According to baseball-almanac.com, nearly 100 former players, managers and executives have killed themselves, most notably pitchers Donnie Moore, Don Wilson and Hugh Casey; turn-of-the-century Boston Red Sox manager Chick Stahl; former umpire Ron Luciano; and early National League president Harry Pulliam. But Willard Hershberger is the only one to do so in the heat of battle, so to speak. Hershberger, a 167-pound career sub, became the Reds' regular catcher in July 1940, when star backstop Ernie Lombardi sustained a finger injury. After Cincinnati blew a big lead and lost to the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds at the end of July, some of the Reds criticized Hershberger's pitch-calling and suggested the team would have won the game if Lombardi had been catching. A few days later, on Aug. 2, the same issue arose after the Reds lost to the weak Boston Braves. Afterward, Hershberger told manager Bill McKechnie, "My father killed himself, and I'm going to do it, too."