by Dan Gutman
It never happened. There was also talk of banning underhand pitching. One change that did come was that umpires began to throw out balls that were scuffed or dirty. That, and the success of Babe Ruth, ushered in the home run era.
Baseball also began experimenting with batting helmets after the Chapman tragedy. But they would not become mandatory until the late 1950s.
Ray Chapman was only the fifth batter Carl Mays hit in 1920, and the only one he hit in the head. While he was known as a “headhunter,” Mays hit only 89 batters in his career. Walter Johnson hit 203—the most by any pitcher. For the record, Cy Young hit 163, and Nolan Ryan hit 158.
Carl Mays did not actually consider quitting baseball after Chapman died. In fact, he pitched a shutout in his next game and won his next four in a row. He finished the season with a record of 26-11 and continued his very successful (208-126) career. He grew bitter when pitchers with similar records, like Rube Marquard (201-177) and Stan Coveleski (215-142), were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Here’s a trivia question for you. Who was the second Yankee (after Babe Ruth) to hit a homer in Yankee Stadium? It was Carl Mays. He was also the last pitcher to clinch a world championship for the Red Sox in the twentieth century.
After he retired, Carl Mays went home to Oregon, where he was a scout for several teams and ran a baseball camp. He lost his life savings in the 1929 stock market crash. His wife died at age 36 from an eye infection. They had two young children.
For fifty years, Carl Mays had to live with the fact that he had killed a man. “Nobody ever remembers me for anything except that one pitch,” he used to say.
He was right. When he died in 1971, the obituaries focused almost entirely on what happened to Ray Chapman.
Carl Mays is buried in River View Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.
Louis T. Wright is the name of a pioneering African-American surgeon who was born in 1891 (the same year as Chapman and Mays). I learned of Louis Wright from Howard Camerik’s novel The Curse of Carl Mays.
Stosh, his mom, and Flip are fictional characters. So is Adeline, but that is my mom’s name, and this book is dedicated to her.
Acknowledgments
I would be helpless without Bill Francis, Pat Kelly, and Andrew Newman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Dave Kelly of the Library of Congress; Drs. Dan Cho and Stephen Dante; Mike Sowell; Nina Wallace; Tom Lalicki; and J. J. Fennell. Thanks to all.
About the Author
DAN GUTMAN is the author of many fantastic books for young readers. Besides his popular Baseball Card Adventures and My Weird School series, he has written about soccer, basketball, bowling, and aliens. When he is not writing books, Dan is very often visiting a school. Thanks to his many fans who voted in their classrooms, he has received fifteen state book awards and thirty-seven book award nominations. Dan lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey, with his wife, Nina, and their two children, Sam and Emma.
You can visit him online at www.dangutman.com
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Also by
Dan Gutman
The Get Rich Quick Club
Johnny Hangtime
Casey Back at Bat
Baseball Card Adventures:
Honus & Me
Jackie & Me
Babe & Me
Shoeless Joe & Me
Mickey & Me
Abner & Me
Satch & Me
Jim & Me
My Weird School Daze:
Mrs. Dole Is Out of Control!
Mr. Sunny Is Funny!
Mr. Granite Is from Another Planet!
My Weird School:
Miss Daisy Is Crazy!
Mr. Klutz Is Nuts!
Mrs. Roopy Is Loopy!
Ms. Hannah Is Bananas!
Miss Small Is off the Wall!
Mr. Hynde Is Out of His Mind!
Mrs. Cooney Is Loony!
Ms. LaGrange Is Strange!
Miss Lazar Is Bizarre!
Mr. Docker Is off His Rocker!
Mrs. Kormel Is Not Normal!
Ms. Todd Is Odd!
Mrs. Patty Is Batty!
Miss Holly Is Too Jolly!
Mr. Macky Is Wacky!
Ms. Coco Is Loco!
Miss Suki Is Kooky!
Mrs. Yonkers Is Bonkers!
Dr. Carbles Is Losing His Marbles!
Mr. Louie Is Screwy!
Ms. Krup Cracks Me Up!
Credits
Jacket art © 2009 by Steve Chorney
Copyright
RAY & ME. Copyright © 2009 by Dan Gutman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub © Edition SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 9780061973543
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