100 Years Ago Today: Ray Chapman/Carl Mays

[brianp-beme]

Giving Carl some W514 love, because he apparently had no love for others (and probably none for himself).

Brian

[TCMA]

Here's my 5x7 Conlon contact print of Carl Mays. He looks very young here so wouldn't be surprised if this is 1915, his first season in the major leagues.

[commishbob]

SABR had a book available a few years back By Mike Sowell entitled The Pitch That Killed: The Story of Carl Mays, Ray Chapman, and the Pennant Race of 1920
I don't see it there now but I think they only have them available as previews for a limited time. But if you can locate it it's worth the time. I found it thoroughly researched and very well written.

[BabyRuth]

35 Schutter Mays

[jerseygary]

Member ksfarmboy asked me to post these three photographs from his collection that came from Carl Mays himself:

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Carl Mays and his catcher at Price Utah.

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Carl Mays and Wally Schang.

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Carl’s famous windup.

[doug.goodman]

I don't think Chapman had one, but here is an m114 for Mays.

[Bpm0014]

1920 game used baseball. Yankees vs Indians. Chapman had 2 hits.

[Jason19th]

I don’t think most people realize that the pitch probably cost two Hall of Fame careers. Bill James has a great article on Chapman points out that he was an almost exact contemporary of both Rabbit Maranville and Dave Bancroft. All three were born in 1891. Prior to his death Chapman had out preformed both men by a fairly wide margin. Both Maranville and Bancroft made the hall. But for his early death Chapman would have almost assuredly have joined them in Cooperstown.

Regarding Mays while he was disliked for a number of reasons, his numbers are clearly worthy of the Hall. The other stuff seems to fade away in voters minds but you cannot get elected if you kill a guy