He attended Cleveland's Central High School and went on to college at St. Joseph's. Delahanty signed on to first play professional baseball with Mansfield of the Ohio State League in 1887. Delahanty also played minor league ball in Wheeling, West Virginia. In 1887, the Wheeling team sold Delahanty to the Philadelphia Phillies for $1,900. He became the most prominent member of the largest group of siblings ever to play in the major leagues: brothers Frank, Jim, Joe and Tom also spent time in the majors.
In 1890 he jumped to the Players' League (PL), but returned to the Phillies the next year when that league folded. He hit .306 and tallied 6 HR and 91 RBI in 1892. During one game that season, St. Louis infielder George Pinkney charged toward home plate, expecting Delahanty to bunt; Delahanty swung and hit a ball that "appeared to have been shot from a cannon", breaking Pinkney's ankle.
Delahanty blossomed in 1893 with .368, 19 HR and 146 RBI. He narrowly missed the Triple Crown, as teammates Billy Hamilton and Sam Thompson led the league in batting with .380 and .370 averages respectively. While with the Phillies, Delahanty played under manager Harry Wright, the man who assembled, managed, and played center field for baseball's first fully professional team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. Wright managed the Phillies with Delahanty for four seasons, from 1890 to 1893, with the two and their fine supporting cast leading the Phils to "first division" finishes during those years, though the team never won a pennant. Between 1894 and 1896 Delahanty compiled astonishing batting marks: .407, 4 HR, 131 RBI; .404, 11 HR, 106 RBI; .397, 13 HR, 126 RBI.
On July 13, 1896, Delahanty became the second player to hit four home runs in a game. He was the only player ever to do so with four inside-the-park homers and the first one to do so in a losing effort. (The Phillies lost the game, 9–8.) In 1899, Delahanty hit four doubles in the same game. He remains the only man with a four-homer game and a four-double game. The same year Delahanty collected hits in 10 consecutive at bats. He tallied six-hit games in 1890 and 1894.
Delahanty returned to the Senators for the 1903 season. He was hitting .333 with 1 HR and 21 RBI in 42 games that year until the incident at Niagara Falls.
Delahanty died when he was swept over Niagara Falls in early July 1903. He was apparently kicked off a train by the train's conductor for being drunk and disorderly. The conductor said Delahanty was brandishing a straight razor and threatening passengers after he consumed five whiskies. After being kicked off the train, Delahanty started his way across the International Bridge connecting Buffalo, New York with Fort Erie (near Niagara Falls) and fell or jumped off the bridge (some accounts say Ed was yelling about death that night). Whether "Big Ed" died from his plunge over the Falls or drowned on the way to the Falls is uncertain. His body was found at the bottom of Niagara Falls two weeks after his death.
In his 16 seasons with Philadelphia, Cleveland and Washington, Delahanty batted .346, with 101 HRs and 1464 RBIs, 522 doubles, 185 triples and 455 stolen bases. He also led the league in slugging average and runs batted in three times each, and batted over .400 three times. In the years since, Rogers Hornsby has been the only three-time .400-hitter in the National League (1922, 1924–25). Delahanty's lifetime batting average of .346 ranks fifth all-time behind Ty Cobb (.366), Rogers Hornsby (.359), Joe Jackson (.356). and Lefty O'Doul (.349).
↑ "Lookink (sic) back to ye olden days on diamond". The Norwalk Hour. January 26, 1923. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
1 2 "Ed Delahanty Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
↑ Grayson, Harry (June 16, 1943). "Ed Delahanty was right-handed Babe Ruth of Dead Ball Era". San Jose Evening News. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
↑ James, Bill (2010). The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. Simon & Schuster. p. 675. ISBN 1439106932.
↑ "Delahanty admits that he is out for coin". The Pittsburgh Press. December 5, 1902. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
↑ "Delehanty's (sic) body found". The New York Times. July 10, 1903. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
↑ Niagara Blog, On this day in Niagara Falls History – July 2, 1903"