Alfredo Edmead
Francisco Alfredo Edmead (1956 - August 22, 1974) was a minor league baseball player who was killed in a freak on-field accident in 1974.
A native of the Dominican Republic and one of eleven children, Alfredo Edmead joined the Salem Pirates of the Carolina League as a 17-year-old in 1974. Edmead immediately showed promise, batting .319 with 61 stolen bases and seven homers in 119 games with Salem, a farm club of the MLB Pittsburgh Pirates.
Edmead spoke little English, but improved quickly. "I was afraid I’d be withdrawn," he told a reporter early in the season.[1] Salem manager John Lipon was impressed, describing Edmead as "so very smart".
Death
On August 22, 1974, the Pirates were playing the Rocky Mount Phillies at Salem's Municipal Stadium. Opposing pitcher Murray Gage-Cole (making his first-ever pro plate appearance) hit a fly ball to short right field. Edmead gave chase, while teammate, second baseman Pablo Cruz drifted back for the play. Edmead collided with Cruz—who, coincidentally, had signed Edmead to his first pro contract as a part-time scout for the Pirates—striking his head on Cruz's knee, knocking Edmead unconscious.
Phillies pitcher Jim Meerpohl related the incident in an interview in the Sporting News: "Cruz was seated on the ground, rolling up his pant leg, still very much in pain, but then we saw he had a knee brace, the old-fashioned kind with steel braces on each side. That damned steel had been like an axe to Edmeads head; with his left side of his skull from the frontal lobe across the top to the back of his skull sliced open about three-quarters of an inch and the bleeding was horrific."[2]
Edmead died an hour later for massive brain trauma and loss of blood at Lewis-Gale Hospital in Salem. At 17, Edmead was the youngest at death of any pro baseball player in history.