Harry Chappas

I’m at that point in life where no visit to baseball-reference.com is complete without glancing at the “In Memoriam” listing of names. That’s where I found Harry Chappas’. His was not a happy story. A 5’7” shortstop, Chappas had stints with the White Sox from 1978 to 1980, between the ages of 20-22. These were bad Sox teams, with owner Bill Veeck looking for ways to recapture the excitement generated by the “South Side Hitmen” of 1977. Which led Veeck to push the notion that Chappas was a mere 5’3”, a king-sized Eddie Gaedel, if you will. After his career ended, Chappas told Sports Illustrated, “I began to realize that Bill Veeck just wanted me to be a gimmick to put people in the seats.” [SI, 9-29-1997] In which case, so did Sox announcer Harry Caray. I can’t remember a player who suffered more from Caray’s “love-em to hate-em” routine. That was Harry Caray, those were the late ‘70s White Sox. Chappas batted .245 with 45 hits, 26 runs scored and twelve RBIs over the course of his career. He appears to have had a hard life after baseball and died last month at age 66. Not all memories turn golden with the passage of time.