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Willard Hershberger

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Willard McKee Hershberger (May 28, 1910 – August 3, 1940) was a major league baseball catcher from 1938 to 1940. Hershberger has the unfortunate distinction of being the only major league player to commit suicide during the season.

Born in Lemon Cove, California, Hershberger did not get to the majors until later in his career. In the minor leagues, he played catcher for the New York Yankees farm team, the Newark Bears. In 1937, Hershberger was on the Newark team that posted a record of 109-43, a team considered by many to be the best minor league team of the 1930s. In 1938, Hershberger joined the Cincinnati Reds and was the backup catcher to Ernie Lombardi. Hershberger batted .276 and played in 49 games in his rookie year. The next year, he again backed up Lombardi and raised his average to .345 while playing 63 games. He was also part of a Reds team that won the pennant for the first time in 20 years, although the Reds were swept in the World Series 4-0 by the New York Yankees. In that series, Hershberger batted only twice in limited action and had one hit. The Reds were again in a pennant chase in 1940. A finger injury forced Lombardi out of the starting lineup in July, and Hershberger took over the full-time catching duties. He filled in for Lombardi well, batting .309 and playing solid defense. On July 31, the Reds blew a big lead in the ninth inning of a game against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds and, perhaps in the heat of the pennant race, some Reds players whispered that they would have won the game if Lombardi was catching. On August 2, with Hershberger again catching, the Reds lost to a poor Boston Braves club. The next day, August 3, 1940, Hershberger slit his wrists and throat with a razor in a Boston hotel. Ironically, the Reds went on to win the World Series that year, their first title in 21 years.

Trivia

After Hershberger's suicide, the Reds retired his uniform number 5 but then reactivated it in 1942. It was retired again for a Reds catcher forty years later — Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench.