Suicide
Aside from the deterioration of his arm, Day's life had been riddled with problems. His brother, Lemmie Day, was also a promising pitcher who had his leg amputated in 1922 and later died from "blood poisoning.” In 1929, Day’s mother committed suicide by drinking poison, and his father died of a heart attack in 1932.
In early 1934, Day’s wife of eleven years gave birth to a baby boy, but Day was despondent at the loss of his pitching arm. Day reportedly turned to alcohol and in March 1934, traveled to Kansas City, "seeking treatment for lapses of memory." On March 21, 1934, while staying in the apartment of former teammate Max Thomas, Day slit his throat with a hunting knife. Thomas tried to stop Day but was pushed aside. His funeral in Pea Ridge was attended by more than 500 people.
Day was buried at the Pea Ridge Cemetery in Pea Ridge, Arkansas.
Read more about this topic: Pea Ridge Day
Famous quotes containing the word suicide:
“There is no refuge from confession but suicide, and suicide is confession.”
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852)
“Would Hamlet have felt the delicious fascination of suicide if he hadn’t had an audience, and lines to speak?”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)
“However great a man’s fear of life, suicide remains the courageous act, the clear-headed act of a mathematician. The suicide has judged by the laws of chance—so many odds against one that to live will be more miserable than to die. His sense of mathematics is greater than his sense of survival. But think how a sense of survival must clamour to be heard at the last moment, what excuses it must present of a totally unscientific nature.”
—Graham Greene (1904–1991)