William Benjamin Chapman (December 25, 1908, Nashville, Tennessee - July 7, 1993, Hoover, Alabama) was an outfielder, pitcher, manager and coach in American Major League Baseball. Although he made his name as a fast, ferocious and hard-nosed player with the New York Yankees and four other American League teams from 1930-41, that reputation was eclipsed by the controversial role he played in 1947, as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, opposing the presence of Jackie Robinson on a big league team. December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 6 days remaining. ... 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Nashville skyline Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... July 7 is the 188th day of the year (189th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 177 days remaining. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Hoover is a city in Jefferson and Shelby counties in middle central Alabama. ... An outfielder moves in to catch a fly ball Outfielder is a collective term including left fielder, center fielder, and right fielder, the three positions in baseball farthest from the batter. ... A baseball pitcher delivers the ball to home plate In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitchers mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter who attempts to either make contact with it or draw a... In baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager; this individual controls matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. ... In the baseball game, the coach is a member of the team at bat stationed near first or third base to signal and direct the runners and batters. ... MLB logo Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in professional baseball in the world. ... The New York Yankees are a Major League baseball team based in The Bronx, New York City. ... The American League (or formally the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs) is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States of America and Canada. ... -1... * Division notes: In 1981, the Phillies finished with the best record in the Eastern Division prior to stoppage of play in the middle of the season due to the players strike, which forced the season to be split into two halves. ... Brooklyn Dodger infielder Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947. ...

Chapman, who batted and threw righthanded, was a teammate of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey and other Hall of Famers on the Yankees from 1930 through the middle of 1936. He led the AL in stolen bases for three consecutive seasons (1931-33) and batted over .300 six times during the 1930s. After managing in the lower minor leagues in the early 1940s - where he was once suspended for an altercation with an umpire - Chapman resurfaced as a pitcher in the wartime National League with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944-45) and the Phillies (1945-46). Overall, he appeared in 1,716 games over 15 seasons, batting .302 lifetime and winning eight of 14 decisions as a pitcher (.571). George Herman Ruth, (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948), better known as Babe Ruth and also commonly known by the nicknames The Bambino and The Sultan of Swat, was an American baseball player and United States national icon. ... Henry Louis Gehrig, born Ludwig Heinrich Gehrig (June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941), was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the New York Yankees and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. ... William Malcolm Dickey (June 6, 1907 - November 12, 1993) was a Major League Baseball player and manager. ... The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, United States, is a semi-official museum operated by private interests that serves as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in North America, the display of baseball-related... The all-time stolen base leader, Rickey Henderson, swipes third in 1985 In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate. ... Batting average is a statistic in both baseball and cricket measuring the performance of baseball hitters and cricket batsmen, respectively. ... Minor leagues in the sense intended in this article are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th-century conflict that engulfed much of the globe... This article refers to the American baseball league. ... For the 1930s NFL team, see Brooklyn Dodgers (football). ...

On June 30, 1945, with the Phillies buried in last place (winners of only 17 of 68 games), Chapman replaced Freddie Fitzsimmons as manager. The team improved somewhat through the end of 1945, and climbed to fifth place in 1946, the first year of the postwar baseball boom and the last season in which the color line was in force. In April 1947, Brooklyn called up Robinson from the Montreal Royals and made him their regular first baseman: he was the first African-American to play in the major leagues in more than 60 years. Chapman's Phillies were hardly the only NL team to violently oppose integration - several Dodger players had tried to petition management to keep him off the team - but during an early-season series in Brooklyn, the level of verbal abuse directed by Chapman and his players at Robinson reached such proportions that it made headlines in the New York and national press. The Dodgers rallied behind Robinson and there was increased sympathy for him in many circles. The backlash against Chapman was so severe that he asked to pose in a photograph with Robinson when the two teams next met in Philadelphia in May (in the photo, the two do not shake hands; they hold opposite ends of a baseball bat). See also: 1944 in sports, 1946 in sports and the list of years in sports. Many sporting events did not take place because of World War II. Baseball January 28: Hall of Fame election: Baseball writers fail to elect a new inductee. ... Frederick Freddie Fitzsimmons (July 28, 1901 - November 18, 1979)- Pitched from 1925-1943, twelve and a half seasons with the New York Giants and six and a half with the Brooklyn Dodgers. ... See also: 1945 in sports, other events of 1946, 1947 in sports and the list of years in sports. // Baseball January 23: Hall of Fame election: The writers vote again fails to select an inductee, despite a newly revamped voting process. ... The Baseball color line was the unwritten policy which excluded African American United States before 1947. ... The Montreal Royals were a AAA farm club for the Brooklyn Dodgers during the years 1939-1960. ... The position of the first baseman First base, or 1B, is the first of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a base runner in order to score a run for that players team. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans, Black Americans, or blacks are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to West and Central Africa. ...

Robinson went on to stardom and a ten-year career, a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and a revered position in American sporting and civil rights circles. Chapman's baseball career, however, was coming to an end. He survived the 1947 season, but the Phils fell to seventh. In July 1948, with the team still in seventh, Chapman was fired and eventually replaced by Eddie Sawyer. He would surface one more time in the majors, as a coach for the 1951 Cincinnati Reds. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, United States, is a semi-official museum operated by private interests that serves as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in North America, the display of baseball-related... Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... See also: 1947 in sports, 1949 in sports and the list of years in sports. Baseball January 29: Commissioner Happy Chandler fines the Yankees, Cubs, and Phillies $500 each for signing high school players. ... Edwin Milby Sawyer (September 10, 1910, Westerly, Rhode Island - September 22, 1997, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania) was a manager and scout in American Major League Baseball. ... The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. ...

His career major league managing record: 196-276 (.415).