War and Peace: The Bumpy Road to Creating a World Series

Reporters were not allowed in the room.  They stood outside the door, ears pressed to walls. Straining to make out something that might give them the scoop over the man standing next to them.  They didn't have to press too hard against the wall.  The egos filling the room they were trying to listen in on were so large that the room was probably bursting at the seams.

They could hear shouting.  Indistinct curses rebounded off the wood paneling forming seemingly random words.  It was like listening to Ralphie's father try to fix the furnace in A Christmas Story.  There was shouting, cursing, banging and grunting coming from the room.  For all the reporters standing outside knew, the men inside may have decided to settle this with wrestling.

There were a total of eight men in the room and there was enough hot air being expelled to create a sauna effect.  It was pure hatred. Fire breathing, dagger staring, if looks could kill, hatred. The National League had called the "peace" meeting to give an outward sense of holding the upper hand but really they were waving the white flag.

Following the 1899 season  the National League contracted four teams. The Louisville Colonels, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Senators and Cleveland Spiders were removed from the league roster.  It was as though they never existed.  They were just wiped from the slate.  It was not taken well by many people.  How could owners just cancel teams?  If they had power enough to drop the league from twelve to eight teams, what was to stop them from cutting it to six or four?  Every team dissolved was one less job opportunity for the players.  It was one less job for groundskeepers, peanut and cracker jack vendors and umpires.

Two men had decided to do something about it.  Ban Johnson and Charles Comiskey got together to buy the minor league Western League for 1899 and formulated a plan to take down the National League.  The Western League consisted of franchises in Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Washington, Buffalo, Minneapolis and Indianapolis.  If Johnson and Comiskey were going to compete they were going to have to take the fight straight to the National League by moving these organizations to major cities.  They prepared for a head to head battle and they fired the first shot.

Photo of Garry Herrmann and Ban Johnson Courtesy of Sports Illustrated

Still as a minor league, the two men prepared for the 1900 season by shuffling teams and invading NL territory.  The Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Stockings (under the ownership of Comiskey), Cleveland Blues, Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Senators remained where they were for the 1901 season. The Buffalo Bisons became the Boston Red Stockings, landing in direct competition with the NL's Beaneaters (later named the Braves).  The Indianapolis Indians became the Philadelphia Athletics in direct competition with the Phillies. The Minneapolis Millers became the Baltimore Orioles, a replacement for the storied franchise that was discarded by the National League in contraction.  The new cities had been chosen carefully.  Cleveland, Baltimore and Washington were three of the four cities that had lost a team in contraction and Boston was a city that already had a weak NL team (the Braves had finished first in the NL in 1897 and 1898 but were in clear decline).

Comiskey and Johnson did things big.  They signed John McGraw to run the Baltimore franchise.  McGraw was under contract to the St.Louis Cardinals but he jumped at the chance to return to Baltimore where he had been part of the winning days of the Orioles.  Connie Mack and Ben Shibe were installed in Philadelphia.  These were big names, respected names.  Then the announcement came.  Comiskey and Johnson announced they were a Major League on equal footing with the NL.  Still the NL wasn't worried.  What did they care if a minor league had respected owners?  What did they care if they had minor league teams in the same cities?  Realistically, does just announcing yourself as a major league really make you a major league?

Photo of John McGraw and Connie Mack Courtesy of Philly Sports History

Then came the shot(s) across the bow.  The National League Philadelphia Phillies had a strong team led by Napoleon LaJoie and Ed Delahanty.  As far as the league knew they were both paid the same amount of money because there was a limit to salaries.  As far as LaJoie knew he was paid slightly more than Delahanty based on a secret bonus he got every year.  In reality, Delahanty got significantly more based on a secret bonus bigger than LaJoie's.  Somehow LaJoie found out and he was not happy.  Knowing that the AL was offering bigger money with no salary limit LaJoie decided he would play for them and, what was worse for the Phillies, he signed with Connie Mack's Philadelphia franchise.  He would be playing in the same city for the same fans who loved him but in a different stadium.  Delahanty, knowing he could also make more money, signed with Washington.  The American League was actively, aggressively poaching stars.  Clark Griffith, Davvy Jones, George Davis, Jimmy Collins, Cy Young and Sam Crawford all followed suit.  In total the American League stole 45 players from the NL.  The one player they wanted but could not steal was Honus Wagner but that story is too funny to sum up here.  I think that will be a post of its own.

