The Checkered Pitching Life of Carl Mays

[DOUGHBOYS]

Just a warning....
Most of the information for this post was derived from three or four sources and my recollections of those sources. If finding something that is disagreed with, please tell me, I won't take it as an affront but as part of learning more about the incident and the man.

One more warning...
Please forgive any typo's, it'll take long enough to write without proofreading it too.
This'll be long, but hopefully entertaining and informational....

In 1917 and 1918, the two best pitchers for the Boston Red Sox were Carl Mays and Babe Ruth. Each were disliked for different reasons by many. Mays lost his father while a boy. A death that took near a lifetime to overcome. He took it out on others, becoming surly and generally hard to get along with, among both teammates and adversaries.
Ruth was good, and he knew it. At a young age, it was hard for him to be humble. Teammates were in awe of his talent, but tried not to let him know it. His head was already becoming the size of his gut.

Although the two pitchers were successful, each had different styles. Mays was a submariner. Some would even nickname him 'Sub'. He used anything and everything on the ball. Spit, licorice, chewing tobacco, they were all in vogue during the day. It was 1919 and it was still the dead ball era, where one ball could be used for the whole game. The darker the ball became, the harder it was to see and the distance the ball could be hit diminished significantly.
Mays carried his surliness to the mound. He was known as a pitcher that was not afraid to come inside. Better put, if he hit a batter, not a wink of sleep would be lost that night.
In one game, he had hit Ty Cobb every time Cobb had come to the plate. Late in the game, Cobb went up to the plate and warned Mays he would have no more of it. Mays responded with a few choice words. Cobb responded by heaving his bat at Mays. The bat missed and a rhubarb ensued. When order was restored, Cobb again took his place in the batters box (You have to remember that his was the dead ball era and normally stars such as Cobb were not kicked out of games, even when throwing a bat).
Cobb dug in and Mays delivered his submarine pitch hitting Cobb on the wrist. Cobb shook his head and went to first base. Cobb would make the last catch of that game, a game the Tigers won, and triumphantly paraded the ball in glove to Mays and all his teammates.

1919 had started roughly for Mays. He pitched well in games but had a losing record. He grumbled that Ruth seemed to hit better when RUTH was pitching and not as a hitter in games in which Mays pitched.
Mays disposition was at an all time low.
Pitching in Philadelphia om Memorial Day, Mays took a constant berating from a fan sitting in the third row of field seats. Mad as Hell and not taking it anymore, Mays showed his pinpoint accuracy by hurling the ball and hitting the man in the forehead. The fan swore out a warrant for Mays arrest, wanting him to be punished for his dirty deed. But, Mays left on a train before the warrant could be served. The throw damaged the man's hat and left an egg sized lump on his forehead. The Red Sox bought him a new hat and wished him well.
In July, the Red Sox would make a trip back to Philly. Constable's were seen at the train station waiting to arrest Mays. The team Manager feared as much and had a plan. While the rest of the team got off the train from one exit, Mays was hustled out another exit and put on a train headed back to Boston.
The American League President fined Mays $100 for the incident and was suspended till the fine was paid.
Mays expected the Red Sox to pay his fine. They wouldn't.
Mays told the press, 'he was going fishing'.
The Boston Manager was pissed. He had risked getting jailed himself for Mays. He told Mays his salary would be withheld till the $100 was paid.
Somebody paid the $100, it is still not clear who, but Mays did not 'go fishing' and was soon pitching for the Sox again.
Bad luck and bad luck of his own making seemed to follow Mays. In the middle of July, he gave up four runs in the first inning to the White Sox,
In the second inning, he was beaned by his own catcher. The catcher claimed he was trying throw out a base runner. Mays gauged the difference between where he was standing and second base and did not believe it.
He left the field and the team.
Two days later, he told any and all that listened that he would not throw another pitch for the Red Sox.

The Red Sox owner was Harry Frazee. Frazee was a misplaced owner. He knew little about baseball, but loved Broadway.
Frazee needed money for a new Broadway production and selling players was the fastest way for an owner to make money. The White Sox offered $30,000 for Mays services, but were outbid by the Yankees.
These were the 1919 White Sox, or Black Sox. Had Mays joined them mid-season, their odds of winning the World Series would probably have been that much larger. And with Mays disposition and personality, he probably would have been in on the fix, but that is just junk.

Mays, sold to Yankees for $40,000 prepared to begin life as a pinstriper.
But, the American League President suspended Mays indefinitely for leaving the Red Sox.
Yankee owners were outraged. Why should they bear the brunt of a penalty for something that happened with another club?
The Yankees took the American League President to court.
And won. And won big.
Not only did the Yankees get Mays on the field, the court ruled that the American League President personally pay all legal fees incurred by the Yankees.

