MLB: Twelve Players Who Made The Ultimate Sacrifice
By Ron Juckett
Newton Schurz Halliday, US Navy (June 18, 1896-April 6, 1918)
Not much is known about Newt Halliday. Baseball Reference has no minor league statistics for him and Baseball’s Greatest Sacrifice carries few details as well.
From Chicago and a lanky 6 foot 1 and 175 pounds, Halliday’s lone game came on August 19, 1916 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The second game of a twinbill at Forbes Field against the Brooklyn Robins (now Dodgers) Halliday pinch hit for Honus Wagner, striking out against Rube Marquard. He stayed in the game, shifting to first, and made three putouts.
When the US became involved in the war, Halliday swapped a baseball uniform for a Naval one. Training at the Great Lakes Naval Station in Waukegan, Illinois, Halliday contracted tuberculosis in the fall of 1917.
A death sentence at the time, treatments worked for a while, but by April 1918, Halliday came down with a case of pneumonia. The combination of both diseases killed him on April 6. He was the first Major League player to die in the line of duty in World War I.
Halliday is interred at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in River Grove, Illinois.
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