Carl Mays - Playing Career

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. He was known, however, for a habit of throwing inside to any batter who hugged the plate. Despite a stellar win/loss record, Mays was typically among the American League leaders in hit batsmen.

When Carl was 12, his father William died. Carl internalized his grief, settling into a surly persona. He had very few friends in the baseball world. His best personal support group was a couple named Pierce and Genevieve Mays. Pierce may have been related to Carl, and the couple 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 threw at Cobb each time he came to bat. By the eighth inning, Cobb had enough. After a close pitch, Cobb threw his bat in Mays' direction calling him a "no good son of a bitch." Mays responded by calling Cobb a "yellow dog." After order was finally restored, Mays promptly hit Cobb directly on the wrist. The Tigers won the game 6–1 and the incident forever cemented Carl Mays as a head hunter.

The Yankees were trailing when Ray Chapman came to the plate in the 5th inning on August 16, 1920. Mays was pursuing his 100th career win that day. Chapman 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. 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.

Mays was nicknamed "Sub", a reference to his submarine pitching motion. Mays was a notorious spitball pitcher; this pitch was legal at the time of the Chapman incident. The fatal incident was partly responsible for the subsequent banning of the pitch in Major League 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. Mays won twenty or more games five times during his career. 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. 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 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.