Later, after the 1919 World Series was over, Frazee would put his largest prize, Ruth, up for sale.
The White Sox offered $60,000 and Joe Jackson. It seemed like a great deal. But owner Charles Comiskey knew the rumors already going around about the 'fix' of the Series.
The Yankees offered a straight $100,000.
If Frazee were a baseball man, he'd of probably taken the White Sox deal. Afterall, he would get $60,000 now and could sell Jackson later if needed. But Frazee was not a baseball man and cash talked, Ruth was sold to the Yankees.

1920 was a three way horse race for the pennant. The Yankees, White Sox, and Indians were neck and neck and neck.
In August, the Yankees were facing the Indians.
In the fifth inning, Ray Chapman was batting. Chapman was a 'short hitter'. He choked up on the bat and tried a directional approach to hitting. Most batters of this era did the same thing. He stood in against Mays and as Mays released the pitch high and tight, Chapman never moved.
The ball hit him flush on the temple. It sounded like a bat had hit the ball. In fact, the ball ricocheted back to Mays and he instinctively threw it to first base. Chapman lay still, then got up with the help of teammates.
At the Polo Grounds, the locker field was beyond center field. Still assisted by teammates, Chapman started the trek there, but collapsed at second base. His teammates carried him to the locker room and an ambulance was called.
In and out of consciousness, Chapman told teammates to tell Mays he was alright and asked for the ring given to him by his wife.
Later that night, doctors removed three and one half inches of Chapman's skull. There were injuries to both sides of his brain and clotting was a problem too.
Chapman was dead within 24 hours of the incident.
When receiving the news, Chapman's wife fainted. She was also pregnant.


Mays pitched till the eighth inning of that game.
Mays was called before the New York District Attorney's office who decided not to press charges after the interview.
There was a viewing of Chapman's body. All Players from both the Indians and Yankees attended, except for Mays. Mays said, "I knew the sight of his silent form would haunt me for the rest of my days."


Mays claimed to be distraught about Chapman's death. But players did not buy it. They wanted him banned from baseball. The fans, press, and players showed outrage towards Mays. Ty Cobb led a group of players in trying to boycott games in which Mays were about to pitch.
Going on the offensive, Mays blamed the home plate umpire for allowing such a rough, dark ball to be used.
Umpires from both leagues threatened law suits. Swearing that they were only doing what was ordered of them.
Due to the tragic death, the dead ball era was over. White baseballs were to be only used in all games.
But, the story does not end here.

The ball that hit Chapman was never recovered. It was thrown out by the umpire and was never recovered. Back then, it was never thought of as a 'collectible'.
Without the ball, the public took the umpires side that the ball was 'playable'.
Mays then blamed Chapman-
"It was a fast ball. I knew it would be high and tight and I expected that he would drop as other hitters do when pitchers swing them in close to drive batters away from the plate.....Instead he ducked, and the ball hit him."
This comment infuriated players and fans alike. Eventually, the incident passed with the exception of a few hecklers who would remind Mays for the rest of his playing career.

Epilogue-
The Indians replaced Chapman with Joe Sewell. Sewell would lead them to the pennant that year and a World Series victory. They say there was hardly a dry eye in the clubhouse when they remembered Ray Chapman and his contributions earlier in the season to get the Indians to where they were now.

Chapman's wife gave birth to their child, a daughter, and re-married. But suffering with bouts of depression off and on for six years, she committed suicide.
Their daughter would die two years later from the measles.

Carl Mays wife also suffered an early death passing away at 36 due to complications from an eye infection.

Mays went on with his checkered career. He had his best year pitching for the Yankees in 1921, his record was 27-9.
Against the Giants in game one of the World Series, Mays threw a five-hit shutout.
In game four, Mays and the Yankees were leading 2-0.
It was then that his wife took out a white handkerchief and dabbled her forehead. For spectators, a sign of the heat. According to some, it was a sign to her husband that she had been paid the money for a fix.
Mays allowed four runs that inning. The Yankees lost that game.
They also lost the seventh game, a game that Mays started.
A New York newspaperman reported a story from a source that Mays had thrown the World Series. It was taken to the Commisioner of baseball, Kenesaw Landis, the same person who had banished eight players from the White Sox.
Mays was exonerated after no evidence could be found.
In 1922, Mays lost the first game of that World Series as well. Yankee teammates were convinced that Mays was 'on the take' and griped that they would not play with him on the team.
Mays was waived and picked up by Cincinnati where he had a 20 win season.
Years later, Fred Lieb, the reporter who reported Mays was told by Yankees Manager and one of the Yankee owners that they also thought Mays was in on a fix.
Mays ended his career in 1929 and scouted for baseball teams for 20 years after that.
There has been a couple of minor pushes to get him in the Hall of Fame.
He had the numbers, but the attempts were futile.
Mays died at the age of 79 in 1971.

He'll always be known as the man who killed a batter. The man who quickened the end of the dead ball era,
But now you know, there was much more to the story.

[Outlaw]

Nice Story Dough- thanks for the read!!!!