FULL-COURT PRESS: Finding motivation in a - literally - shocking old baseball story

As most of us have dealt with, the past nine-plus months of COVID-19 could be described with many words. Some of mine would be as a mix of fear, frustration, struggle or any synonym of those words.

I'll be honest, another word that has floated around my mind since mid-March would be "motivation."

While I'm on the truth train, I'm also probably in the top 10 of all-time procrastinators to ever walk this earth. With that being said, I also feel I have pretty good self-motivation 95% of the time. However, there are times, and maybe you feel this way too, that something I read, see or hear just gives me a boost or inspiration.

A few days ago, a friend shared a post on Facebook with the link to a story about a gentleman named Ray Caldwell. The photo with the post showed an old newspaper clipping with the headline reading: "Caldwell Felled by Bolt from Sky; Finishes Game."

Before I get to the story — one I hadn't heard before — here is a little background on Caldwell.

Caldwell was a pitcher in the major leagues from 1910 to 1921, posting a record of 133-120 and ERA of 3.22 while throwing for the New York Highlanders/Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians. He combined for 37 victories in '14 and '15, and it was written many felt he was destined to be the next Christy Mathewson.

But prior to the 1919 season, the Yankees traded the 31-year-old Caldwell to the Red Sox after he had left the team without notice during the 1918 season. That wasn't the first time he'd disappeared. Also well-documented were his struggles with injuries, alcoholism and domestic issues. However, Boston manager Ed Barrow had a reputation for being tough, so there was some hope of engineering a change in Caldwell.

But in Boston, he became road roommates with a 24-year-old pitcher and slugger named Babe Ruth who also enjoyed the occasional drink and night on the town. The outcome was foreseeable, and Caldwell quickly wore out his welcome in Boston and was released in early August.

After being let go by two teams in less than a year, Caldwell's future in professional baseball looked bleak at best. At the time, the Indians were chasing the Chicago White Sox for the American League pennant and were desperate for whatever pitching they could find and signed Caldwell three weeks later.

Cleveland manager Tris Speaker had a strange plan to find a middle ground between Caldwell's mound and personal life. According to Franklin Lewis, author of "The Cleveland Indians," an early history of the team, the contract read:

“After each game he pitches, Ray Caldwell must get drunk. He is not to report to the clubhouse the next day. The second day, he is to report to Manager Speaker and run around the ball park as many times as Manager Speaker stipulates. The third day he is to pitch batting practice, and the fourth day he is to pitch in a championship."

I imagine it was a deal that Caldwell — like a good stiff drink — couldn't pass up.

Five days after joining the Indians, Caldwell made his debut, taking the hill at Cleveland's League Park against the last-place Philadelphia Athletics. Caldwell cruised through 8 2/3 innings, giving up only one run on four hits, and was retiring light-hitting shortstop Joe Dugan away from not only wrapping up a 2-1 win for his new team, but getting the game in before the forecasted evening thunderstorm rolled in.

What happened next — a bolt of lightning struck somewhere within the confines of League Park, and it knocked Caldwell out cold — was witnessed by many eyes and recounted by numbers of sportswriters in as many descriptions.

Lewis wrote in his book, "A bolt came hurtling from the sky and smashed into the ground near the pitcher's mound. A direct hit would have killed any mortal. Caldwell was struck, a glancing blow fortunately. He was flattened and knocked unconscious."

"Caldwell's theory was the bolt entered him through the metal button atop his cap. He said the experience felt like someone hit him on the head with a wooden board. After the game, he claimed to have discovered a burn mark on his chest, which he attributed to the lightning strike.

"Others on the field received electric shocks as well. The strike knocked off catcher Steve O'Neill's mask and cap. Third base coach Harry Davis lost his hat. Umpire Billy Evans said he felt the tingle of electricity in his legs. Ray Chapman - who would die after getting hit by a pitch a year later - reported numbness in his legs that nearly caused him to fall while running to Caldwell from shortstop."

Whatever happened, exactly, it's clear that Caldwell got the brunt of it. As he "lay stretched out in the pitcher's box," according toThe Sporting News, his own teammates feared he might be dead. However, after about five minutes Caldwell rose to his feet and was unwilling to come out of the game or get any medical attention.

He proceeded to get Dugan to hit a weak grounder to third on the first pitch to finish things off.

Remarkably, Caldwell didn't suffer any lasting effects from the incident aside from that alleged burn mark; in fact, just over two weeks later, he threw a no-hitter against the Yankees — his former team — at the Polo Grounds and went 5-1 with a 1.71 ERA in his month stint with Cleveland.

Although the chance Speaker and the Indians took on Caldwell worked out surprisingly well — he ended up pitching two more seasons in Cleveland, winning a World Series in 1920 and leaving baseball after the 1921 season — the team ultimately fell short of the 1919 AL pennant, finishing 3 1/2 games back of the White Sox.

Caldwell bought a farm in Frewsburg, N.Y., in 1940 and worked at the train station at Ashville as a telegrapher and later worked as a steward and bartender. He passed away in August of 1967.

In a weird way, reading Caldwell's story sparked that motivational nerve for me — that "get up when life knocks you down and keep going" — sort of thought.

He had his ups and downs. He had his struggles on and off the field. But he turned things around when times seemed the darkest.

Sounds a little like the year 2020 for many of us, huh?

Hopefully we can all stay positive, continue to pick ourselves up when we fall and keep looking for things that motivate us to stay strong and get through this storm.