David Letterman divulges Late Night incident that nearly got people killed

David Letterman is a talk show legend. He's commonly cited as one of the best to ever do it, and that's by people like Craig Ferguson and Conan O'Brien, who are also among the best to ever do it. That doesn't mean Letterman was/is infallible, though.

There have been lots of compilations of David Letterman doing questionable things on his show, or putting his guests on the spot in ways that would be considered inappropriate today. The incident that proved most harrowing, however, happened offscreen.

Letterman accidentally threw a baseball out of a window

Letterman hosted Late Night with David Letterman from 1982 to 1993, before switching over to The Late Show. It was during a random day on the set of Late Night that he and producer Mary Connelly decided to pass the time by throwing baseball around in the office.

Harmless enough, right? Well, not exactly. David Letterman recounted this incident during a 2019 appearance on Ellen, which Connelly had become a producer on. He claimed that one of his tosses got away from Connelly, and proceeded to go out the window on the 14th floor.

He feared the ball fell and killed somebody on the street

Letterman recalls a sense of terror as he realized a baseball from that height could easily kill people. "I was stunned," he recalled. "And you know, well, 'How many are dead?'' The comedian eventually made his way to the window and looked down, but his panic increased when he was spotted:

"I could see a guy down there, and I can hear him say, 'Hey look, it’s Dave Letterman.' And I go, 'Oh, I’m spending the rest of my life in prison.'"

Thankfully, nobody was hurt by the falling baseball. Letterman and Connelly did not get into any legal trouble as a result of the incident, and the duo decided to reinforce the windows with Lexan glass, so they wouldn't break if a baseball struck it.

Letterman considered the incident one of the worst days of his television career, simply due to the fear that he had inadvertently taken someone's life or caused an accident on the street. Talk about dodging a bullet (or in this case, a baseball).