When baseball’s brightest star met a dark fate at Niagara.
His name was Ed Delahanty.
He can be found in the echoes of the baseball greats, in Cooperstown, New York as a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Delahanty was one of the best players of the 19th century.
Yes, 19th century.
He was born in 1867 and played in the major leagues for 16 seasons before a tragic and untimely death at the young age of 35.
Delahanty was the first player in modern major league history to hit over .400 three times, led the NL in RBIs three times, home runs twice and stolen bases once.
He was one of baseball’s first true superstars.
Unfortunately it was all taken away from him on July 2, 1903.
Delahanty went on a bender and left his team at the time, the Washington Senators.
On that night in early July, he was riding a train, when he got too drunk, that the conductor had to kick him off.
He exited the train, very much inebriated, and fell off the International Railway Bridge that crossed over Niagara Falls.
It’s unclear whether he fell or jumped to his death.
Delahanty’s body was found at the bottom of Niagara Falls a week after his death.
The legend of the Hall of Famer has stood the test of time, as his colleagues’ praises (and the media’s) for him were recorded in the midst of his career.
A popular publication of the 19th century, The Sport Life, detailed Delahanty’s talent.
“Delahanty is an awfully even, well-balanced player all around,” the publication wrote.
“You look at his batting and say well, that chap is valuable if he couldn’t catch the measles, and then you look at his fielding and conclude that it wouldn’t pay to let him go if he couldn’t hit a bat bag.”
A handful of big time players at the time such as Philip Ehret, Sam Crawford and Jack O’Connor all dazzled at ‘Big Ed’s’ skill.
“The hardest man in the league for pitchers to puzzle,” Ehret said.
“The best right-handed hitter I ever saw,” Crawford said.
“If Del had a weakness at the bat, I never could discover it,” O’Connor recalled.
One of the oldest sport’s first superstars is not something you hear thrown around every day.
But it is for Big Ed. And it’s well-deserved.
Delahanty was elected to the Hall of Fame posthumously in 1945.
