Four Spooky Baseball Hauntings
Or, Ground Ghoul Double! (Sorry that was the best I could do)
Spring Training 2024 has just ended, Traveler! With that, Opening Day 2024 is this week! Every year since we came out of the pandemic, I’ve tried to get to a game down at Camden Yards (Go Os!) In fact, I was lucky enough to attend Eddie Murray Bobblehead Night last year! Of course, I didn’t get a bobblehead, but maybe I’ll check eBay.
However, although I wrote one of these pieces for the National Football League last year, I started reading about ghost stories associated with baseball.
1. The Baseball Hall of Fame is Haunted
This time, we start where it ends, Traveler. If you’re a 10-year-old me, you can’t wait for your induction into Cooperstown someday. If you’re 40-year-old me, you resent your lack of speed on the base paths or your mediocre throwing arm. With that out of the way, an induction to the hallowed hall of fame used to be the thing to anyone who ever picked up a bat.
It turns out that some ballplayers never put the bat down.
According to New York Haunted Places, Teddy Ballgame himself can sometimes be heard by hall patrons. The last .400 hitter, baseball was everything to Williams.
There’s more to the hauntings than Ted Williams giving tours, however. According to The Hardball Times, Ty Cobb and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson may be whispering among their plaques on the grounds!
Other hauntings include shadow figures and a men’s room door opening and closing on its own!
The National Baseball Hall of Fame is located at 25 Main Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326
2. Roberto Clemente (and His Son) Predicts His Own Tragic Death
Roberto Clemente was one of the greatest right fielders in baseball history, Traveler. He played for 18 seasons and was a 15-time all-star, an MVP, a lifetime .317 hitter, a 12-year gold-glove winner, a four-time batting champion, a World Series MVP, and a two-time World Series winner.
What’s more, he was a devoted humanitarian.
According to sabr.org, Clemente raised money for and visited Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital. He was also personal friends with Dr. Martin Luther King and, very often over his career, personally sent aid to Nicaragua.
Sadly, this would relate to his tragic end at age 38.
There was an earthquake in Managua, Nicaragua, on December 23rd, 1972. On New Year’s Eve, Clemente’ chartered a plane to deliver supplies to the devastated city himself to ensure that officials would not skim the supplies from the people who needed them.
Overloaded and understaffed, the DC-7 plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Despite the immediate rescue efforts, which included his teammate Manny Sanguillen learning how to scuba dive to look for Clemente’s body near the crash, the body remains somewhere in the depths of the Atlantic.
No one knows what went through Clemente’s mind in those final moments; however, by all accounts, Clemente knew it was coming.
According to Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends, and Eerie Events by Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon, Clemente’ had frequent dreams about dying in plane crashes. He once woke up while the team plane was flying in the air, and he told a teammate, “I was dreaming that the plane we were traveling on crashed, and the only one that got killed was me.”
His son, Roberto Jr., was only seven years old when his father’s plane was lost over the sea. That night, New Year’s Eve 1972, Junior walked up to Senior and told his father, “Don’t get on the plane. I think it’s going to crash.”
Junior didn’t know his father was due to fly that night.
3. The Most Haunted Diamond in Baseball
The Rochester Red Wings are the Triple-A minor league affiliate of the Washington Nationals. Founded in 1889, they are one of the oldest baseball teams in the world. Funny enough, they used to be the Orioles’ minor league affiliate.
And that’s just one more thing the Washington Nationals have stolen from my team (I’m kidding, D.C., well, I’m mostly kidding).
In fact, while they were the Orioles affiliate in 1996, a new stadium was built for the team: Frontier Field.
And with that construction came the spirits.
Ethan Trex wrote an incredible article during his time with Mental Floss. In this article, he details hauntings at the stadium. According to the piece, construction workers unearthed bones.
Uh oh.
From there, reports of paranormal phenomena circulated amongst stadium employees. Even the most determined skeptic will refuse to work alone at night in the stadium. Noises in storage rooms and shadows darting in and out of corridors are commonplace within the stadium. Per an article on mlb.com by Matt Monagan, team general manager Dan Mason said crows are often found on the property during the winter months.
In 2004, Rochester Paranormal Investigations conducted a paranormal investigation throughout the stadium. The photos below show some of the phenomena that revealed themselves to the investigators.
4. Who Doesn’t Love a Good Haunted Hotel?
Finally, we come to the inspiration for this article, Traveler. Last season, a new story caught fire in the baseball world when legendary second baseman (now right fielder) Mookie Betts told the Orange County Register that, instead of staying at the team hotel for a road game in Milwaukee, he rented an Airbnb instead.
That’s because the team chose the Pfister Hotel, built in 1893.
According to the article, Betts had stayed at the hotel before. In the interview, he maintained that he couldn’t get any sleep due to the creaks and groans in his room, whether explainable or not.
Mookie isn’t the only player to have experiences, either.
According to the USA Today article by Jim Reineking that I’m currently citing:
- Pablo Sandoval’s iPod started playing music on its own while he was taking a shower one night.
- Michael Young heard loud, disembodied footsteps stomping around his room one night.
- And Phillies centerpiece Bryce Harper experienced actual poltergeist activity when his laid-out clothes were thrown to the floor, and a table was moved across the room while he was taking a shower!
So there you have it, Traveler! Those are some great stories with locations you can visit right now and take in a game and a ghost, a spooky double-header! As for me? I need to get a reservation at the Pfister Hotel.
Until again,
Safe Travels!
(A special thoughts out to those currently missing as a result of the Francis Scott Key accident, and their families. Thank you to the Coast Guard for their continued efforts.)