The poaching crossed the line for the NL, probably because it was actually a threat now.  The Phillies sued to keep LaJoie from playing in Philadelphia and won.  LaJoie was legally unable to play in Philadelphia unless it was for the Phillies.  Instead of sending him back to the NL Phillies, Connie Mack traded him to Cleveland.  Take that NL!  If Cleveland had to face the Athletics in Philly, LaJoie was given an Atlantic City vacation and met the team when they moved on.  Now the American League was legitimate and now the NL was worried.

They had good reason to be worried.  Johnson sold the American League to the public on the pitch of good, clean, family fun. There would be no umpire baiting.  There would be no brawling, spitting, arguing.  No beer guzzling galoots.  This was family entertainment and Johnson would levy fines for any arguments with umpires, any swearing and any thing he deemed inappropriate.  The NL failed to adjust and continued to allow the players to do mostly as they wished.  The AL won at the box office.  They won big.  The 1902 season was even bigger.  The Milwaukee Millers moved to St.Louis and set up shop as the Browns across town from the Cardinals and the AL now had direct competition for the NL in Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis and Boston.

Then the NL struck back.  As the 1902 season wound down, the Baltimore Orioles were in last place.  Dead last.  Imagine the anger John McGraw showed when his Giants teams lost, even when they were in first place.  Now multiply that by infinity as McGraw's Orioles lost 88 times that year.  McGraw's frustration was visible and verbal and Johnson didn't like it.  Fines, suspensions, meetings, lectures.  Nothing worked and finally McGraw said enough.  He walked out on the league and he went back to the National League.  They welcomed him back with open wallets and with McGraw went several players.  Dan McGann, Roger Bresnahan, Cy Seymour, Joe McGinnity.  Basically, almost all of the future 1905 World Champion Giants, followed the little Napoleon to New York.  McGraw didn't stop there.  He grabbed George Davis and Ed Delahanty from other AL teams.

Photo of Ed Delahanty Courtesy of SABR

Johnson didn't sit idly by.  With this many players gone from Baltimore they couldn't field a team and Johnson had no choice.  The team had to be forfeited and replaced.  Now where to put a team?  Well, a Major League had to have teams in major cities and the AL seemed to be missing just one city: New York.  And, oh, by the way, isn't that where McGraw went?  And oh yeah, the NL New York team was owned by a guy who had once owned the Reds and banned Ban Johnson from the Reds property when Johnson was a journalist covering the Reds.  Well, it was just a coincidence I'm sure.

The Giants had political connections. big Tamany Hall connections, and they fought to keep the AL out of New York, or at least make their stadium location so far out of town in an unrealistic location that no one would want to go.  As the Giants fought Ban Johnson and players continued to jump contracts on both sides, the owners of the NL continued to lose at the gates.  Enough was enough.  The Cardinals owner, Frank Robison, suggested the NL ask for a truce.  The Phillies, Cubs and Reds quickly agreed.  Instead of fitting 16 egos into one room, a group of four delegates from each side attended the conference in Cincinnati on January 9, 1903. 

In what would be played out in countless league vs. player union disagreements decades later, the sides were so distant on their view points that it was unlikely it would come to anything.  Of course, in any process, compromise is a must so the minor issues were discussed first, almost as an appetizer.  The NL compromised by relenting to the team in New York and the AL relinquished any chance to ever place a team in Pittsburgh. 

They agreed to end the player raids.  From now on a contract was a contract and you couldn't take players from another team without compensation. 

The final minor item, the one that was almost off handedly accomplished, would hurt the players for the next 75  years and lead to the forming of the players' union decades later.  The reserve clause became standard in both league contracts. 

Now the anger began.  What do the teams do about the players who had two contracts?  There were 15 players in question who had jumped and jumped again, taking money from both sides.  Giving up the right to raid other team's players was fine but actually losing players was not quite the same easy topic. 

It came up when Henry Killiea, owner of the Red Sox, launched a tirade against McGraw for stealing Davis and Delahanty.  An AL owner questioning the ethics of raiding teams did not go over lightly and the counter claims flew.  It was kind of like the argument of two children caught fighting by an adult and they both use the excuse "he started it."  Regardless,  in a few moments the process was derailed.  The delegates decided to take a break for the evening instead of calling it quits and resumed the next morning.

The question remained and the distance between agreement remained unchanged.  As the second day opened Ban Johnson made a suggestion.  Ed Delahanty had taken money from the Senators and the Giants and refused to return the money to either team.  Worse, he insisted on playing for the Senators in the AL, which would mean he was jumping a third (or was it a fourth) time.  Johnson's solution:  He should never play for anyone ever again.  And while they were on the subject, hadn't George Davis done the same?  He should be banished too.

