May 19, 1929: Death at Yankee Stadium: Two fans die after rain stampede

It began with a clap of thunder and a sudden deluge of rain, and ended with Babe Ruth cradling a dying teenager in his arms. In between were 4⅔ innings of baseball rendered meaningless by what is still the worst tragedy in the history of Yankee Stadium.

It was May 19, 1929. The Yankees, after three straight American League pennants and back-to-back World Series sweeps had started the season just as strong, winning 13 of their first 17 games. But a four-game losing streak had dropped them a game and a half behind the hard-charging Philadelphia Athletics.

During this third weekend in May, the Yankees were looking to make hay as they had a five-game home series against the lowly Boston Red Sox, who had finished last or next to last every year since 1922. They did so again in 1929 (and in 1930).

The first game, played Friday, May 17, was a heartbreaker as the Yankees lost 5-3 in 12 innings despite three-hit days from Earle Combs and Tony Lazzeri. The Yankees bounced back on Saturday, sweeping both ends of a doubleheader behind Herb Pennock and George Pipgras, setting the stage for Sunday’s scheduled doubleheader.

About 50,000 fans were there as the first game began in sunshine, with about 9,000 having paid their 50 cents to sit in the uncovered right-field bleachers – known as “Ruthville” because of its proximity to Ruth’s usual right-field position at Yankee Stadium, as well as where many of his home runs landed.1

On the mound for the Yankees was Fred “Lefty” Heimach, a 28-year-old World War I veteran, who after pitching seven years with the A’s and Red Sox had been acquired by the Yankees from the St. Paul Saints the previous August. The New Jersey-born twirler was 2-1 with a 2.32 ERA in two starts and three relief appearances when he took the mound that afternoon.

The Red Sox countered with 23-year-old Jack Russell, who despite his youth was in his fourth major-league season. Entering the game, he was 2-3 with a 4.08 ERA in six starts.

Heimach set down the Red Sox in order in the top of the first. In the bottom of the frame, Russell walked Earle Combs, who advanced on Mark Koenig’s groundout to second. An excited chatter filled the Stadium as Babe Ruth strode to the plate. The buzz grew louder when Russell whirled and threw to second, only to have shortstop Hal Rhyne mishandle the pickoff attempt, allowing Combs to reach third.

Ruth then grounded out to second baseman Bill Regan, and Combs scampered home for the first run of the game.

Boston’s miscues continued: Lou Gehrig reached on an error by first baseman Phil Todt, and Bob Meusel on an error by third baseman Bobby Reeves. Tony Lazzeri then walked to load the bases, but Lyn Lary hit a fly ball to center that Jack Rothrock got under and, to Russell’s relief, caught.

Another perfect inning for Heimach in the top of the second, and Russell allowed just a walk in a scoreless bottom half.

In the third, the Red Sox had their first baserunner of the day when Regan beat out a grounder to Lary at shortstop, but catcher Bill Dickey threw him out as he attempted to steal. Heimach got the next two outs to end the inning.

In the home half of the inning, The Babe gave the fans in Ruthville what they’d came to see: He crushed a home run to deep right field. Lou Gehrig followed that up with an inside-the-park home run to make the score 3-0. Russell then retired Meusel, Lazzeri, and Lary to escape further trouble.

In the fourth, Heimach again had a perfect inning, and Russell had one of his own. But it was during the inning that the first signs of trouble appeared. What had been sunny skies when the game began had become overcast, and a drizzle began to fall after the bottom of the inning.

Some spectators in Ruthville began to make for the exit,2 but many stayed behind and braved the rain because Ruth was due up second in the bottom of the fifth. Others left the bleachers but stood near the exit, lingering so they could see the action.3

Koenig was retired, then Ruth grounded out. As Gehrig came up to the plate, there was a rumble of thunder, and then the deluge began.

The following day’s New York Herald-Tribune4 reported that 5,000 fans were still crowded into the bleachers when the skies opened; the Associated Press estimated 6,000,5 and other newspapers estimated that there were even more. But all sources agreed that the thunder and heavy downpour incited a stampede toward the exits. (The Brooklyn Daily Times added that in the confusion, some fans believed the bleachers in the six-year-old stadium would collapse.6)

Witnesses told reporters that two of the three exits initially were closed, forcing everyone toward the same exit – one that required descending 14 wooden stairs into a narrow corridor that took fans through a gate and into the street.7

The first to leave were still descending those 14 steps when those caught in the rain surged ahead. The people on the stairs tumbled forward into the corridor below and were trampled by the surging crowd.

