Big Ed Delahanty was
one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, but his accomplishments have been overshadowed by the circumstances of his
unusual death. Today, few fans are aware that he had a .346 career batting average, that he once hit four home runs in a single
game, or that he is the only man ever to lead both the National and American Leagues in batting. If they have heard of Delahanty
at all, it is because he died after being swept over Niagara Falls.
Born in Cleveland in 1867, Ed was the eldest of seven brothers- five of whom eventually played professional
baseball. Running away from home at the age of 19 to play for the Manfield, Ohio club in 1887, Ed hit .355. After hitting
over .400 in 21 games for Wheeling in the Tri-State league the following year, his contract was purchased by the Philadelphia
Phillies.
In the summer of 1903 Delahanty, the defending American League batting champion, was in his 16th
season in the major leagues. He was hitting a solid .333 for Washington, but he was hitting the bottle even more heavily.
John McGraw had recently offered him $4,500, $500 more than he was being paid by Washington, to jump back to the National
League and join the New York Giants. But the two leagues made peace before the season began and locked Delahanty into his
Washington contract, leaving him to sulk and drink.
At the end of June, with the team in the middle of a western road trip, Delahanty failed to show
up for a game in Cleveland. Manager Tom Loftus suspended him, but Delahanty continued to travel with the team.
On July 2 the slugger
boarded a train in Detroit, apparently going to New York. While drinking on the train, he brandished a razor at several other
passengers and caused a disturbance. The conductor tried to quiet him but failed, and Delahanty had to leave the train at
Niagara Falls, Ontario. Under Canadian law, Delahanty should have been put into the charge of a constable as a drunk and disorderly
person, but the conductor, perhaps pressed to keep on schedule, simply kicked him off. When the train left the station to
cross the bridge into the United States, Delahanty pushed past a guard and followed across the bridge on foot, ignoring the
bridge tender's warning that the draw was open. Delahanty never again was seen alive. They found his body below the falls
several days later. There has never been a clear-cut determination of what occurred. Some suggested he was murdered, some
that he had fallen through an open draw bridge and others that he had simply fallen into the river in a drunken stupor.
