100 Years Ago Today: Ray Chapman/Carl Mays

[jerseygary]

August 16 is the 100th anniversary of the infamous "Pitch that Killed" when Indians star Ray Chapman took a Carl Mays fastball to his temple, causing a skull fracture that led to his death the following day. Besides being the sole play-induced fatality in MLB history, Chapman's death led to several rule changes including the banning of trick pitches and a more frequent replacement of dirty and scuffed baseballs by the umpires.

I wrote a piece on Carl Mays whose career was so much more than the one unfortunate pitch that he is known for today. In a 15 year career, Mays was accused of trying to throw a World Series and was one of the most despised ballplayers of the 1920s. He also posted five seasons of 20 or more wins, retired with an ERA under 3.00 and has a better record than many pitchers with a plaque hanging in Cooperstown.

You can read the story HERE

Let's see some Carl Mays and Ray Chapman cards - and i think I recall one of the members here actually had a scorecard from the August 16, 1920 game...

[GeoPoto]

As in any good legend, Chapman's reputation was as positive as Mays' was negative. I enjoyed the article. Thank you.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1597606442
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1597606453

[packs]

Took me forever to track one down:

[jerseygary]

I've never seen the Boston Store card before - nice!

[JLange]

I took a pic of the Ray Chapman plaque the last time I was at Progressive Field.
This is part of the Heritage Park exhibit with a plaque for each member of the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame. The Ray Chapman plaque is prominent but sorrowful in comparison to the others. Heritage Park is definitely worth a visit if you ever get a chance to catch a game in Cleveland.

[JLange]

And this one

[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:

IMG_3825 copy.jpg
Carl Mays and his catcher at Price Utah.

IMG_3826 copy.jpg
Carl Mays and Wally Schang.

IMG_3829 copy.jpg
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

[jerseygary]

I always thought it was the Chapman death that caused Mays to get snubbed by the HoF, but according to Fred Lieb, the great sportswriter, the fatal game never came up during the HoF voting with the writers - but Mays' supposed involvement in throwing the 1921-22 World Series did, and that's what cost him.

No proof ever surfaced of his guilt, but the majority of sportswriters that were around back then were convinced he did.

[kmac32]

Originally Posted by jerseygary

August 16 is the 100th anniversary of the infamous "Pitch that Killed" when Indians star Ray Chapman took a Carl Mays fastball to his temple, causing a skull fracture that led to his death the following day. Besides being the sole play-induced fatality in MLB history, Chapman's death led to several rule changes including the banning of trick pitches and a more frequent replacement of dirty and scuffed baseballs by the umpires.

I wrote a piece on Carl Mays whose career was so much more than the one unfortunate pitch that he is known for today. In a 15 year career, Mays was accused of trying to throw a World Series and was one of the most despised ballplayers of the 1920s. He also posted five seasons of 20 or more wins, retired with an ERA under 3.00 and has a better record than many pitchers with a plaque hanging in Cooperstown.

You can read the story HERE

Let's see some Carl Mays and Ray Chapman cards - and i think I recall one of the members here actually had a scorecard from the August 16, 1920 game...

My great great uncle Elmer Miller played on the Yankees in 1921 and 1922 so he was a teammate of Carl Mays. He would have been in the game that Chapman was killed. Could not imagine being present at this game personally. He also got the first Yankee hit and scored the first Yankee run in a World Series. Mays was pitching for the Yankees when Elmer got the hit and scored the run. Glad he wasn’t batting against him.

[Shoeless Moe]

Beaned by a Pitch, Ray Chapman Dies
[Unsigned, The New York Times]

August 17, 1920 NEW YORK-The body of Ray Chapman, the Cleveland shortstop, who died early today in St. Lawrence Hospital after being hit in the head by a pitched ball thrown by Carl Mays at the Polo Grounds yesterday afternoon, was taken to his home in Cleveland tonight. A group of baseball fans stood with bared heads at the Grand Central Terminal as the body was taken through the gates to the train. The ball player's widow, who went with the body, was accompanied by her brother and a friend, Indians Manager Tris Speaker, and Joe Wood, one of the players.

Chapman's death has cast a tragic spell over the baseball fans of the city, and everywhere the accident was the topic of conversation. Chapman was a true sportsman, a skillful player, and one of the most popular men in the major leagues. And this was to have been his last season in professional baseball. Carl Mays, the Yankees pitcher who threw the ball which felled Chapman, voluntarily went before Assistant District Attorney Joyce and was exonerated of all blame. The game which was to have been played between Cleveland and New York was put over until Thursday and the players of both clubs joined in mourning.