Garry Herrmann, the Reds owner made the first step towards bridging the gap.  No one wanted to lose players and the NL had hoped that they would actually gain some back.  Herrmann told Johnson and the delegation that although they still claimed Sam Crawford under contract, the Reds would drop their claim.  The Tigers could have him.  The move by Herrmann opened up the flood gates of generosity (or at least acquiescence).  Suddenly the leagues were falling over themselves to prove they were the more generous league.

In the end there were 15 players in question.  8 ended up in the American League.  7 ended up in the National League.  The box score looked like this:
American League:
Ed Delahanty:
One of several brothers to play in the majors.  Delahanty was sent back to the Senators and part way through the season jumped the team. He was killed when he fell from a moving train crossing Niagara Falls.  His body was found a few days later.  He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1945 by the Veteran's Committee.
George Davis: 
Davis played for the White Sox until 1909.  He was part of the 1906 "Hitless Wonders" team that won the World Series.  He was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1998.
Sam Crawford: 
Crawford teamed with Davvy Jones and Ty Cobb to form the most successful Outfield trio in the first decade of the American League.  Crawford and Cobb were the Gehrig and Ruth before Gehrig and Ruth, not in terms of power but in terms of success.  The two couldn't stand each other and wouldn't speak a single word to each other if they could avoid it but they communicated on the diamond like few teammates ever have.  Crawford was elected to the Hall of Fame by the veterans committee in 1957.
Willie Keeler: 
Keeler was known for his saying "hit it where they ain't" and played with the New York AL franchise from 1903-1910.   He ended his career with 2932 hits, just short of the 3000 hit mark, and was elected to the Hall of Fame by regular ballot in 1939.
Kid Elberfeld:
Elberfeld did not make the Hall of Fame like the first few in this list but he made major contributions to the league.  He had jumped from the Reds in 1901 and played for the Tigers until being traded to New York in mid 1903.  He stayed in the AL with the Highlanders (later the Yankees) and Senators until moving on to Brooklyn for 30 games in 1914.
Wild Bill Donovan: 
Donovan stayed in the AL the rest of his career retiring in 1918.  He spent the best part of his career with the Tigers as the ace pitcher on the Tigers staff as they reached the World Series three straight years from 1907-1909 (he was 25-4 in 1907). 
Wid Conroy:
Although not a star the level of the others on this list, Conroy had a strong career.  He played through 1911 with the Highlanders and Senators and retired with 1257 career hits and 452 RBI.
Doc White: 
White played with George Davis on the "Hitless Wonders" White Sox team that won the World Series.  He made a major contribution to that team's upset of the heavily favored cross town Cubs.

National League
Christy Mathewson:
Although Mathewson's contract was disputed he had never actually jumped to the AL.  Mathewson is still considered one of the greatest pitchers of all time.  He was elected into the Hall of Fame with the inaugural class in 1936.
Tommy Leach: 
Like Mathewson, Leach had signed an AL contract but had never actually moved to the AL.  Leach played for the Pirates through 1910, reaching the World Series with the team in 1903 and 1909.  He retired in 1918.  Although not elected to the Hall of Fame he was considered one of the best third basemen of his generation.
Vic Willis: 
Willis played his entire career in the NL winning 249 games.  He pitched most of his career for Boston but late in his career he helped the Pirates win the 1909 World Series.  He won 20 games or more in eight separate seasons and was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee in 1995
Harry Smith: 
Smith spent six years in Pittsburgh as their Catcher.  He played behind the plate for the Pirates in the first World Series and was a decent catcher.  He finished his career in 1910 with the Braves.
Frank Bowerman:
Bowerman played mostly at Catcher and spent a total of 15 years in the Majors.  His numbers were not spectacular.  He hit .250 for his career and had only 102 doubles in 15 years, but he served McGraw well as a back up for Roger Bresnahan.
Jack Warner: 
Warner played 14 years in the league, eight years of that prior to the 1903 peace conference.  After the 1903 season he went on to play for the Cardinals, Tigers and Senators.  Like Bowerman he was a solid backup but seldom played more than 75-80 games a year.
Rudy Hulswitt: 
Hulswitt was the least of the 15 players awarded in the peace conference.  Hulswitt played for the Phillies in 1903 and 1904 but disappeared from 1905-1907 reappearing with the Reds in 1908 and the Cardinals for 1909 and 1910.

