Carl Mays and the "Rape" of the Red Sox

[Bernie Carbohydrate]

We all know about the Ruth trade—perhaps too much has been written about it. But lost in the Bambino talk is that the trade was part of a series of Red Sox-Yankees transactions so notorious that it had a name—“The Rape of the Red Sox.”

The term came from Ed Barrow, the Sox manager from 1918-1920, and the transactions are hard to defend. Between 1919 and 1923 the following players moved from Fenway to The Bronx:

Pitchers: Ernie Shore, Dutch Leonard, Carl Mays, Waite Hoyt, Joe Bush, Sam Jones, and Herb Pennock.
Infielders: Mike McNally, Everett Scott, and Joe Dugan.
Outfielders: Duffy Lewis, Babe Ruth, Harry Hooper.
Catcher: Wally Schang.

But of all the non-Ruth transactions, the one that stands out to me was the trade of Carl Mays.

Mays was sent from the Sox to the Yankees in the middle of the 1919 season, a few weeks after he’d left the team, reportedly unhappy with his teammates:

His temper boiled over on July 13 against the White Sox. Chicago scored four first inning runs on Red Sox fielding gaffes. At the end of the second inning, [Mays] walked off the mound and shouted that he was not going to pitch for the Red Sox again. He stomped into the clubhouse, tore off his uniform, stormed out, and hopped the next train to Boston. Upon his arrival, he announced to a reporter that he was going fishing. His record was 5-11. Mays’s vacation lasted seventeen days.

Prior to 1919, Mays had been fantastic for Boston, a 20-game winner who contributed to championships in 1915, 1916, and 1918. In 1918, using a submarine delivery, he led the AL in complete games and threw eight shutouts before winning both his World Series starts.

The SABR journal describes the trade this way:

Mays, one of the league’s top pitchers, jumped the Red Sox in July, and, as the other league owners began offering packages of players and money to acquire him, [Red Sox owner Harry] Frazee looked to cash in. [League President Ban] Johnson argued that an insubordinate player should not be able to force a trade and demanded the Red Sox suspend Mays. Frazee and the Yankee owners, Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston ignored Johnson’s edict: The Yankees bought Mays for $40,000 and two players. Johnson then ordered Mays suspended and decreed he could not play for New York. The Yankees owners defied Johnson and obtained a court injunction permitting Mays to play for them.

So this trade wasn’t like the Ruth sale, in that it was one of the pure salary dumps that characterized the “Rape of the Red Sox.” Mays had left the team, and while Frazee was surely happy to shed some salary at any time, in this case he got something for a player who refused to take the field.

The “something,” alas, wasn’t much. The 40k went toward Frazee’s many creditors. The two players, pitchers Bob McGraw and Allen Russell, didn’t pan out. McGraw had a career -3.0 WAR as a reliever, and Russell was a career .500 swingman whose best season was actually 1919—he won 15 games between the Yankees and Red Sox that year, and never won more than 10 after that.

 

[Salem's Lot]

The following season, Carl Mays then went on to kill a batter with a fastball to the head for having the audacity to crowd the plate.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Mays#:~:text=On August 16, 1920, Mays,of an on-field injury.&text=Liberty, Kentucky, U.S.

 

[Max Power]

The following season, Carl Mays then went on to kill a batter with a fastball to the head for having the audacity to crowd the plate.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Mays#:~:text=On August 16, 1920, Mays,of an on-field injury.&text=Liberty, Kentucky, U.S.

So he became a True Yankee?

 

[Salem's Lot]

So he became a True Yankee?

Not quite. No poorly piloted aircraft were involved.

 

[Hyde Park Factor]

It doesn't appear that Chapman was Jewish, so Mays wasn't a true Yankee in that sense

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

The following season, Carl Mays then went on to kill a batter with a fastball to the head for having the audacity to crowd the plate.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Mays#:~:text=On August 16, 1920, Mays,of an on-field injury.&text=Liberty, Kentucky, U.S.

Bill James has written about the circumstances of that tragedy and it's virtually certain that the ball was very dirty already and Chapman never saw it.

 

[The Gray Eagle]

The only way to make up for this horrendous string of transactions is to let me be the Yankees President of Baseball Operations and manager for the next 3 years.

I'd even things up a bit.

I'd make the Yankees younger and get closer to the luxury tax limit by trading a subsidized Cole, Judge, and Soto to the Red Sox for top prospects like Nixson Cueche, Brayant Zayas, and Jojo Ingrassia. Who says no? Not the Yankees with me in charge.

Then I would have the luxury tax space room to trade prospects for new ace pitcher Patrick Corbin and new SS Anthony Rendon, while still having a spot in the lineup for cleanup hitter Jeter Downs. I would maximize Verdugo's versatility by moving him to second base, and work out a long term contract extension for our new starting catcher Giancarlo Stanton.

With all that progress, I could cash in on some overrated prospects by sending Dominguez, Pereira, Hampton and a few more pitching prospects to the Red Sox for undervalued players on the 40-man I've identified like Joe Jacques, Mark Koloszvary and David Hamilton.

After I make a few deadline deals to really Go For It Now, that would almost balance out the Ruth and Mays era of transactions.

 

[Salem's Lot]

Bill James has written about the circumstances of that tragedy and it's virtually certain that the ball was very dirty already and Chapman never saw it.

I believe I read that piece awhile back. If I recall, he pointed out that it was customary at the time for fans to throw foul balls back on to the playing surface, and that they would be used until they were literally falling apart at the seams?

 

[Max Power]

I believe I read that piece awhile back. If I recall, he pointed out that it was customary at the time for fans to throw foul balls back on to the playing surface, and that they would be used until they were literally falling apart at the seams?

Yes, that incident changed the rules and the ball started to get replaced when it was dirty after that. Previously pitchers actually tried to make the ball as filthy as possible to make it difficult to see.

Still, Mays was a Yankee, so I choose to believe it was intentional homicide.

 

[nighthob]

So he became a True Yankee?

I’ve read that in his spare time he liked to give back to the community by dressing up as a clown and terrorizing kids in terminal cancer wards. Which, I think we can all agree, made him a True Yankee Legend.

 

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

Bill James has written about the circumstances of that tragedy and it's virtually certain that the ball was very dirty already and Chapman never saw it.

The book, "The Pitch that Killed" is a really good one that was written in the early 90s about this incident. Chapman was beloved by his teammates and Cleveland fans and Mays was seen as an asshole. Of course, Mays was pretty shaken but still pitched well winning 27 games in 1921.