raised from the Ohio National Guard. Source: The Montgomery Advertiser.
Jacob Charles Stenzel: Died of the flu on January 6, 1919 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Source: William Akin, SABR BioProject.
Michael Joseph “Silent Mike” Tiernan: Died of tuberculosis on November 7, 1918 in New York City. Source: Bill Lamb, SABR.
Stephen John Toole: Died on March 28, 1919 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The county commissioner and former wharfmaster had been in failing health since falling and breaking a patella two years older. Apparently, he was “widely known as a Ball Player.” He had been an alderman for eighteen years. His wife had preceded him in death two years earlier, and the couple had had no children. Source: Pittsburgh Daily Post.
Oliver Wendell “Patsy” Tebeau: He shot himself in the head on May 15, 1918 in St. Louis, Missouri. Source: Richard Scheinen (see bibliography).
James Madison Toy: Died of tuberculosis on March 13, 1919 in Creason, Pennsylvania. Source: Bill Carle.
Robert Gustav “Bun” Troy: He was killed in action at Petit Maujouym, France on October 7th, 1918. Source: Gary Bedingfield (see bibliography).
Maurice William Uhler: Died of tuberculosis on May 4, 1918 in Baltimore, Maryland, where he had been on the Baltimore Board of Fire Commissioners . Married, he and his wife had no children. Source: Death Certificate and Baltimore Sun.
Louis Newton “Lon” Ury: Died of the flu on March 4, 1918 in Kansas City, Missouri. He left a wife, Carrie, and a seven-year-old daughter, Ruth. He was employed by the Missouri Pacific railroad before and after his ball career. He had six brothers, four of whom also died of the flu, including three others from March 1 to March 3. Source: Fort Scott Daily Tribune.
Clarence Curtis “Jack” Wanner: Died of spinal tuberculosis on May 28, 1919 in Geneseo, Illinois. He worked at the Rock Island Arsenal in the off-season. He left a wife, June. Source: The Daily Times (Davenport, Iowa).
George Harrison Wheeler: Died of Tuberculosis on June 14, 1918 in Clinton, Indiana. Source: Bill Carle.
Edward Henry Wilkinson: After a two-year struggle with the disease, he died of tuberculosis on April 9, 1918 in Tucson, Arizona. His short obit mentioned that he had played for the Giants, that he was a member of the Elks, and that his father was with him when he died. Source: Tucson Citizen.
David Owen Williams: Died of Bright’s Disease[11] compounded by pneumonia on April 25, 1918 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He had been the commander of Battery B, 125th Field Artillery, part of the 3rd Minnesota Infantry, which had been assigned to the 34th Division. Source: Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock) and Wilson, John B. (see bibliography).
Peter Francis Woodruff: Died March 21, 1918 in New York City. There was a note in the Baltimore Sun (he was a native Baltimorean) which mentioned his passing, but no cause of death was given nor were any details of his life.
So, of the 55 players who died during the pandemic, twenty of the fifty-one players for whom we have a cause of death died from either the flu or flu-related pneumonia, which is 36 per cent of total fatalities and 39 per cent of those with known causes. Two players, George Kaiserling and Michael Lawlor, died after extended but unspecified illnesses, but what we do not know is whether the flu precipitated their ultimate demise.
At this late date, we have no way of knowing how many players and former players contracted the disease without succumbing, but, since this particular strain of the flu had the rather unusual pathology of striking children under five and those between twenty and forty with special vehemence, it is not without reason to assume that there must have been many active players who fell ill over between March 1918 and March 1919 but who recovered and went on to perform on the diamond with few aftereffects of their brush with mortality.
Bibliography
In addition to the newspapers and individuals named as sources, background information on the flu in general and military deaths in particular came from the following:
Barry, John M., “The Site of Origin of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic and its Public Health Implications,” Journal of Translational Medicine, February 2004.
Bedington, Gary, Baseball’s Greatest Sacrifice, www.baseballsgreatestsacrifice.com.
Desjardin, Skip, September 1918: War, Plague and the World Series, Regnery History, 2018.
Lee, Bill, The Baseball Necrology: The Post-Baseball Lives and Deaths of Over 7,600 Major League Baseball Players and Others, McFarland & Company, 2003.
McKenny, Janie E., Field Artillery and Army Reserve, Center of Military History, United States Army, 1985.
Patterson, K.D. and Pyle, G.F., “The Geography and Mortality of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 31 Dec 1990, 65(1):4–21), 1991.
Johnson, N.P.A.S. and Mueller, J., “Updating the Accounts: Global Mortality of the 1918–1920 ‘Spanish’ Influenza Pandemic,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 76 (105–115), 2002.
Scheinen, Richard, Field of Screams, W.W. Norton & Company, 1994.
Spinney, Laura, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World, Vintage, 2016.
Wilson, John B., Armies, Corps, Divisions and Separate Brigades, Center of Military History, United States Army, 1987.
Zimniuch, Fran, Shortened Seasons, The Untimely Deaths of Major League Baseball Stars and Journeymen, Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.
Notes
1.It was called this in the United States because the first well-known case was that of King Alfonso XIII of Spain. In Spain it was called “The Naples Soldier” (even though it was thought to have come from France). In West Africa it was called “The Brazilian Flu” and in Brazil it was known as “German Flu.” In Poland it was called the “Bolshevik Disease.” This information comes from Laura Spinney’s book, noted in the bibliography.
2. From Spinney, p. 36
3. Ibid, also p. 36
4. Ibid, p. 37
5. Between 24.7 and 39.3 million, according to Patterson and Pyle (see bibliography) and at least 50 million, according to Johnson and Mueller (see bibliography).
6. As was stated in the opening of this piece, some of the information was the work of Messrs. Carle and Thompson, two of SABR’s most unimpeachable sources. Back when the idea for this theme first occurred to me, I did not inquire as to the provenance of the information I received from my friends, I merely accepted it, and so these items are noted as sourced by them.
7. The Courier-Journal article also reported the deaths of (former) minor leaguers John C. Cooper, John W. Inglis, Harry Acton, and Francis Healey, all of whom were in the Service, the last three dying of the flu. The Buffalo Enquirer, which also mentioned Glenn’s death, reported that former minor league star pitcher Dave Roth (25) died of the flu.
8. Possibly a sequelae of having contracted the flu.
9. Almost certainly a heart attack.
10. It strikes me as odd that, for a number of these fellows, the pallbearers at his funeral are named but their wives aren’t.
11. Now known as chronic nephritis.
The Great Flu Epidemic of 1918–19 and Its Effects on Baseball Necrology was originally published in Our Game on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.