Prison Inmates Offered to be Executed to Save Team’s Star Baseball Pitcher
A convicted murderer was so talented on the mound that multiple prisoners at San Quentin offered to trade places with him at his execution so he could continue starring for the prison team
Baseball has been serious business in this country for some time. It hasn’t been known as the National Pastime for any small reason. This has extended beyond the professional game, including the time inmates in a prison offered to exchange places with a condemned murderer at his execution because of his alternate status as the star pitcher on the facility’s ball team.
Particularly in the past, many jails and prisons had their own baseball teams, which could boast talented players and spirited competition. For men enduring consequences for the worst decisions of their lives, it served as a welcome distraction from the dire nature of their circumstances. The September 10, 1924 edition of the Birmingham News reported a story that showed just how serious prison baseball could be.
At the time, San Quentin Prison boasted a competitive baseball team. That year, their star pitcher was 19-year-old Clarence “Tuffy” Reid, a former newsboy from Los Angeles, who landed on…
