Ben Chapman (baseball player)

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For other persons named Ben Chapman, see Ben Chapman (disambiguation).

William Benjamin Chapman (December 25, 1908 - July 7, 1993) was an American outfielder and manager in Major League Baseball who played for several teams, most notably the New York Yankees. During the period from 1926 to 1943 he had more stolen bases than any other player, leading the American League four times. After twelve seasons, during which he batted .302 and led the AL in assists and double plays twice each, he spent two years in the minor leagues and returned to the majors as a National League pitcher for three seasons, becoming manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, his final team. Although he made his name as a fast, ferocious and hard-nosed player, that reputation was eclipsed by the controversial role he played in 1947 as manager of the Phillies, opposing the presence of Jackie Robinson on a major league team.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Chapman batted and threw right-handed. He was a teammate of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio and other stars on the Yankees from 1930 through the middle of 1936. In his 1930 rookie season with the Yankees, during which he batted .316, he played exclusively in the infield as a second and third baseman; although he played only 91 games at third, he led the AL in errors, and after Joe Sewell was acquired in the offseason, Chapman was shifted to the outfield to take advantage of his speed and throwing arm. He led the AL in stolen bases for the next three seasons (1931-33); his 1931 total of 61 was the highest by a Yankee since Fritz Maisel's 74 in 1914, and would be the most by any major leaguer between 1921 and 1961 (though tied by George Case in 1943). With the Yankees, he also batted over .300 and scored 100 runs four times each, batted in 100 runs twice, led the AL in triples in 1934, and made each of the first three AL All-Star teams from 1933-35, leading off in the 1933 game as the first AL hitter in All-Star history. In the 1932 World Series he batted .294 with 6 runs batted in as the Yankees swept the Chicago Cubs. In one game on July 9, 1932 he had three home runs, two of which were inside-the-park, and on May 30, 1934 he broke up Detroit Tiger Earl Whitehill's no-hitter in the ninth inning, making it a one-hit shutout; the two had brawled during a 1933 game.

In June 1936, Chapman – then hitting .266 and expendable with the arrival of DiMaggio – was traded to the Washington Senators; he rebounded to finish the year with a .315 average, again making the All-Star team and scoring 100 runs, and collecting a career-high 50 doubles. In June 1937 the Senators sent him to the Boston Red Sox, and he led the AL in steals for the fourth time with 35. The following year he hit a career-best .340 with Boston, after which he was traded to the Cleveland Indians. After seasons hitting .290 and .286, Cleveland sent him back to Washington in December 1940; he hit .255 with the Senators before they released him in May 1941, and after he batted only .226 with the Chicago White Sox over the remainder of the year, his major league career appeared to be finished.

But after managing in the Class B Piedmont League in 1942 and 1944 - he was suspended for the 1943 season for punching an umpire - Chapman resurfaced, following brief World War II military service, as a pitcher in the National League with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1944, earning 5 wins against 3 losses. After starting the next year 3-3, he was traded to the Phillies on June 15, 1945, becoming player-manager on June 30. He made three relief appearances for the team that year, and played his final game in 1946 with one inning of relief. He appeared in 1,717 games over 15 seasons, batting .302 lifetime with 287 stolen bases (including 15 of home), 1,144 runs, 90 home runs, 407 doubles, 107 triples and 977 RBI, and winning eight of 14 decisions as a pitcher; his 184 steals with the Yankees placed him second in team history behind Hal Chase.

With the Phillies buried in last place in 1945 (winners of only 17 of 68 games), Chapman replaced Freddie Fitzsimmons as manager. The team improved somewhat through the end of the year, and climbed to fifth place in 1946, the first year of the postwar baseball boom and the last season in which the color line was in force. In April 1947, Brooklyn called up Robinson from the Montreal Royals and made him their regular first baseman: he was the first African-American to play in the major leagues in more than 60 years. Chapman's Phillies were hardly the only NL team to vehemently oppose integration - several Dodger players had tried to petition management to keep him off the team - but during an early-season series in Brooklyn, the level of verbal abuse directed by Chapman and his players at Robinson reached such proportions that it made headlines in the New York and national press. Chapman instructed his pitchers, whenever they had a 3-0 count against Robinson, to bean him rather than throw a ball and walk him. As it turned out, Chapman's attempts to intimidate Robinson backfired with The Dodgers ralling behind Robinson, and there was increased sympathy for him in many circles. The backlash against Chapman was so severe that he asked to pose in a photograph with Robinson when the two teams next met in Philadelphia in May (in the photo, the two do not shake hands; they hold opposite ends of a baseball bat).

Robinson went on to stardom and a ten-year career, a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and a revered position in American sporting and civil rights circles. Chapman's baseball career, however, was coming to an end. He survived the 1947 season, but the Phils fell to seventh place. In July 1948, with the team still in seventh, Chapman was fired and eventually replaced by Eddie Sawyer. He would surface one more time in the majors, as a coach for the 1952 Cincinnati Reds.

Chapman's career major league managing record was 196-276 (.415%). He died of a heart attack at age 84 at his home in Hoover, Alabama.

[edit] External links

• Baseball-Reference.com - career playing statistics and managing record
• BaseballLibrary - career highlights
• The Baseball Page

Preceded by: Freddie Fitzsimmons

Philadelphia Phillies Manager 1945-1948

Succeeded by: Eddie Sawyer