Carl Mays

Carl Mays had what he felt should have been a Hall of Fame career, if not for a single pitch he threw in 1920.

Nine years prior, Mays pitched for Mulvane in the amateur Southern Kansas League.  He won all five of his starts and hit a home run on July 4, his final game pitched for Mulvane.

The Mulvane News reported that Mays “left town quite unexpectedly,” perhaps after a controversy in which he used a shaved bat in a game against Conway Springs.

Mays resurfaced in Protection, where he briefly pitched for their town team in the Clark-Comanche County League.  Mays was 19 during his summer in Kansas.

In 1915, Mays was called up to the Boston Red Sox along with Babe Ruth.  He and Ruth again became teammates with the Yankees in 1920.

On August 16, a Mays’ fastball hit Ray Chapman in the head while attempting to bunt.  Chapman lost consciousness as he walked off the field and died early the next morning.  Mays had long been disliked and teams petitioned to have him removed from baseball.The next year, he had 27 wins to lead the American League.  He won 207 games and had a 2.93 ERA in a 15-year major league career.

Mays lived in Oregon and worked as a scout in his later life.  He died in 1971 at the age of 79.

For more, read Carl Mays’s Society for American Baseball Research bio.