06/16/2026
Not the ‘Lizzie Borden Baseball Story’ again?!? Allentown Baseball History?🤔 Perhaps “folklore” may be more apt, but reportedly in the 19th Century, Mike Kilroy, broke the last available bat in the 11th inning of a tied game. He insisted on using an axe that he saw nearby. He hit the game-winning home run with HALF the ball going over the fence propelling
Allentown to beat Pottsville “2-1/2 to 2!”
As too many are still sharing this story as “fact” or “reality” we wanted to shed some light on this…
Some version of the "cut a ball in half" story was told about Mike "King" Kelly, the biggest superstar of his era, on the Ripley's Believe It Or Not radio show in the 1930s, possibly around the same time as Setley told his version, and here's another example in SABR's biography of Perry Werden, a celebrated minor-league slugger for the Minneapolis Millers in the 1890s: Perry Werden - “One time I hit the ball so hard that it broke in two. Half of the ball struck a ‘Hit Me for a Free Pair of Shoes’ sign on the left-field fence; the other half was retrieved by the left fielder and thrown in to the catcher. As I steamed home, the catcher tagged me with half a ball. The umpire called me out, but I successfully argued that our team deserved half a run. It was a close game and we won by the score of 2½ to 2.
Reporter: That’s an amazing story, Perry. Did you get a free pair of shoes?
Werden: No, the store owner said I was entitled to only one shoe.”
The portion of this story which is true: -Mike Kilroy and Wild Bill Setley were teammates for a minor-league team in Allentown of the Pennsylvania State League, but in 1894, not 1893.
-The team was managed by none other than Mike "King" Kelly, who was in the final year of his Hall of Fame career at age 36 and who died at the end of the season. (Baseball Reference lists the Allentown team with the nickname ‘Kelly's Killers,’ but like so many early baseball team names, this name does not seem to have been used at the time and was only applied years later. They were generally just called Allentown.)
On August 15, 1894, Mike Kilroy did have a dramatic game-winning hit for Allentown that fits the basic description of Setley's story. Here is a detailed recap from the Shenandoah Evening Herald.
In the game against Shenandoah (not Pottsville), Kilroy pitched all 11 innings for the visitors from Allentown. In the bottom of the 11th inning — by the rules at the time, the home team could still choose whether to bat first or last — Bill Sweeney hit a double for Allentown and scored the winning run on Kilroy's dramatic single to win it, 7-6, in front of a crowd of 2,000 people. This memorable finish was the final game of the Pennsylvania State League season for the Allentown team, so it makes sense that Wild Bill Setley would have remembered Kilroy's big hit years later.
The very next day, it was reported that the entire Allentown team had jumped to the Eastern League to replace a team in Binghamton (NY) that folded due to financial troubles. This kind of move was not unusual during the 19th century — players, teams, and entire leagues could disappear at a moment's notice, if a new contract could be negotiated or if the team's funds dried up — and that was even more true during a period of economic despair like America faced in 1893-94
This material from SABR confirms that although he got some details wrong (such as the year, score, and opposing team), Setley's account did conform to the records of an 1894 game between Shenandoah and Allentown that was won in the 11th inning on a dramatic hit by Allentown pitcher Mike Kilroy. However, two other key points emerge from SABR's information:
1) Contemporaneous and detailed reporting of the game in question made absolutely no mention of Kilroy's breaking the last available bat, using an axe in its place, cutting the ball in two with his swing, knocking half a ball over the fence, or being awarded half a run. (Kilory simply made a "good safe hit" that drove in a run, according to reporting of the day.)
2) The very same "cut a ball in half" story was told by and about other players as well, right down to the detail of the game-winning score being 2 1/2 to 2. Notably, the 1894 game Setley referred to ended with a final score of 7-6, so clearly he dredged up the "2 1/2 to 2" detail from somewhere other than his own experience and memory.
With that data in mind, we think we can safely put this one down as a tall tale that belongs in the "too good to be true" category, otherwise known as "False".
FACTS: Although numerous personalities have reposted this account as being “true”, let’s look at this in a more discerning manner. While it's a wonderfully colorful piece of Americana, baseball historians consider this story to be pure myth. Real, modern physics confirms it is virtually impossible to split a baseball in half with an axe during live pitching. However, the real Mike Kilroy did play in the Pennsylvania leagues during the 1890s and had a flair for the dramatic, which helped fuel this wild bit of local sports lore!
SNOPES report on this story: False!
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/baseball-cut-in-half-by-axe/
The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) helped us fill in some of the blanks by providing additional information:
A. This wild story has been making the rounds in our circles, as well. But as far as we can tell, it appears to be mostly false. B. At best, Setley's version of the story combines elements from one well-known urban legend with a real-life 1894 Allentown game in which Mike Kilroy did hit a ‘game-ending single in the 11th inning.’
C. This story has been told about a number of players, typically to illustrate a popular player's home run hitting prowess. But there is no evidence it has ever happened in professional baseball, with an axe or otherwise. Of course this is also a variant of the "knocked the cover off the ball" story, which has happened many, many times (see Roy Hobbs in The Natural and, more recently in real life, Martin Maldonado of the Milwaukee Brewers in 2014.) Knocking the cover off the ball was a somewhat common occurrence in the late 19th century, when baseball manufacturing standards were haphazard and inconsistent.
NOTE: Mike Kilroy was an American Major League Baseball pitcher, and was the brother of Matt Kilroy. Kilroy played two seasons in the Majors, with the Baltimore Orioles in 1888 and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1891. He pitched four career games with an 0–3 record and an ERA of 9.00. His brother, Matt, also played in the majors.
Just how much faith do you place in an unbelievable anecdote told by a wag known as "Wild Bill"?
