MLB: St. Louis shooting reminder of deadly day at the ballpark in 1950

It’s not what you expect when you go to a ball game. A woman enjoying the Cardinals-Brewers game in St. Louis on Tuesday night felt a sudden sharp pain in her elbow. She had been shot.

The police said she had been hit by a stray bullet, possibly from someone firing into the air a mile away. Luckily, she was not seriously hurt.

This was not the most serious stray bullet incident at a major-league baseball game. In 1950, a fan at a game at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan was shot and killed.

The incident was front-page news in The New York Times, alongside updates from the Korean War. “Mystery Bullet Kills Baseball Fan in Midst of Crowd at Polo Grounds” read the headline.

Bernard L. Doyle, 54, from Fairview, N.J., was attending the game with the teenage son of a friend on the July 4. They were watching warm-ups in the grandstand behind left field when a shot was heard. Doyle slumped over, dead almost instantly. He had been killed by a .45 bullet to the temple.

The Giants split the games with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Dozens of police officers were assigned to the high-profile case, and it was quickly determined that the shot came from Coogan’s Bluff, the high ground above the stadium a half-mile away.

A14-year-old boy, Robert Mario Peebles, was questioned. After initial denials he confessed to firing a pistol into the air for fun from his rooftop on Edgecombe Ave.

Peebles claimed to have found the gun in Central Park. His great-greataunt, who had given him another gun, and two other adults were also held.

Peebles said, and the authorities seemed to agree, that the shooting was not meant to harm anyone.

He served two years at the New York State Training School for Boys in Warwick, New York, on weapons charges and juvenile delinquency.

There have been at least two other stray bullet incidents at MLB games.

In 2012, a man was bruised by a stray bullet at a Tampa Bay Rays game. In 2000, a woman was shot at a Kansas City Royals game and later reached a settlement with the team.

In both cases it was believed that the bullet came from outside the stadium.