Carl Mays

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Carl Mays

Pitcher
Born: November 12, 1891
Liberty, Kentucky
Died: April 4, 1971(1971-04-04) (aged 79)
El Cajon, California
Batted: Left Threw: Right 
MLB debut
April 15, 1915 for the Boston Red Sox
Last MLB appearance
September 24, 1929 for the New York Giants
Career statistics
Win-loss record     207-126
Earned run average     2.92
Strikeouts     862
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Carl William Mays (November 12, 1891 – April 4, 1971) was a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1915 to 1929.[1] Despite impressive career statistics, he is primarily remembered for throwing a beanball on August 16, 1920, that struck and killed Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians, making Chapman one of two people to die from an injury sustained while playing major league baseball, the other being Doc Powers.[2][3]

Contents

[edit] Playing career

Carl Mays was the son of a Methodist minister named William Henry Mays. Carl had a strict upbringing as a child, and his devotion to his faith showed on the field. Much like legendary pitcher Christy Mathewson, Mays refused to pitch on Sundays.[4] However, his strict belief in faith didn't always carry over to the playing field. He had a habit of throwing inside to any batter who hugged the plate and despite a stellar win/loss record, Mays usually could be counted on to be among league leaders in the American League in hit batsmen.[4]

When Carl was 12, his father William died, and Carl internalized his grief, settling into a surly persona that resulted in his having very few friends in the baseball world. His best personal support group was a possibly-related man named Pierce Mays and Pierce's wife Genevieve, who served as a surrogate uncle and aunt to Carl.(Sean Deveney, The Original Curse, McGraw-Hill, 2010, pp.146-157).

In 1915, while a member of the Boston Red Sox, Mays was in a heated confrontation with Ty Cobb of the Tigers. Mays had thrown at Cobb each time he came to bat. By the eighth inning, Cobb had had enough. After a close pitch, Cobb threw his bat in Mays' direction calling him a "No Good Son of Bitch!" Mays responded by calling Cobb a "Yellow dog" [5] After order was finally restored, Mays promptly hit Cobb directly on the wrist. The Tigers ended up winning the game 6-1.[5] The incident forever cemented Carl Mays as a head hunter.[5]

Mays pitched with a submarine motion (he was nicknamed "Sub").[2] Mays was also a notorious spitball pitcher, even though this pitch was legal at the time (Chapman's beaning led partly to its being outlawed; by 1920 teams were restricted to two designated spitballers per staff; after 1920 a full ban was in effect, although various pitchers were given exemptions). On the day that Mays struck Chapman with the fatal pitch, the Indians and Yankees were in a heated race for the league championship. Mays was seeking a personal achievement that day. If he were to win, it would be his 100th career victory.[6]

The Yankees were trailing when Ray Chapman came to the plate in the 5th inning. Chapman by all accounts was having a decent game. He had a sacrifice bunt in the first inning, and popped up to Yankees first baseman Wally Pipp in the third.[6] Angered that Chapman was crowding the plate, Mays let loose with a high fastball that Chapman apparently never saw. The impact of the ball striking Chapman in the head was loud, to the point that Mays caught the ball as it bounced, and threw it to Pipp, standing on first. Chapman fell to the ground twice trying to make his way to first base. Cleveland teammate and long time friend Tris Speaker raced from the on deck circle to check on Chapman. He was joined by several players from the Indians and Yankees. Mays, however, never left the mound.[6]

Mays did not attend the funeral of Ray Chapman. According to what he told reporters, "I knew the sight of his silent form would haunt me forever." However, Carl Mays had few friends willing to support him. Even Ty Cobb, who like Mays wasn't well liked, felt that Mays deserved no pity. Without directly saying so (the words traced to Cobb are "Give the man a taste of his own medicine, I say"), Cobb inclined that opposing pitchers should throw at Mays when ever he came to bat. Cobb had few friends in baseball, and Ray Chapman was one of them.[6]

