1937-1938

Ben Chapman was born in Nashville, Tenn on December 25, 1908 and graduated from Phillips High School and was a four-letter athlete.  He played high-school baseball as a pitcher, until his father pressed him to play the infield. He played semipro ball for a cotton mill in Alabama, even overlapping with some of his high school ball, but not ruled to threaten his amateur status. 

Ben was offered a contract by a scout for the New York Yankees, but then it was his mother who stepped in and pushed for him to go to Purdue, where he had been offered a football scholarship. He did go to Purdue, but left after about a month to play professional baseball. 

He was then signed by the Yankees, who had him report to Asheville in the South Atlantic (SALLY) League and was the shortstop on that year’s league All-Star team. He bumped up to Double A in 1929, for the St. Paul Saints and the Yankees brought him up in 1930.

In 1931, his average held steady, dipping just one point to .315 and his homers jumped from ten to 17. He was fast on the basepaths too, and led the league with 61 stolen bases in 1931, the first of four years he led in thefts.

The year 1933 was the first of four years in a row when Ben was voted an All-Star. Playing with Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth in the same lineup no doubt helped him. His only appearance in a World Series came in 1932.

In 1936, Ben was no longer with the team after midseason. He’d caught a really bad cold in early May, never quite got right, and was traded to Washington in June. In part, the Yanks were making way for an up-and-coming center fielder named Joe DiMaggio. Ben’s average over the seven seasons in which he appeared for the Yankees was .305. 

He wore a Senators uniform when he played in the 1936 All-Star Game. But in June 1937, just a few days short of the anniversary of his arrival in D.C., he was traded by the Senators to the Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox found a very productive right fielder as Ben hit .324 in his two seasons with Boston. He had hit .307 in the second part of 1937. In 1938, with a full season playing for the Red Sox, he hit .340, but in December 1938, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians. There is the possibility that he’d paved the way for his dismissal when he had purposely ignored a bunt sign and became engaged in a fist fight with manager Joe Cronin. The Red Sox also believed they had his replacement waiting in the wings, named Ted Williams.

Ben performed well for the Indians in 1939, but there was a drop off in 1940. He was then with three ball clubs in the next six months. The day before Christmas in 1940, the Indians traded him to the Washington Senators. But the Senators were well-enough set with outfielders, and they simply released him in May 1941. Three days later, he signed as a free agent with the Chicago White Sox. 

It was back to the minor leagues again in 1942, as player/manager for the Richmond Colts in the Piedmont League. He would have played for Richmond in 1943, too, but for his fiery temper. He served a suspension for precipitating many fights in 1943, but was hired by Richmond again for 1944. He combined three jobs once more – pitching, playing outfield, and managing. 

Ben was classified 1-A for the World War II draft, and was called for a physical in 1944. But the war was coming to an end, and he had a trick knee. Ultimately, he was declared 4-F and was never inducted into military service.

In early August he was traded and was brought up to the Brooklyn Dodgers and appeared in 20 big-league games. In 1945, he began the year with Brooklyn until he was traded to the Phillies in June. He only appeared in one game in 1946, but remained as the Phillies manager. 

Under Ben, the Phillies finished in last place, but in August, after a five-game winning streak, he was hired on a one-year contract for 1946. The formerly futile Phils moved up to fifth place and set new attendance records.

Bench jockeying was an established practice in baseball, the intent often being to get under the skin of opposing players. Italian players got it in the neck as did Irish and the few Jews who are in the majors. In other words, ballplayers played made an art of it. At the time, it wasn’t uncommon to bring up opponent’s ethnicity, but Ben went well over the line more than once.

More than anything, he is remembered for the vitriol he heaped on Jackie Robinson in Robinson’s first year in the majors. He decided to make Robinson’s color an issue and encouraged at least three of his men to do the same. The verbal assault unnerved Jackie, but it also had the effect of bringing his teammates more fully behind him. Commissioner of Baseball, Happy Chandler, had to intercede and demand that Chapman stop.

He was the first of three Phillies managers in 1948, fired a little more than halfway through the season. For several years, stories ran from time to time that he had never been told why he was fired. 

Ben both purchased and managed the Class-B Gadsden Chiefs in the Southeastern League in 1949, back home in Alabama. In 1950, he worked as manager of the Danville Leafs in the Class B Carolina League. He managed the Tampa Smokers (Class B Florida International League) in 1951, and managed them to first place. His last involvement in baseball was as a coach for the Cincinnati Reds in 1952.

Ben was named as a scout for the Reds, but in 1953 he returned to manage Tampa. He resigned near the end of July and signed on as a coach for Toronto’s team in the International League, apparently believing he was in line to become manager. That did not happen, and he turned to full-time work selling insurance.

He also owned a bowling alley in Montgomery, and played some semipro ball there. He worked in the offseason teaching prep school football and basketball, doing some officiating in both sports as well. Ben refereed for years in college basketball’s Southeastern Conference. He also coached the Birmingham Steelers basketball team, of the Southern Professional Basketball League, until December 1948.

In 1966, he was one of the four charter inductees into Richmond’s baseball Hall of Fame. Into his late 70s, he coached on weekends at Samford University in Birmingham.

Ben Chapman died, apparently of a heart attack, at home in Hoover, Alabama, on July 7, 1993, at age 84.