Baseball Hall of Famer who fell off Fort Erie bridge and was found dead at the bottom of Niagara Falls

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Published July 3, 2023 at 3:18 pm

Ed Delahanty led the league in slugging percentage and runs batted in three times each, and is one of only two players who batted over .400 three times (1894, 1895, 1899).

Did he drown in the Niagara River or did the plunge over Niagara Falls kill him? In the case of baseball Hall of Famer Ed Delahanty, no one knows for certain 120 years after his death on July 2, 1903.

After all this time, it’s still guesswork what (or even possibly, who) killed Delahanty, 35, that fateful night.

Here’s what’s known of his career. In his 16 seasons with the Philadelphia Quakers, the Cleveland Infants, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Senators, Delahanty, a.k.a. “Big Ed,” batted .346, with 101 HR and 1,464 RBIs, 522 doubles, 185 triples and 455 stolen bases.

He also led the league in slugging percentage and runs batted in three times each, and is one of only two players who batted over .400 three times (1894, 1895, 1899).

So Delahanty was a bonafide superstar back in the day. The 6-foot-1, 180-pound star of his era was the Babe Ruth who came before Babe Ruth.

Now as to his death, it’s somewhat shrouded in mystery. By all accounts, after he and his Washington teammates boarded the train in Detroit, Delahanty got as drunk as a skunk and was subsequently thrown off a New York-bound train crossing the International Railway Bridge between Buffalo and Fort Erie.

Some accounts have him at least five glasses of whisky in, and threatening other passengers with a straight razor. Cleveland’s major newspaper, the Plains Dealer, also said at the time, “He had considerable money and over $1,500 in jewelry and diamonds in his possession,” which to many also raised the spectre of robbery.

However, the most common story was that after he was tossed from the train at the Fort Erie end, he drunkenly staggered along the International Railway Bridge towards Buffalo, got tangled up with a night watchman, got away from him, and either fell in or jumped into the Niagara River.

John Saccoman of the Society of Baseball Research wrote: “Big Ed walked out onto the 3,600-foot-long bridge and was standing still at its edge, staring down into the water, when he was accosted by night watchman Sam Kingston, on the lookout for smugglers.

“A scuffle ensued, with Kingston dragging Delahanty back to the middle of the wide bridge, but Kingston then fell down and Delahanty got away. Moments later, according to Kingston – who claimed it was too dark to see what happened – Del either jumped or drunkenly stumbled off the edge of the bridge, falling 25 feet into the 40-foot-deep Niagara River.”

“His naked body (except for tie, shoes and socks) was found 20 miles (32 km) downstream at the base of Horseshoe Falls – the Canadian portion of Niagara Falls – seven days later” by a Maid of the Mist tourist boat.

In the end, we don’t know much about the demise of Delahanty, whether he drown in the river or perished due to the plunge over the Falls. Given his intoxication level, it seems easier to believe he was dead long before the trip over Horseshoe.


El Delahanty was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously in 1945.

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