Angered at the attacks by the press (Cleveland newspapers called for Mays to be banished from the game) Mays went on the offensive. Mays blamed umpire Tommy Connolly, saying the ball had a rough spot, and should never have been used in the first place. The American League umpires were outraged, saying that Mays himself would always roughen up the surface by dragging and rubbing it on the ground. If there was a rough spot on the ball, that has been lost to history. The ball was tossed away during the game, and has never been found.[6] Both leagues adopted a new rule that any ball that was dirty or roughed had to be replaced by a brand new ball. Mays didn't stop at attacking the umpires in order to defend himself in the court of public opinion. Now Mays found himself the most hated man in all of baseball.

In a 15-year career with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Giants, he compiled a 207-126 record with 29 shutouts, 862 strikeouts and a 2.92 earned run average when the league average was 3.48.[1] Mays won twenty or more games five times during his career.[1] He was also noted for his skills with a bat, hitting five home runs, recording 110 runs batted in, and sporting a lifetime .268 batting average—an unusually high mark for a pitcher. Mays is the only Red Sox pitcher to toss two nine-inning complete game victories on the same day, as he bested the Philadelphia Athletics 12-0 and 4-1 on August 30, 1918.[7] Those two wins put the Red Sox one step from clinching the league championship, as they led Cleveland by 3 1/2 games with 4 remaining to play.

Mays in a batting stance
at the Polo Grounds
sometime during 1919-22.

Mays enjoyed his best season in 1921, when he led the American League in wins (27), innings pitched (336.2), games pitched (49), and winning percentage (.750). However that same season Mays, pitching then for the Yankees, played in a World Series that others later would accuse him of helping to throw, bringing back still-lingering memories of the Black Sox scandal from just two years prior. These rumors were never proven, but they persisted long enough that, combined with an already negative reputation among other players both from the Chapman incident and from having a personality that few found agreeable, he was never elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame despite having lifetime statistics comparable to some other pitchers who were.[8]

[edit] Later years

After his playing career, Mays served as a scout for Cleveland and Milwaukee clubs.[8] Carl Mays died in El Cajon, California. His distant cousin, Joe Mays, was a recent major league pitcher.

[edit] Legacy

In August 2008, Mays was named as one of the ten former players that began their careers before 1943 to be considered by the Veterans Committee for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009. He was named on only about 25 percent of the ballots, and was not selected.

[edit] Further reading

The book The Pitch That Killed, by Mike Sowell, is a history of the Chapman-Mays events.

The historical novel, The Curse of Carl Mays, by Howard Camerik, also recounts the history of the incident.

The children's book, Ray and Me by Dan Gutman, tells of Joe Stoshack and his journey to save Ray's life from Mays' "killer" pitch.

The book 1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York by Lyle Spatz, Steve Steinberg, Charles C. Alexander, takes a look at how Mays had social problems with his teammates and how that actually led him to be sold to the Yankees from the Red Sox.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Carl Mays at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ a b Carl Mays: My Pitch That Killed Chapman Was A Strike! by Phyllis Propert, Baseball Digest, July 1957, Vol. 16, No. 6, ISSN 0005-609X
  3. ^ The Death of Ray Chapman, The New York Times, August 17, 1920
  4. ^ a b http://www.thedeadballera.com/participants.html
  5. ^ a b c http://www.thedeadballera.com/prelude.html
  6. ^ a b c d e http://www.thedeadballera.com/incident.html
  7. ^ The 1918 Boston Red Sox Regular Season Game Log at retrosheet
  8. ^ a b Tragic Pitch Recalled By Carl Mays, by Jack Murphy, Baseball Digest, May 1971, Vol. 30, No. 5, ISSN 0005-609X

[edit] External links


Sporting positions
Preceded by
Jim Bagby		 American League Wins Champion
1921
(with Urban Shocker)		 Succeeded by
Eddie Rommel
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carl_Mays&oldid=465578411"
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages