On this episode of Our American Stories, on August 24, 1919, Cleveland Indians pitcher Ray Caldwell made his debut at League Park before a crowd of 20,000. In the ninth inning, with victory in sight, lightning suddenly struck the field—and Caldwell himself. Fans thought he had been killed. Instead, moments later, he stood up, shook it off, and finished the game. It remains one of the most astonishing moments in Major League Baseball history. Nick Ragone, host of This Date in History, shares the story of how Ray Caldwell survived a lightning strike and kept pitching.
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Our American Stories