Frank Chapman (baseball)
professional baseball player
Frank H. Chapman (November 1861 – December 2, 1937) was a professional baseball player who appeared in one game for the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association in 1887. He was thought to have been a player named Fred Chapman and the youngest player to ever play in a Major League Baseball game until new findings by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) revealed that he was a different player, and much older, than previously believed.
Career
Little is known about the career of Chapman outside of his Major League appearance. According to SABR, 1887 was the only year he played professional baseball. He made appearances with a team from Hazleton in the Central Pennsylvania League and with a team from Reading in the Pennsylvania State Association; the stats he recorded for both teams are unknown. Chapman is also believed to have pitched for a team in Kingston, New York, but it is not listed in his minor league record.
His only Major League appearance took place on July 22, 1887, when the Philadelphia Athletics signed him from the Reading club to pitch in a game against the Cleveland Blues at Jefferson Street Grounds. Facing Blues starter Mike Morrison, Chapman gave up six runs in the first five innings. The game ended in unusual fashion, as Morrison declared a forfeit in the sixth inning with the Blues leading by two runs following a heated argument with an umpire. As a result, Chapman is credited with a complete game, but not a win.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q8836287. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1861, 1937 and 1887.
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This entry incorporates text from “Frank Chapman (baseball)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.