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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Johnson's pitching style was essentially a sidearm delivery that
would be just as dangerous to Left-handed batters as Righties.
The combination of this motion, speed and movement of his ball
was devastating to most batters.

Everybody knows that Ray Chapman died of a pitch that struck
him in the head by another strong sidearm pitcher, Carl Mays.
But, there is an interesting occurence a week prior to that event
which gives us an insight to the true person that Johnson was.

He was pitching at a game in Cleveland when the the fog started
rolling into the field from Lake Erie. The batter at that moment
happened to be Ray Chapman, and the story goes that Johnson
after his first pitch asked Chapman if he could see the ball?
Chapman replied..NO. Then Johnson asked the umpire to stop the
game.
Walter Johnson was intensely afraid of hitting batters. And, Cobb
knew this and took advantage of it when facing Johnson.