Charles Rapp
Charles “Adonis” Rapp was a left-handed pitcher (he also played first base and outfield) who began his career with the Austin Senators in the Texas League in 1898. For the next several years he played for a variety of Midwest based clubs (Fort Wayne, Saginaw, Grand Rapids) in the Interstate and Michigan State Leagues.
Contemporary newspaper reports say he was also a member of the South Bend Greens in the Central League, but he is not listed on any surviving rosters; he was also said to have been “tried out by Milwaukee, when that city was in the old Western League (1903).”
Rapp’s trail goes cold after the 1903 season until 1909. Rapp was living in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana. The Indianapolis News reported on May 17:
“Charles Rapp, former ball player, and well known throughout the city, killed his mother late Saturday and then committed suicide. The weapons used were a hammer, a dull paring knife and a small pair of shears. It is said that Rapp had a tendency towards insanity, that the tendency had been marked during the last few days and that he undoubtedly deranged when he attacked his mother.
“Rapp did not die until several hours after the double crime had been committed and after he had been removed from the Rapp home to the St. Joseph County Jail. Before death came, and in reply to a query about the crime, Rapp said: ‘I tried to get the whole family.’
“The last person to see Mrs. Rapp alive and the first one to discover the body of the woman and the dying son was Charlotte Benz. Mrs. Benz had spent the day at the Rapp home and left the house late in the afternoon…On her return she stopped at the Rapp place, entering by the rear door…and then suddenly a sickening sight met her gaze. Lying in a pool of blood at one side of the sitting-room were Rapp and the body of the mother. The heads were close together and as Mrs. Benz entered the young man cried out: ‘Get out of here, Lottie, get out of here.’ It was evidently his intention to kill the Benz woman, but Rapp was unable to move from loss of blood.”
The Associated Press said of the incident:
“Until Rapp fell a victim to the liquor habit he was one of the most popular young men in the city.”
Henry Long
Henry Long was born in Chicago in 1870 or 1871 (cemetery and death records disagree), he was the younger brother of Herman who had a 16-year big league career.
Herman Long
Little is known about Henry’s early life, or when exactly he began playing professional baseball. Based on newspaper reports he appears to be the “Long” who played with the Battle Creek Adventists in the Michigan State League in 1895.
Before the 1896 season he was signed by the Lewiston team in the New England League. The Lewiston Daily Sun said:
“Manager (Michael) Garrity has signed pitcher Henry Long of Chicago, a brother of Herman Long of the Bostons, and is said to be a good pitcher, a hard hitter and a good all-around man.”
Long didn’t last in Lewiston, he was 0-2 in just three games before he was released. Long then appeared in one game for the Shamokin Actives in the Pennsylvania State League, and then joined the Hagerstown Lions in the Cumberland Valley League.
The right-handed pitcher started seven games for the Lions and was 4-3 with a 1.29 ERA.
On July 10 he missed the team’s train for a game in Hanover, Maryland. The Philadelphia Times said he attempted to hop a freight train and fell; his right arm was crushed under the wheels. His arm was amputated “but Long sank rapidly and died in the hospital” in Hagerstown. While contemporary news reports said the body was to be shipped back to Chicago, where it would be “received by his brother Herman,” he was instead buried in Maryland
Matt Barry
In 1900 The Sporting Life said Matthew “Matt” Barry had been “the first player from Rhode Island to receive money for playing ball.”
Information on where he played is sketchy—he was the Rhode Islands in the New England League in 1877 and Springfield (MA) of the International Association in 1878–but beyond that, there are few references to where he played during his career.
The Providence News-Democrat called Barry, who was born in Providence in 1850, a “well-known ballplayer and one of the best-known members of the sporting fraternity in the state.”
Barry eventually returned to his hometown, Providence where he operated the Empire Saloon, on Empire Street.
After the turn of the century, Barry suffered a series of financial setbacks. On August 30, 1907 The News Democrat said:
“(Barry) attempted suicide by inhaling illuminating gas in his room in the Essex house, at 23 Burrill Street.”
Barry was discovered by the owner of the house:
“The room was locked, but the door was forced, and then Barry was seen unconscious on the bed with gas streaming from an open unlighted jet…as Barry’s usual custom was to sleep with all the windows open , the fact that they were closed , indicated that he had prepared to take his life.”
He was taken to Rhode Island, where he died on September 2.
Barry’s friends disputed the story that he had taken his own life, claiming his “financial embarrassments” had been overstated and that he “was in better condition financially than he had been for years.” His friends instead said Barry, who “had been troubled with insomnia” and took morphine to sleep, turning off the lights “at that time the morphine would begin to get in its work,” had accidentally turned on the gas when he meant to turn off the light “which was on the same chandelier.”
The cause of death was never officially determined.
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