ED DELAHANTY
ONE OF THE GAME’S GREATEST SLUGGERS.
LED NATIONAL LEAGUE HITTERS IN
1899 WITH AN AVERAGE OF .408 FOR
PHILADELPHIA; AMERICAN LEAGUE
BATTERS IN 1902 WITH A MARK OF .376
FOR WASHINGTON. MADE 6 HITS IN 6
TIMES AT BAT TWICE DURING CAREER
AND ONCE HIT 4 HOME RUNS IN A GAME.
Elected to Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1945 Image provided by Dick Perez
Ed Delahanty hit over .300 in his last 12 seasons, finishing with a .346 lifetime average. His 1899 average of .408 as listed on his plaque has been changed to .410. He topped the .400 mark 3 times.
He had 4 brothers play in the major leagues, Frank, Jim, Joe, and Tom.
His 4 home run game on July 13, 1896 came in a losing effort. He also had a game where hit hit 4 doubles, also a record. He is the only player to accomplish both feats.
Ed Delahanty died on July 2, 1903. He was removed from a train travelling near Niagara Falls, do to his drunken and disorderly behavior. It is not known whether he fell, jumped, or was pushed off the International Bridge.
Ed Delahanty’s obituary from the New York Times July 10. 1903:
DELEHANTY’S BODY FOUND.
_______________
Baseball Player Swept over Niagara
Falls—Woman’s Body Also
Recovered.
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y., July 9.—The body of Edward Delehanty, the right fielder of the Washington baseball team of the American League, who fell from the International Bridge last Thursday night, was taken from the river at the lower Niagara gorge to-day. Relatives of Delehanty arrived here this afternoon and positively identified the body as that of the missing baseball player.
The body of a woman thirty-five years old was also recovered at Lewiston to-day. It has not been identified.
Delehanty’s body was mangled. One leg was torn off, presumably by the propeller of the Maid of the Mist, near whose landing the body was found. The body will be shipped to Washington to-night. Delehanty’s effects have been sent to his wife by the Pullman people.
Frank Delehanty of the Syracuse team and E.J. McGuire, a brother-in-law, from Cleveland, are here investigating the death of the player. They do not believe that Delehanty committed suicide or that he had been on a spree in Detroit. In the sleeper on the Michigan Central train on the way down from Detroit,Delehanty had five drinks of whiskey says Conductor Cole, and became so obstreperous that he had to put him off the train at Bridgeburg at the Canadian end of the bridge. Cole says Delehanty had an open razor and was terrifying others in the sleeper.
When the train stopped at Bridgeburg Cole did not deliver Delehanty up to a constable, as the Canadian police say he should have done. He simply put him off the train.
After the train had disappeared across the bridge, Delehanty started to walk across, which is against the rules. The night watchman attempted to stop him, but Delehanty pushed the man to one side. The draw of the bridge had been opened for a boat, and the player plunged into the dark waters of the Niagara.
Delehanty’s relatives hint at foul play, but there is nothing in the case, apparently, to bear out such a theory.
