|
WIRES ST. LOUIS 80 years after the end of his career and nearly 40 years after his death, Carl Mays has finally earned recognition for something other than the only fatal pitch in major league history. The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame said Tuesday that Mays has been selected for induction, along with former Cardinals third basemen Ken Reitz and former Royals pitcher Steve Busby. A ceremony will be held Oct. 22 in Springfield. Mays won 207 games during a 15-season career that ended in 1929, won 20 or more games five times and pitched in four World Series. His accomplishments were overshadowed by the pitch in 1920 that killed Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman. Mays, who was pitching for the Yankees, said the beaning was unintentional. Mays grew up in the Mansfield area of southern Missouri. Over the past several months, two women from the Mansfield area, Kathy Short and Ann Duckworth, started a letter-writing campaign to get him into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. "I almost cried when I found out," Short said Tuesday. "I'm a hometown girl so I'm a little biased, but we're very excited." Mays was born in Kentucky. His family moved to Mansfield when he was 2, and lived there for about a decade before moving to Oklahoma. He made frequent visits back to Mansfield during and after his playing days, and built a home for his mother just outside of town. Mays began his baseball career with the Boston Red Sox in 1915. He was traded to the New York Yankees in 1919. On Aug. 16, 1920, the Indians were in New York for a crucial series when Chapman stepped to the plate in the top of the fifth. Figuring the speedy Chapman might try to bunt his way on base, Mays threw high and inside. The ball struck Chapman in the temple. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. Despite the loss of their shortstop, the Indians went on to win the AL pennant and the World Series. Mays went 26-11 that year and pitched nine more seasons, but his legacy was tainted. "It is the most regrettable incident of my baseball career," he told The New York Times after Chapman's death, "and I would give anything if I could undo what has happened." In an interview last month with The Associated Press, Duckworth and Short said few knew the soft side of Mays, who organized games with the children of Mansfield during his frequent visits to the community, and who donated old Yankees uniforms to the town team. Reitz, 58, spent most of his 11 major league seasons with the Cardinals, where he was known as the "Zamboni Machine" because of his strong defense at third base. He won a Gold Glove award in 1975 and was an All-Star in 1980. He hit .260 for his career. Busby, 59, was with the Royals for his entire eight-season career. He won 56 games from 1973 through 1975 before injuries cut short his career. Overall he was 70-54 with a 3.72 ERA. He was an All-Star in 1974 and 1975.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: | Carl Mays |
|---|
 |
|---|
Carl William Mays (November 12, 1891 – April 4, 1971) was one of the better right-handed pitchers in Major League Baseball from 1916-1926, but he is also remembered for throwing the pitch that struck Ray Chapman in the head on August 16, 1920, making Chapman only the second major leaguer in history to die as a direct result of an on-field incident (he died the next day at a New York City hospital). Born in Liberty, Kentucky, Mays threw with a submarine motion (he was nicknamed "Sub"), although it would be more accurate to say that he threw straight underhand. Mays was also a notorious spitball pitcher, even though this pitch was legal at the time (Chapman's beaning led directly to its being outlawed). 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. He was also noted for his skills with a bat, hitting five home runs, 110 runs batted in, and 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 30th, 1918. 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. Carl Mays died in El Cajon, California. His distant cousin, Joe Mays, was a recent major league pitcher. In August 2008, he 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. 
Ray Chapman
Raymond Johnson Chapman (January 15, 1891 – August 17, 1920) was an American baseball player, spending his entire career as a shortstop for Cleveland. He is the second of only two Major League Baseball players to have died as a result of an injury received in a game (the first was Mike "Doc" Powers in 1909);[1] Chapman was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays. His death led Major League Baseball to establish a rule requiring umpires to replace the ball whenever it became dirty. His death was also one of the examples used to emphasize the need for wearing batting helmets (although the rule was not adopted until over thirty years later). His death was partially the reason MLB banned the spitball after the season.
CareerChapman was born in Beaver Dam, Kentucky. He grew up in Herrin, Illinois.[2] He broke into the Major Leagues in 1912 with the Cleveland team, then known as the Naps.[3] Chapman led the American League in runs scored and walks in 1918. A top-notch bunter, Chapman is 6th on the all-time list for sacrifice hits. Only Stuffy McInnis has more sacrifices for right-handed batters. Chapman was also an excellent shortstop who led the league in putouts three times and assists once. He batted .300 three times, and led the Indians in stolen bases four times. In 1917, he set a team record of 52 stolen bases, which stood until 1980. He was hitting .303 with 97 runs scored when he died.[4]
Death PHOTO: Ray Chapman's grave At the time of Chapman's death, "part of every pitcher's job was to dirty up a new ball the moment it was thrown onto the field. By turns, they smeared it with dirt, licorice, tobacco juice; it was deliberately scuffed, sandpapered, scarred, cut, even spiked. The result was a misshapen, earth-colored ball that traveled through the air erratically, tended to soften in the later innings, and as it came over the plate, was very hard to see."[5] This practice is believed to have contributed to Chapman's death. He was struck by a pitch by Carl Mays on August 16, 1920 in a game against the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds. Mays threw with a submarine delivery, and it was the top of the fifth inning, in the late afternoon. Eyewitnesses recounted that Chapman never moved out of the way of the pitch, presumably unable to see the ball. "Chapman didn't react at all," said Rod Nelson of the Society of American Baseball Research. "It was at twilight and it froze him."[6] The sound of the ball smashing into Chapman's skull was so loud that Mays thought it had hit the end of Chapman's bat, so he fielded the ball and threw to first base. Chapman died twelve hours later in a New York City hospital, at about 4:30 a.m. He was replaced by Harry Lunte for the rest of the game.[7] In tribute to Chapman's memory, Cleveland players wore black arm bands, with manager Tris Speaker leading the team to win both the pennant and the first World Championship in the history of the club.[8] Rookie Joe Sewell took Chapman's place at shortstop, and went on to have a Hall of Fame career (which he concluded with the Yankees).[9] Ray Chapman is buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.[4]
|
