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**Willard Hershberger**
Willard Hershberger
	Catcher
	Born: May 28, 1910; Lemon Cove, California
	Died: August 3, 1940 (aged 30); Boston, Massachusetts
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
	April 19, 1938 for the Cincinnati Reds
Last MLB appearance
	August 2, 1940 for the Cincinnati Reds
Career statistics
Batting average	.316
Home runs	0
Runs batted in	70
Teams
	Cincinnati Reds (1938-40);

Willard McKee Hershberger (May 28, 1910 – August 3, 1940) was a catcher for Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds from 1937 to 1940.

He has the distinction of being the only major league player to date to commit suicide during the season.

Born in Lemon Cove, California, Hershberger did not get to the majors until age 27. He played in the New York Yankees farm system and was a member of the 1937 Newark Bears team which posted a 109-43 record. On December 3, 1937, Hershberger was traded to the Reds for shortstop Eddie Miller and $40,000.

During his tenure with the Reds, Willard Hershberger was a backup to regular catcher Ernie Lombardi. In his rookie season, Hershberger played in 49 games and batted .276. The following year, he raised his average to .345 while playing 63 games. He was also part of a Reds team that won the National League championship for the first time in twenty years. However, they were swept by Hershberger's former team, the New York Yankees, in the World Series. In that series, Hershberger batted only twice in limited action and had one hit.

In 1940, the Cincinnati Reds were once again a contender for the National League pennant and would ultimately defeat the Detroit Tigers four games to three in that year's World Series. In July, Ernie Lombardi suffered a finger and Willard Hershberger filled in for him well, batting .309 and playing solid defense.

However, in a game against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds on July 31, the visiting Reds blew a big lead and lost the game 5-4. Hershberger perceived that some of his teammates blamed him for the loss. Stories later claimed that some players whispered that had Ernie Lombardi been catching, they would have not lost to the Giants, who would finish the season in sixth place.

On August 2, with Willard Hershberger again catching, the Reds lost to the Boston Bees, a team who would eventually finish in seventh place. After the game, a distraught Hershberger opened up to Reds manager Bill McKechnie in private, personally took the blame for the losses, and tearfully recalled that his father, Claude Hershberger, had committed suicide over a decade earlier. Hershberger threatened to do the same. However, after some time, Hershberger had calmed down significantly and McKechnie believed that he would be fine. However, the following afternoon, when Hershberger failed to show for pre-game activities, the hotel manager unlocked the door to Hershberger's room at the behest of concerned team officials. The catcher was discovered in the bathtub in a pool of blood with a slashed throat.

Bill McKechnie never revealed what Hershberger said during their meeting. He told reporters, "It had nothing to do with anybody on the team. He told it to me in confidence, and I will not utter it to anyone."^[1]

After Hershberger's suicide, the Reds retired his uniform number 5. However, it was reactivated it in 1942. Forty years later, It was retired again for a Reds catcher — Hall of Fame member Johnny Bench.

Willard Hershberger is interred at Visalia Public Cemetery, in Visalia, California.

Coincidentally, Ernie Lombardi himself had been made a "goat" for an incident in a game that the Reds lost. In the fourth and final game of the 1939 World Series, New York Yankees outfielder Charlie Keller collided with Lombardi, who was blocking home plate. Lombardi collapsed to the ground and two more runs scored. This event has been called "Lombardi's Snooze" because of the perception that the catcher took a nap. In fact, the thrown ball from Reds outfielder Ival Goodman had taken an errant hop in front of Lombardi and it hit the catcher under the cup protecting his genitalia, causing him to immediately collapse to the ground in intense pain. Nonetheless, the "snooze" became part of baseball lore. In 1953, six years after retiring, a depressed Lombardi himself attempted suicide in the same manner as Willard Hershberger. At the insistence of his wife, Cora, he had agreed to receive help for his depression, but en route to the sanatorium, Lombardi slit his throat. He begged not to be saved, but he was. He finally received help, recuperated from his self-inflicted physical wounds, and lived until 1977.