The American League did decide to adopt the foul strike rule which caused foul balls with less than two strikes to count as strikes. This rule was adopted by the NL in 1902 and changed the rule that said a foul ball did not count towards the count on the batter.  American League umpires, players and managers argued against this loudly but eventually gave in to the wishes of the committee.

Now that the fireworks were over, where did this leave the leagues?  Were they on equal footing?  Would they combine into one league?  If they were one league, 16 teams were a bit much to come out with one champion.  Should some of the lesser teams be contracted or "combined"?  Hostilities were briefly reopened at the mention of contraction.  The AL delegates flat out refused to give up any teams.

The final verdict on the separation/combination question was that they were two separate leagues.  The American League and National League would each keep their own commissioners, their own teams and their own rules.  This would lead to separate leagues under what has been called "the National Agreement".  The separation allowed the American League to grow to 14 teams by 1977 while the NL stayed at 12 until 1993.  It also allowed the AL to adopt the DH while the NL has rejected the idea and allowed Major League Baseball to keep inter league play out of baseball until the 1990's.

The final decision of the peace conference gave birth to the most identifiable moment of every MLB season since.  Although the American League teams would name a champion of the AL and the National League would name a champion of the NL that was now not enough to claim bragging rights.  Starting in 1903 the winner of the American League would face the winner of the National League in a post season series.  It would be known as the World's Series to decide the World Champion of baseball.  The series would grow in fits and starts with major issues for the first two years but beginning in 1903 there would be a World Series every year (except 1904 and 1994) through the present season.

Photo of 1903 World Series Scorecard Courtesy of ESPN

The delegates emerged from the room and although John Brush, owner of the Giants, and his crony McGraw were furious and publicly refused to go along with this, the differences were settled.  Gary Herrman's brief compromise on Sam Crawford opened the flood gates to the Major League Baseball structure we have today.

TRIVIA QUESTION:

Although the National League got what they wanted, a way to save face and avoid the constant fear of losing to the AL in a war at the box office, the press came up with a derogatory saying to explain what the NL had "won".  What was the saying?

ANSWER TO LAST WEEK'S QUESTON:
Congratulations to TJD for answering last week's question correctly.
The Yankees needed a replacement for Wally Pipp for the 1923 World Series so they tried to use a Firstbaseman, an end of the year call up from the Newark farm team.  John McGraw blocked the move so Lou Gehrig had to settle for watching from the sidelines.  Pipp played despite the injuries and hit .250 (5 hits but 0 extra base hits) walked four times and drove in 1 run.  It was not the first time McGraw got in the way of Gehrig's career.  A few years before Gehrig had a try out for McGraw at the Polo Grounds.  Gehrig was impressive at the plate but made an error in the fielding tryout.  Things might have been different if McGraw's team wasn't in a slump at the time.  Instead McGraw said "I've already got a bunch of guys who can't field.  I don't need another one."

The Saga of Carl Mays part 1: The Boston Years

Being part of a crumbling dynasty must be a dreadful feeling.  Imagine joining the Denver Broncos as John Elway is retiring.  Being drafted by the Edmonton Oilers just after Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier have left.  Signing with the Lakers as Magic Johnson announced his retirement.  The worst part is probably the fact that winning in the organization is so natural that  no one can imagine anything but a contender and everyone expects that the winning will continue forever.

The Red Sox were the best American League team from 1900-1918.  The Red Sox had won the first World Series over the Pirates in 1903.  They followed that with a first place finish in 1904 but there was no World Series because McGraw and the Giants refused to debase the NL pennant by facing an inferior league.  The Red Sox went through a brief rebuilding from 1906-1911 as the Tigers and Athletics fought over the top spot but by 1912 the Red Sox dynasty was in full bloom.  They would win the World Series in 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918. Their 5 World Series wins in the first fifteen World Series played was by far the best.  Only the Ahletics' three (1910, 1911 and 1913) came even close.  The years that they weren't reaching the World Series they were usually finishing second.

Their cast of characters read like a Hall of Fame roster.  Tris Speaker, Duffy Lewis and Harry Hooper were the greatest trio of outfielders anyone had ever seen.  The pitching staff of Dutch Leonard, Ernie Shore, Herb Pennock and Babe Ruth were almost unhittable.  Unfortunately for Red Sox fans, and very similar to the Cubs' experience, the end of the dynasty came much more quickly than anyone expected.  As Speaker was sent to Cleveland after the 1915 World Series win and Ruth (and most of the team) were shipped to New York after the 1919 season, the remnants of the team were a shell of the recent glory days.  It crumbled almost overnight.

