“The Pitch That Killed,” Oklahoma author Mike Sowell’s account of the only such on-field fatality in baseball history, may become a motion picture.
A company called Come Aboard Productions has purchased the option on the book, and has begun pre-production on the film, which currently has the working title “Deadball.”
Sowell, now an associate professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, wrote “The Pitch That Killed: Carl Mays, Ray Chapman and the Pennant Race of 1920,” during his time as sports editor for The Tulsa Tribune. It was published in 1989.
Mays was one of the top pitcher for the New York Yankees, known for his unorthodox wind-up and sidearm delivery of a wicked spitball. Chapman was a much-admired shortstop for the Cleveland Indians. During a game in August, 1920, a Mays pitch struck Chapman in the head, fatally injuring him. Chapman died a few hours later.
“The Pitch That Killed” presents this story against the backdrop on the 1920 season, one of the most important in the history of the sport, which was undergoing seismic changes in the wake of the World War I and the 1919 World Series scandal.
“The Pitch That Killed” was named a New York Times Notable Book for 1989, and also earned the CASEY award from Spitball: The Baseball Literary Magazine for best baseball book of the year.
Two of the principals with Come Aboard Productions, Pamela Lynn Sullivan and Jeffrey David Anderson, have collaborated on a screenplay for the film, according to a report on the website PRLog.
"We are excited to bring this important story to life on screen," Sullivan, who is also a producer on the film, is quoted as saying. "1920 was a pivotal season in our national pastime. We want to tell the amazing story of complex characters who came together to save 'America's Game' during the height of a corruption scandal and the sport's first major tragedy."
