100 Years Ago Today: Ray Chapman/Carl Mays

[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.