Although there is some bitterness against Mays among some of the Cleveland players, Manager Speaker, in a telephone conversation with Colonel T.L. Huston, part owner of the New York club, said he and his clubmates would do everything in their power to suppress this feeling. "It is the duty of all of us," said Speaker, "of all the players, not only for the good of the game, but also out of respect to the poor fellow who was killed, to suppress all bitter feeling."

Chapman died at 4:40 o'clock this morning, following an operation performed by Dr. T.M. Merrigan, surgical director of the institution. Chapman was unconscious after he arrived at the hospital. The operation began at 12:29 o'clock and was completed at 1:44. The blow had caused a depressed fracture in Chapman's head three and a half inches long. Dr. Merrigan removed a piece of skull about an inch and a half square and found the brain had been so severely jarred that blod clots had formed. The shock of the blow had lacerated the brain not only on the left side of the head where the ball struck but also on the right side where the shock of the blow had forced the brain against the skull, Dr. Merrigan said.

Mays is greatly shocked over the accident. He said he threw a high fast ball at a time when Chapman was crouched over the plate. He thought the ball hit the handle of Chapman's bat, for he fielded the ball and tossed it to first base. It wasn't until after that, when he saw Umpire Connelly calling to the stands for a physician, that he realized he had hit Chapman in the head. Manager Miller Huggins of the Yankees believes Chapman's left foot may have caught in the ground in some manner which prevented him from stepping out of the ball's way. Manager Huggins explained that batsmen usually had one foot loose and free at just such moments and Chapman had got out of the way of the same kind of pitched balls before.


I personally think that sounds like he was throwing at him.although hard to say.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Last week I listened to an edition of The Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap interviewing Mike Sowell. They discussed a new movie coming out on THE PITCH THAT KILLED. I believe in 2021.














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[FrankWakefield]

I've read Sowell's book about Chapman and Mays, as w the Delehanty / 1903 book. Both were well researched and joys to read.

I agree with the notion that Chapman was HOF bound. Mays seem Hall worthy, and even if The Pitch didn't come up in discussions about whether Mays would get elected, Th Pitch HAD to me in everyone's mind even it it wasn't mentioned.

Cobb made it to the Hall, we wasn't well liked, he was despised; Cobb, Speaker and Wood dabbled in fixing games, you can listed to Smokey Joe talking about it in the expanded CD version of The Glory Of Their Times. Wood talks about it not happening, denying it, right up to when he excitedly admits that they did it. And there's a new book out on it, that I've yet to read.

The Hall... I think it's too late to fix it. Some folks have gotten in that shouldn't have... Too late to fix that. What can be done is to stop letting folks in who were really good ballplayers, stars, who fall short of being Hall of Famers.

Chapman was a very good player.
Mays was a very good pitcher.

It remains a shame that it happened.

[Joe Hunter]

Since we're on the topic of Carl Mays/Ray Chapman, I have to tell you the story about my brush with Carl Mays. Mays owned a farm in Mansfield, Missouri where he had spent a portion of his childhood, and although he didn't live there permanently, he did spent a portion of his summers there in later life. He was also a bird dog scout at the time for several mlb teams. In 1968, I was a left handed pitcher for my high school team in Seymour, Missouri, which is only about ten miles from Mansfield. After one of our games that I pitched, my high school principal came up to me and introduced me to this very old guy who he said was there to see me pitch. At the time, I had no idea who Carl Mays was, so when he mentioned his name it made no impression on me. Turns out the principal's parents owned a farm next to the Mays farm, so they were pretty well acquainted. I never heard from Carl Mays again. He didn't offer me a contract, and rightly so, and it wasn't until years later that I realized who the man was and the infamy surrounding him.

[Clutch-Hitter]

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[Bill Nicolls]

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.

Actually, with his first child on the way, Ray was going to retire from baseball and take a job with his wealthy father-in-laws' business. He wanted to be at home with his beloved wife Kate and their newborn.

As for the rest of the tragic story: After Ray's death, she bravely continued on, mostly on the strength of knowing that her baby was soon to be born. She eventually gave birth to a baby girl, Rae. Eventually, Katie remarried a wealthy business man, J. F. McMahon of Los Angeles, and moved to California. The couple had a son, J.F. McMahon Jr. Relatives noticed though that even with her new life, she was still unhappy. Still suffering from bouts of depression because of her beloved Ray's death, she eventually committed suicide by drinking cleaning fluid in 1928. Daughter Rae, stayed in California with her step-father after her mothers suicide, but tragically died from the measles in 1929. Both mother and daughter were taken back to Cleveland for burial.

[Tabe]

I think it's a reach to say Chapman makes the Hall if he lived. He was a career .278 hitter with no power. Yeah, he was better than Maranville but so were literally thousands of other guys. Maranville is one of the worst HOFers - being better than him isn't really saying much.