1918 saw the Red Sox beat the Cubs in the World Series.  1919 saw the team go from first to 6th and the glory days of Boston were over.  No one told the Red Sox they were done. They all expected to be right back at the top.  Carl Mays had come to the Red Sox in 1915, the same day as Babe Ruth.  They arrived in the same car.   Reported to the ballpark together.  Were issued their uniforms together.  Then Ruth got to pitch and Mays got to mostly sit and watch. 

Photo of Carl Mays courtesy of SABR

His first year in Boston was below what he expected.  He finished with a 6-5 record but the years that followed were spectacular. He won 18 games in 1916 but lost 13 and every one of those loses were painful to him, like a personal failure 13 times.  He went 22-9 in 1917 and 21-13 in 1918.  He was one of the reasons that the Red Sox dominated but he was the opposite of Ruth.  While Ruth made sure everyone knew what he had done and who he was, Mays didn't want recognition.  Mays wanted wins.

Photo of Carl Mays courtesy of Sports Illustrated/CNN. Pictured in the inset of the photo is Ray Chapman of the Indians. Check back next week for details of the connection between the two.

Mays was one of those extremely competitive pitchers who did not accept losing and did not accept mistakes by the fielders behind him.  Mays took every loss like a knife to his heart and every win as the inevitable result of hard work, his own hard work and certainly not the team's.  To Mays, as the pitcher, the game was his.  The fielders were just extras who would find a way to screw it up for him.  When Mays lost it was the fault of the fielders who made an error or the hitters who didn't hit.  The curve ball that didn't break, allowing Joe Jackson or Ty Cobb to crush a hit was somehow someone else's fault.  He is what most people would call a sore loser.  He just wanted to win and he would do anything to win.

His teammates hated him and the feeling was mutual.  As far as he was concerned they could all go to hell.  If a player made an error Mays wouldn't wait until they reached the dugout to discuss it.  The reaction was immediate and hateful.  More than once he screamed at his infielders for errors in front of the entire stadium.  If an outfielder threw to the wrong base or missed the cutoff man allowing a runner to advance Mays would stand on the mound and glare at the offending player.  This was his game and he would start it up again when he knew that the outfielder was properly shamed for his mistake.  He flat out refused to pitch if Jack Barry was playing at second base.  An unidentified teammate was quoted as saying "I was never on a club that a fellow was disliked as much as Mays."

The hatred wasn't contained to his teammates.  The league as a whole despised him.  He had a long running feud with several players including Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker.  He had a reputation for throwing at batters. He had a reputation for cutting, scuffing, mashing and scratching the ball before throwing the pitch causing it to break in unpredictable directions.  He had an unusual side arm motion and when he leaned into the delivery it was almost an underhand throw that made it even more difficult to pick up the flight of the ball.  Most players in this league could not stand Carl Mays.

 

Photo of 1918 Boston Red Sox courtesy of Wikipedia

 

As the 1919 season progressed the frustration in the Red Sox locker room increased.  No one could quite figure out what the hell was wrong with this team and as the powerful White Sox streaked towards infamy, the Red Sox lingered around the middle of the league.  Mays started the year winning his first two starts of the season but it went south quickly. 

He didn't even have to pitch in the game to get into trouble at the park.  In the Memorial Day doubleheader in Philadelphia he was angry that the Athletics fans were pounding on the tin roof of the dugout.  He  came out of the dugout and launched a ball into the stands grazing a woman and hitting a fan in the head.  When fans got angry he came back out of the dugout and punched a fan in the face.  By the time the Red Sox left town there was a warrant for his arrest.

When he took the mound on July 13th his season was officially a disaster.  He had dropped to a record of 5-10.  The Red Sox, defending champions, were facing the White Sox, featuring the infamous Joe Jackson, Chick Gandil, Happy Felsch, Swede Risberg and Buck Weaver.  This game was done almost before it started as Chicago scored four in the first. 

Mays went back out in the second inning and things continued going poorly.  With a runner on first Mays delivered to the plate.  When the runner took off for a steal attempt the first baseman screamed out "He's going!" and there was a flurry of movement.  Mays delivered the ball to the plate as quickly as he could while Wally Schang, behind the plate, shifted his weight to make a throw to second.  The pitch smacked Schang's glove and he immediately rifled the ball down to second base  to try to get the stealing runner.  Mays turned to watch, hoping they would catch the base stealer.  The last thing he needed with this White Sox lineup was a runner in scoring position.  Then he felt something explode in his head like a bomb.  The throw from Schang drilled Mays right in the back of the head.

