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Historical Perspective

On 27 June 2001, Brendan Grant was playing summer baseball for the Belmont Senior Babe Ruth Baseball Team on the Belmont High School Varsity Field, in Belmont Massachusetts. While attempting to catch a routine fly ball from his position as left fielder, Brendan collided with the center fielder, and sustained fatal injuries from the resulting collision.

In the sport of baseball, this event appears to be a very rare occurrence. Research into the archives of baseball on this matter is on-going. At the time this webpage was last updated, information has been located on forty individuals who appear to have died as a direct result of an accident while preparing or participating in a game of organized baseball.  Most of the accidents have been the result of being hit by the baseball, and only five appear to have resulted from a collision between players (e.g. John Quigley in 1877, Louis Henke in 1885, Charles Ray Tumelty in 1938, Alfredo Edmead in 1974, and Andrew Cohn in 2010). 

The information tabulated below includes only individuals who were participating in the preparation or playing of a baseball game in an organized league, and who died as a direct result of the accident. This includes anyone actively involved on the field of play such as players, umpires, bat boys, etc, and does not include non-participants such as spectators, groundskeepers, etc. Furthermore, this only includes accidental deaths during a game or pre-game, and does not include acts of intentional violence (e.g., fights, riots, murders, suicides, etc). Individuals are not included who were injured and returned to play baseball, or who returned to normal life in some capacity, but subsequently died of complications due to an earlier injury.

This information has been compiled primarily through  the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) and The Deadball Era. A key source of information is "Bury My Heart at Cooperstown" by Frank Russo and Gene Racz (Triumph Books, 2006).  Information is also being investigated with the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, which indicates that during the period of 1982 to 2000 there were 8 high school and 2 college related baseball fatalities.  The details of these particular events are still being researched.  If you have information that could assist, please send it to us at the email identified through the "Foundation Information" section (under "contact us") of this website.

The following table summarizes the accidental baseball player fatalities known at this time.  This is a listing of baseball notables who were fatally injured while preparing or playing the game of baseball as part of an organized league.

SUMMARY OF ACCIDENTAL BASEBALL PLAYER FATALITIES
Last Updated 15 December 2010