Ben Chapman

From BR Bullpen

William Benjamin Chapman

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 0", Weight 190 lb.

Debut April 15, 1930
Final Game May 12, 1946
Born December 25, 1908 in Nashville, TN USA
Died July 7, 1993 in Hoover, AL USA

[edit] Biographical Information

Ben Chapman, who staged a comeback in the majors as a pitcher with Brooklyn in 1944, winning five and losing three, got in shape by officiating at basketball games. He was classified 4 F in the draft. He was in the major leagues in 1941 and then gone for the 1942 and 1943 seasons and then back in 1944 and 1945. Instead of being in the service as one might assume by looking only at his major league statistics, he was player/manager in the minor leagues for Richmond in the Piedmont League in 1942; in 1943 he was suspended from baseball for one year for assaulting an umpire. He went home to Alabama and returned to Richmond in 1944, reinvented himself as a pitcher and was back in the major leagues in that year and 1945. In his earlier incarnation, as a centerfielder, Chapman was one of the best base stealers of the 1930s.

He is infamous for being the loudest and nastiest heckler of Jackie Robinson during his rookie season in 1947. Early in the year the Dodgers went to Philadelphia, where the Tennessee-born Chapman managed the Phillies, and he led his team in some rather vicious hazing of the league's first black player. It backfired, and he was chastised by Commissioner Happy Chandler for his racist conduct. Eventually league and team officials a photo-op handshake between him and Robinson. Chapman's managerial career in the major leagues ended the following season when he was fired as skipper of the Philadelphia Phillies. He later served on the coaching staff of the 1952 Cincinnati Reds.