Carl Mays

Carl William Mays (November 12, 1891 – April 4, 1971) was an American baseball pitcher who played fifteen seasons in Major League Baseball from 1915 to 1929. Born in Atterson, Kentucky, he was one of five sons of William Henry Mays, a Methodist minister, and Callie Louisa Mays. His father, who oversaw a strict religious upbringing, died when Mays was twelve, after which his mother moved the family to Kingfisher, Oklahoma, to live near a sister-in-law. Mays internalized his grief and settled into a surly persona with few close friends, a trait that carried into his professional career, where he had few friends in the baseball world, in part because of his strict Methodist background.

Over his career Mays won more than 200 games, including 27 in 1921 alone, and was a member of four World Series-champion teams. On August 16, 1920, he threw the pitch that fatally injured Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians. Chapman remains the only major league player to die as a direct result of an on-field injury.