Mays was fuming.  He retired the side.   Walked off the mound.  Walked to the clubhouse, packed his things.  Walked out the door.  Walked to the train station and didn't stop until he got off the train.  Before he left the locker room he told a teammate who came looking for him to tell the manager he had gone fishing.  That was essentially what he did. He took the train to Boston, cleaned out his Fenway locker and went to stay with his in-laws in Pennsylvania.  He told the press he had thrown his last pitch for the Red Sox.

This was the craziest thing a player had done to this point in the league.  To not only walk out on a team in the middle of the year but then to tell the press that you want to be traded was insane.  This was before collective bargaining, before free agency, no-trade clauses and before unions.  There were  no trade demands.  There were no players' rights.  You played where you were told to play when you were told to play and if you didn't then you didn't play again ever for anyone.  Mays could have very well killed his own career.  Amazingly he didn't

There was still a fight at the top of the league and several teams were looking for pitching to make that final push to the pennant.  Among the teams were the Indians, White Sox and Yankees.  Every team made an offer to the Red Sox and every team swore they had the deal done.  Then Ban Johnson, the American League President, stepped in and made a ruling.  Mays was suspended and no trade could be made until Mays returned to his team, paid a fine and served an additional unpaid suspension.  According to Johnson, no team could trade for Mays because he was designated as a non active player until he served his punishment.  Meanwhile, the Red Sox ignored the decree by Johnson and announced a trade to the Yankees.

Photo of Ban Johnson Courtesy of SABR.org

The Indians were furious.  When Johnson had told the league to stop the trade talks they stopped but they were willing to give up more than the Yankees did to get him.  The most furious of all was Charles Comiskey, White Sox owner.  He actually did have a trade in place that would send Mays to the White Sox (imagine the difference in the 1919 World Series if Mays had been on the White Sox, although check back in two weeks to find out why it may have been the same outcome) but when Johnson announced that Mays could not be traded he also stopped trade talks.   Comiskey and Johnson had a long history of hate towards each other that will be explored more thoroughly in a later post but the decision by Johnson to step in led to all out chaos in the entire league.

Photo of Charles Comiskey Courtesy of Sporting News

While the National League sat back and laughed at the ridiculous AL situation, the owners in the AL not only tried to undercut each other by getting Mays in a trade, they were now split on whether Ban Johnson should actually be the President of the League.  A meeting was called to discuss whether Johnson still held the faith of the league owners.  Comiskey (Chicago), Jacob Ruppert and Til Huston (New York), and Harry Frazee (Boston) demanded that Johnson step down.  Charlie Somers (Cleveland) (not surprising since Johnson owned stock in the team), Phil Ball (St.Louis), Clark Griffith (Washington), Connie Mack and Ben Schieb (Philadelphia) and Frank Navin (Detroit) told the other three teams to keep their mouth shut.

Johnson made a ruling that the Mays' trade to the Yankees was null and void and issued a court injunction to forbid him from playing.  The Yankees and Mays ignored it.  Johnson's authority was ruined and he remained as little more than a figure head for the rest of his tenure.  Meanwhile, pitching for the Yankees, Mays turned his season around and went 9-3 for the Yankees leading them to their best finish in team history to that point.

The story of Carl Mays doesn't end here.  In fact it gets better.  Check back next week for The Saga of Carl Mays Part 2:  The Death Pitch.

Trivia Question:

Babe Ruth played on 10 teams that reached the World Series (1915, 1916, 1918, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1932).  Of those ten years, how many seasons was Carl Mays a teammate of Ruth's?

Answer to Last Week's Trivia Question:

Hope and TJD were both close to having the correct answer last week, however, both were incorrect.  TJD guessed 7 total Cy Young Awards.  Hope guessed three.  Hope's answer of three was correct in that there were three separate Tigers' pitchers who won MVP's, however, the question was the total number of awards.  TJD's guess of 7 would have been correct had I counted MVP awards for pitchers prior to the Cy Young. Since the question was how many times had a Tigers pitcher won the Cy Young Award the two MVP awards in 1944 and 1945 did not count. Denny McLain won the Cy Young in 1968 with a 31-6 record.  He followed that up by sharing the 1969 Cy Young with Mike Cuellar of the Orioles.  The next Tigers' Cy Young winner was not until their amazing 1984 season when their closer Willie Hernandez went 9-2 with 32 saves and 1.92 ERA.  Finally, Justin Verlander won the 2011 Cy Young.  The correct answer was 4.