About one hundred miles west of Philadelphia, a train carrying fans to the Phillies-Pirates game derailed on July 28, 1962. Three of the train’s cars rolled down a twenty-five-foot embankment into the Susquehanna River. According to some reports, 19 were killed in the wreck, whereas others report 22 killed, and more than one hundred fans were injured.
Fourteen adjoining rows of empty seats along first-base line in Connie Mack Stadium were especially conspicuous that day, as 12,450 spectators watch the home team beat the Pirates, 9-2.
If you are interested in reading more about this gruesome train wreck, you can find the New York Times‘ coverage of the event here.
Or you can view video footage from the wreck in the report below:
i often wondered about teams and crashes like an entire team crashing and all the players dying. i think there was a situation with a soccer team like that…maybe in south america somewhere? anyway, this tragedy would make for a great movie and/or research projects to find out about the baseball fans who died and this is 1962 which makes it possible to contact their relatives.