Jack Chapman

John Curtis Chapman (May 8, 1843 – June 10, 1916) was an American Major League Baseball player and manager who was born in Brooklyn, New York. He began playing for Brooklyn-area semi-professional baseball clubs while in his teens. In 1870, he was playing for the powerful Brooklyn Atlantics when the undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings came to Brooklyn for a game. The Red Stockings had never lost a game to that point, but suffered their first-ever loss when the Atlantics beat them. Chapman was Brooklyn's cleanup hitter in that game. He later played in the National Association as an outfielder for the Brooklyn Atlantics and the St. Louis Brown Stockings. In , when the National League formed, he became the player-manager for the Louisville Grays. The following season saw him staying with Louisville in the manager role only. After the season, the Louisville team was expelled from the National League because four of its players had purposely lost games at the behest of gamblers. Chapman then became manager of the Milwaukee Grays. The team had a poor record, and he was fired.

In all, he managed 11 seasons in the majors, compiling a record of 351 wins and 502 losses. He won one championship, in with the Louisville Colonels of the American Association. The 1890 championship was historic; the Louisville club had finished in last place in the American Association in 1889, so by finishing in first place in 1890, the club became the first major-league club in history to go from last place to first place in the span of a single year. Chapman and his pennant-winning club then took part in the 1890 World Series, the seventh of eight held prior to the first modern Series in 1903. The team faced the Brooklyn Bridegrooms of the National League in what was planned as a best-of-seven series. Brooklyn won the first two games before the third game ended in an eight inning tie. Louisville won two out of the next three to force a seventh game amidst worsening weather conditions. Chapman and Brooklyn manager Bill McGunnigle agreed that the October 28 game would be the last one held, although it was stated that if Louisville won the game and tied the series that they would meet again in the following spring to determine the true winner. Louisville won 6–2, but the agreement between the AA and the NL floundered in the winter, meaning that no true winner of the 1890 Series was awarded that year.

Chapman's nickname was "Death to Flying Things", although fellow major leaguer Bob Ferguson had also been given the nickname. Chapman, who was a lifelong bachelor, died in Brooklyn at the age of 73. He is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery.

Chapman's managerial career is documented extensively in The 1890 Louisville Cyclones, a 2026 book written by Perry T. Cooper and published by McFarland & Company, Publishers. The book chronicles the Louisville club's achievement of moving from last place to first place in a year's time.