Mike "Doc" Powers (April 22, 1870 – April 26, 1909) was an American Major League Baseball player who caught for four different teams from 1898 to 1909. His nickname was derived from the fact that he was a licensed physician as well as a ballplayer. During a brief stint with the New York Highlanders in 1905, Powers caught while Jim "Doc" Newton pitched, creating the only known example of a two-physician battery in Major League history.
On April 12, 1909, Powers was injured during the first game played in Philadelphia's Shibe Park, crashing into a wall while chasing a foul pop-up. He sustained internal injuries from the collision and died two weeks later from complications from three intestinal surgeries,
becoming possibly the first Major Leaguer to suffer an on-field injury that eventually led to his death. The immediate cause of death was peritonitis arising from post-surgery infections.
Powers' injury may have served as the inspiration for that suffered by "Bump" Bailey, a minor character in Bernard Malamud's novel The Natural, as well as its subsequent film adaptation.
