His lifetime record speaks for itself. His 208-126 sparkles in any era. Some may discount his splendid lifetime ERA (2.92) as a result of playing in the "dead ball era."

But it ain't so.

In fact, he pitched in the entire decade of the 1920's in enviroments hostile to his talents. he laboured those year in hitter's parks such as Crosley Field, The Polo Grounds and of course had the short right field porch at Yankee Stadium to deal with. The aggregate league ERA's for the decade and leagues he played in was 4.07.

Mays' ERA in the 1920's? ... 3.38. It's good to keep in mind that he turned 30 before the beginning of the 1922 season. He won twenty plus games twice with the Red Sox, twice with the Bronx Bombers and once with the Redlegs. He narrowly missed a sixth 20-win campaign in 1926 in Cincinatti when he went 19-12. He was also a very well rounded player batting .268 lifetime driving in 110 runs.

Just a casual look at Mays numbers alongside a pair of contemporary Hall-of-Fame pitchers tells the story.

A comparison of these statistics certainly shows that Carl Mays has a Hall of Fame resume when we compare his numbers with these other New York Yankee Cooperstown inductees. A superficial look at the numbers reveal that Carl Mays outstrips these superb pitchers in many relevant areas. Such as:

• winning percentage
• earned run average
• despite approximately 100 fewer starts, Mays outstrips Waite Hoyt in complete games and shutouts and is barely eclipsed by Herb Pennock
• Mays tops both Hoyt and Pennock in hits to innings pitched ratio by a significant margin
• in fifteen seasons Mays posted five twenty win seasons; together Hoyt and Pennock pitched in fourty three junior circuit campaigns but could only tally four seasons of 20+ wins between them

So why are Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock enshrined at Cooperstown while Carl Mays is not?

Former member of the Veteran's Committee and Hall-of-Fame writer Fred Lieb mentioned in his book: "Baseball As I Have Known It" stated that it was not his fatal beaning of Ray Chapman that has kept him out of the Hall but, rather, it stems from an incident from game four of the 1921 World Series. In Mays second start of the series (he threw a shutout in his first start), he opened the game with five no hit innings and had the shutout intact through the seventh. Then in the eighth, the Giant bats came to life with four hits and three runs included in this barrage was a triple by Emil Meusel and a double by George Burns. It was the hit by Meusel that the controversy centered around. Miller Huggins signaled for Mays to throw a fastball to Meusel, Mays ignored the signal and threw a slow curveball, his reasoning being that he had gotten Meusel out earlier in the game with the self same pitch. The barrage continued into the ninth when the Giants connected for three more hits and an insurance run. Despite a small uprising in the ninth in which the Yankees added a run, they still lost the game, 4-2.

After the game a gentleman who was accompanying writer Fred Lieb mentioned to Mr. Lieb, that, a broadway actor had something that he wished to reveal to him. The actor reported that, Mrs. Mays had signaled her husband by wiping her face with a white handkerchief. According to the actor, some unnamed person had stated that, a Giant win was absolutely necessary for his welfare (whatever that meant) and had offered Mays no small sum of money to throw some less-than-quality pitches to Giant hitters in a close game. The "handkerchief signal" would let Mr. Mays know that the money had been handed over.

Mr. Lieb then did the responsible thing; he wished to inform Yankee ownership as well as Commissioner Landis about what he had been told. After rousing Yankee half-owner Colonel Tillinghast Huston, Huston, Lieb, and his companion and the aforementioned broadway actor went to the Commodore Hotel to speak with Commissioner Landis about the matter. Although Commissioner Landis' investigation came up with nothing, Mr. Lieb later recalled an incident several years later when at a hunting lodge near Brunswick Georgia, Col. Huston after allegedly imbibing a little too much rum and coke revealed, that, he believed that pitchers on the Yankees staff in 1921 and 1922 had deliberately thrown games in the World Series.

Although Mr. Lieb looked back on the records of the 1921 World Series, he found some potentially disturbing numbers on Carl Mays, yet nothing concrete, without hard evidence, he dropped the matter. (For a fascinating look at this incident, I would recommend reading the book, "Baseball As I Have Known It" by Hall-of-Fame Baseball Chronicler Fred Lieb published by Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, Inc. New York)

In the United States of America, one is innocent until proven guilty. Considering the evidence against Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb's involvement with gambling and throwing games. At the close of the 1926 season both Cobb and Speaker issued statements to the effect that they were retiring from the game. Word came out later, that, American League president Ban Johnson had recommended that both future Hall-of-Famers be "dropped" from the American League. Mr. Johnson had in his possession two letters written in 1919 (the year of the Black Sox remember) one signed by Cobb, the other by Smokey Joe Wood, a fellow ball player and friend of Speaker.

The letters were addressed to Tiger pitcher "Dutch" Leonard. The letter's subject involved a game between the Tigers and the Indians, the letter strongly suggesting that Cleveland had thrown the game. Although Speaker was not referred to in the letter, his close friendship with Wood would seem to show that he had a knowledge of the affair ... this in itself may seem meaningless, but bear in mind Commissioner Landis agreed with "Black Sox" third baseman Buck Weaver that he had played his best in the 1919 World Series, yet he had knowledge of the affair but neglected to report it. This was sufficient for Landis to bar him for life from the game ... not insignificantly, when Speaker was "dropped" (read: kicked out, banned, given the heave-ho) from the American League by Johnson, he made no attempt to have himself re-instated.

When Landis had a hearing "Dutch" Leonard, despite being contacted by the Commissioner refused to come east and testify. Due to not having conclusive evidence Landis dropped the matter and currently both Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb are Hall-of-Fame members. There is no conclusive evidence that Carl Mays threw Game Four of the 1921 World Series. In view of the evidence (or lack thereof), the precedents established by the affair involving Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb plus the stellar pitching record of Carl Mays, who since cannot be proven guilty therefore must be deemed as innocent ... after all, he isn't the first pitcher to have a bad spell in World Series play. It is now time for the Veteran's Committee to right an historic oversight and allow Carl Mays to take his place among the immortals of Cooperstown.