Boston Red Sox and the Mystery of Chick Stahl
By David Hill
On this date 109 years ago, Boston Red Sox outfielder/manager Chick Stahl committed suicide. No one has figured out why.
The 1907 season was a turbulent time for the Boston Red Sox. They went 59-90 with six ties that year, going through four different managers from Opening Day before Deacon McGuire took over the role on a permanent basis. One could see where the Red Sox may have struggled, given how their year started off, and the mysterious suicide of outfielder/manager Chick Stahl.
Stahl was a popular player, not just for his production on the field, but for his good looks. A career .305/.369/.416 hitter in his ten year career, Stahl typically ranked in the top ten in batting average and slugging during his heyday while proving to be a solid defensive outfielder. His good looks certainly caught the attention of the ladies, to the point where he was accosted by a young woman named Louise Ortmann, who had approached him with a gun and plans of shooting him.
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However, those days seemed to be behind Stahl when 1907 came about. Even though he personally had struggled with injuries over the past few seasons, his leadership qualities, as well as the regard his fellow teammates had for him, were high enough where he was named the manager when Jimmy Collins had resigned from the position the previous year.
Then came that fateful day 109 years ago. Stahl, who had appeared to have something bothering him, had resigned from as the Red Sox manager three days before, which seemed to lift a weight from his shoulders. He had agreed to remain in the role until a permanent manager could be found, and seemed delighted to be focusing on his play, instead of running the team, for the 1907 season.
That morning, as the Red Sox were in the midst of travelling to play an exhibition game in West Baden, Indiana before heading east to begin the season, Stahl did not give any indications of distress. He breakfasted with the team before returning to his room, where he drank four ounces of carbolic acid. Collins, still with the team, saw Stahl stumble and fall into his room, dying within 15 minutes of ingesting the acid.
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To his teammates, the suicide did not make sense. Stahl had married just a few months ago in November, and as a devout Catholic, such an action appeared to be contrary to his personality. Even his final words, which were simply “Boys, I just couldn’t help it. It drove me to it.” did not provide anything in the way of clearing up the mystery of why he took such drastic measures.
It is easy to speculate as to what was on Stahl’s mind that day when he drank the bottle of acid. Speculation persists that either Stahl was being blackmailed by another woman, or was having a homosexual relationship. An article in 1908 speculated that he may have felt guilty about having to release his close friend Collins, who was later traded to Philadelphia in June of that year.
Adding to the mystery was the strange circumstances of the death of his widow a year and a half later, who was found dressed quite expensively in one of the poorest sections of Boston. A cause of death was never determined, and no one could account for her final minutes from when she turned into a dark alleyway to when her body was found.
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Now, 109 years later, the odds of finding out what drove Chick Stahl to suicide, and what happened to his widow in South Boston a year and a half later, are minuscule at best. What drove the former star Boston Red Sox outfielder/manager to his death is truly one of the great mysteries in baseball.