PIKE COUNTY, Mo. — This month marks the anniversary of a beaning that cut short the Major League Baseball career of a Pike County Missouri man.
Paul Meloan was born in Paynesville and played for the Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Browns.
On August 16, 1910, Meloan was hit in the head by a pitch from the New York Highlanders’ Jack Quinn. The Piker was knocked cold, but claimed he wasn’t seriously hurt. In reality, he would never be the same player.
Though head protection had been worn sporadically at least since 1908, it would be more than 40 years before the National and American leagues would require players to wear helmets.
Meloan lasted one more season in the majors and played professionally until 1919.
Ten years to the day after Meloan was beaned, a pitch from Carl Mays of the New York Yankees hit Ray Chapman in the head. The Cleveland Indians star grew up in Southern Illinois and had been a minor league teammate of Meloan.
Chapman died the next morning, becoming the first – and so far, the only – on-field fatality during a game in Major League Baseball history.
Meloan died at age 61 in 1950 and is buried in California.

(FYI NOTE: The New York Highlanders became the Yankees in 1913).