The New York Times reported, “In an instant, the area at the foot of the stairs, a space about ten feet wide, was a screaming struggling mass of people. Men, women, and children – a preponderance of children – were jammed together in a pile so tightly that they could not breathe, let alone work their way out without assistance. The weight of those on top bore down on those beneath, crushing them before anything could be done, while others continued to fall over them and trample them under foot.”8

Meanwhile, the game had been halted due to the rain, and fans in the grandstand were leaving their seats in an orderly fashion.9 The Yankees, watching the rain from the dugout, were unaware of what was happening under the bleachers until Elias Gottlieb, a probationary police officer, ran onto the field carrying a 14-year-old boy who had been trampled.10

“Babe Ruth ran from the Yankees’ dugout and asked what the trouble was,” the New York Herald Tribune reported. “He then shouted for a physician. Dr. Edward S. Cowles, the well known neurologist and psychiatrist, of 591 Park Avenue, ran from the stands and took the boy into the club’s dressing room. Then Ruth called for other physicians, and a half dozen of them made their way to the scene of the catastrophe.”11

Dozens were injured and taken to the clubhouse, where the summoned physicians attempted to treat them, but the clubhouse did not have enough medical supplies to treat the number of wounded nor the severity of the injuries. The Herald Tribune reported that nearly 100 were injured – so many that, when ambulances proved insufficient, two buses were called in to take them to hospitals – and 18 remained hospitalized overnight.12 Ruth and his wife, Claire, visited 16 boys still at Lincoln Hospital when rain canceled a doubleheader scheduled for Tuesday.13

Two did not recover from their injuries and died at the ballpark: 60-year-old Joseph Carter, a truck driver, and Eleanor Price, a 17-year-old Hunter College student. It is believed they were the first two game-related deaths since the Stadium opened in 1923.14

“Miss Price, who had taken her young brother to the game as a Sunday afternoon treat, died in the arms of ‘Babe’ Ruth, the idol of the fans, who responded coolly to the first cries for help and remained at emergency work until the end,” the Brooklyn Daily Times reported.15

As for the game, it was rained out – with the top of the fifth played and New York in the lead, it was an official game, and a 3-0 win for the Yankees. The second game of the doubleheader was canceled. The Yankees lost seven of their next 11 games; by June 1 they were eight games out, and the A’s cruised to an easy pennant.

Fans sued the Yankees, saying the game should have been called when rain began to fall in the fourth inning, before thunder panicked the crowd. Others blamed two exits they said remained closed, forcing the crowd into one. A lawsuit was finally settled in 1932 for $45,000 – nearly $1 million in 2020s-era dollars – with the money to be divided among the victims based upon the severity of their injuries.16  

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192905190.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1929/B05190NYA1929.htm

Notes

1 Testimony of Joseph Syrop. Supreme Court – Appellate Division – First Department, 1932: 33.  https://www.google.com/books/edition/Supreme_Court_Appellate_Division_First_D/ijbzfyrHmToC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA97

2 “Rain followed the spectacular play of the two long-distance hitters, and the fans started huddling and trying to protect their thousands of new straw hats from the drizzle,” Boston Globe, May 20, 1929: 8. New straw hats getting ruined by rain was a concern at the time. A police officer who was at the Stadium that day was asked about new straw hats in the court case cited in note 1. “Q: Did you notice anything on that day with regard to whether the people in the bleachers were wearing straw hats at the time? A: I believe it was the first straw hat Sunday, that is, that day, when everybody started to wear straw hats. Q: Were there a number that had new straw hats on? A. It must have been, because we had 50 or 60 in the station house that night that we picked up underneath the bleachers.”

3 Robert M. Gorman and David Weeks, Death at the Ballpark (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2015), 205.

4 Dean A. Sullivan, Middle Innings (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 135-137, quoting the New York Herald Tribune of May 20, 1929.

5 Associated Press, “Two Killed At Yankee Stadium in Fans’ Rush to Escape Rain; Victims Pile Up in Passageway,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 20, 1929: 1.

6 “Stadium Victims Blame Officials for 2 Fatalities,” Brooklyn Daily Times, May 20, 1929: 1-2. The newspaper reported that the panic began with “the scream of a woman accompanied by the thunder clap and the downpour that made many believe the bleacher stands were about to crumble.”

7 Gorman and Weeks, Death at the Ballpark, 205.

8 “Two Killed, 62 Hurt in Yankee Stadium as Rain Stampedes Baseball Crowd; Victims are Crushed at Bleacher Exit,” New York Times, May 20, 1929: 1.

9 Boston Globe, May 20, 1929: 8.

10 Brooklyn Daily Times, May 20, 1929: 1-2.

11 Sullivan, 136.

12 Sullivan, 135.

13 Associated Press, “‘The Babe’ Visits 16 Injured Fans,” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, May 21, 1929: 1. The AP reported that Claire Ruth fainted when she saw the bruised and battered face of one of the victims, and had to be revived with smelling salts.

14 Email interview with Robert M. Gorman, October 17, 2022. 

15 Brooklyn Daily Times, May 20, 1929: 1.

16 “A multi-party $960,000 negligence lawsuit involving the families of the deceased and 32 of the injured was instituted against the Yankees. A jury verdict in February 1932 found the club ‘guilty of negligence, but the plaintiffs guilty of ‘contributory negligence.’ An appellate court set aside the ‘contributory negligence’ finding, stating that ‘under the law the plaintiffs could not be held partly responsible, because in a heavy rainstorm it was their natural instinct to seek shelter and they could not be held for the resultant stampede.’ Later that summer a new trial was ordered to address this issue. At the beginning of this second trial on December 15, 1932, the Yankees settled the claims for $45,000, the money to be divided according to ‘the severity of the injuries and the sums spent for medical treatment.’” Death at the Ballpark, 205.