Sports Mishaps That Destroyed Innocent Lives

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Sports mean different things to different people. For some, they are a source of local pride. For others, an outlet. And for the unfortunate few, they become a scarring reminder that the world is just a malevolent ball of spinning chaos, tumbling through the void, waiting for its moment to strike and severely screw up your day.

Yes, the field of athletic excellence has long held the potential for tragedy. High-speed action and bodies in motion, plus the intense emotions of both players and fans make it next to impossible to prevent every potential opportunity for catastrophe. Folks trip and fall, sports equipment goes careening through the air, tempers fly, and mayhem ensues.

So grab a $9 beer, raise your voice lustily in the National Anthem, and get ready to read about some of the most atrocious misfortunes ever to strike the field, course, and stadium. Caveat emptor: Stuff gets graphic.

Being Superman would be enough for most people, you know? Being immediately recognizable as one of the most popular characters in the history of Western civilization would be a solid slice of achievement pie for your average Joe. But for some reason, Christopher Reeve just kept getting good at other stuff, too.

Reeve had a fascinating life, attending Cornell and Juilliard before finding fame as the Man of Steel. When he wasn't acting, he pushed himself to impressive levels of achievement in other fields. He was a licensed pilot, a sailor, and an accomplished dressage horseback rider. And the end of that last sentence is where anyone alive and literate during the 1990s went "Ohhhhhh."

In 1995, Reeve was participating in a dressage event when his horse stopped mid-jump and threw him forward. He landed on his head, fractured his C1 and C2 vertebrae, and was paralyzed from the neck down. Reeve would never fully recover physically, but he continued to work for the rest of his life. His memoir, Still Me, spent 11 weeks as a New York Times bestseller, he appeared on Smallville and starred in a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, and he worked as a political activist until his death in 2004.

Remember back in the 1990s and early 2000s when everything was extreme for a while? Big Gulps evolved into thirst-annihilating X-Treme gulps. The Ghostbusters, not content to let busting simply make them feel good, became the Extreme Ghostbusters and, presumably, got to feeling extremely good. We were taking things to the max, dog. It was extreme.

Enter the X Games: ESPN's answer to the question "What's the fastest way to paralyze white guys with dreadlocks?" and the Winter X Games, ESPN's answer to "same question as before, but on ice this time?"

At the 2013 Winter X Games in Aspen, 25-year-old Caleb Moore was competing in the snowmobile freestyle event. An experienced snowmobiler, Moore had already won several medals at previous X Games competitions, so it probably didn't seem like a huge deal when he tried to perform a backflip. Unfortunately, the skis at the front of his vehicle snagged on the ground when he landed, sending Moore over the handlebars and onto the ground. The snowmobile smashed into him, and he died a week later. He was presented with a posthumous X Games gold medal at his funeral, though. So, you know. Worth it.

Some safety features we just take for granted. Seatbelts in cars, for example. Carbon monoxide detectors. The safety netting at hockey games. Sadly, there's a reason these things exist: Tragedy strikes fast without them.

In March 2002, Brittanie Cecil was attending a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey game. She'd received tickets as an early present for her 14th birthday. Then, during the second period, the Blue Jackets' Espen Knutsen fired off a shot that was deflected by Calgary Flames defenseman Derek Morris. The puck ripped through the air, over the protective glass, and into the crowd, where it struck Brittanie in the left temple. Two days later, she died of complications from her injury.

In the aftermath of the accident, protective netting was made mandatory in all NHL arenas. The Blue Jackets wore Cecil's initials on their uniforms for the rest of the season, and Cecil's family received a settlement of over $1 million.

Sometimes, things just go tragically wrong. In 2011, 39-year-old firefighter Shannon Stone took his 6-year-old son to a Texas Rangers baseball game. Reportedly, the kid had an abiding love for Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton, so you can imagine the excitement the father and son felt when Hamilton tossed a ball to them from the field. Stone went to catch the ball, and tragedy struck.

Losing his footing, Stone tumbled forward over the balcony and landed, headfirst, on the concrete 20 feet below. An hour later, he was pronounced dead of severe blunt force trauma. His son witnessed the whole affair.

The next year, a statue depicting Stone and his son was unveiled and placed at the home plate entrance to the stadium. It was a bittersweet conclusion to an unimaginable tragedy, as two years later, the memorial made headlines when excited fans covered it in trash on opening day.

Helmets in sports: They're such a great idea. In baseball, for example, it's a given that you'd want to protect yourself from the compacted cork and leather rock getting hurled around at 100 mph. But we're not a species that learns without making mistakes, and it shows. Just look at Raymond Chapman.

If you're reading this, you've probably never seen Chapman play baseball. He was the shortstop for the Cleveland Indians in the early 20th century. According to Baseball: An Illustrated History, it was considered normal at the time for a pitcher to get the baseball as dirty and screwed up as possible before pitching it. The idea was to make the pitch's trajectory unpredictable. If this sounds stupid and dangerous, it's because it was.

By all accounts, the ball that did Ray Chapman in was good and disgusting when it flew off course and struck the 29-year-old right in the melon. Babe Ruth claimed he could hear the sound of the impact from all the way out in right field. Nearly a century later, Chapman remains the only player in MLB history to die of an injury sustained during a game.

became the only player in major league history to die of an injury received during a game when he was struck in the head by a fastball in 1920.

Sometimes, you can make a mistake so fast that you don't even realize it's happening. Case in point: the Legend of Bartman.

It was Game 6 of the National League Championship Series in 2003. The Cubs were up 3-0 against the Marlins in the eighth inning, and it was starting to look like they had a shot at the National League pennant for the first time in nearly 60 years. The game was nearly a sure thing. How often does a team lose with a 3-0 lead in the eighth? Well ... often enough.

Smash cut to: Louis Castillo of the Marlins hits a foul ball. It makes its way toward the stands. Chicago outfielder Moisés Alou runs for the ball. He leaps into the air. And then?

A Cubs fan in a turtleneck slaps it out of reach.

Look, it was an easy mistake to make. The offending party, Steve Bartman, later said in a statement that he just got caught up in the moment and didn't even notice Alou was trying to make the catch. Plus, two other fans tried to make the same catch, like almost any fan would. The players lost their composure, paving the way for the Marlins to make a comeback and win the game 8-3. Bartman had to be escorted out of the stadium for his own safety. He wound up with cops guarding his home after his personal information became public. When the Cubs finally did win a World Series in 2017, Bartman received a championship ring from the team as an apology.