Carl Ray

Pitcher Carl Ray was a soft-spoken but hard-throwing country boy from North Carolina. Using a submarine delivery, the southpaw delivered a live fastball and sweeping curve. In the minors he racked up many strikeouts and gave up few hits. He threw four minor-league no-hitters, one each year from 1913 to 1916, and earned a brief trial with Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics. Ray had great “stuff” but lacked control.

Born January 31, 1889, Carl Grady Ray was a native of and grew up in Danbury, Stokes County, North Carolina, about 25 miles north of Winston-Salem. He was one of 12 children of farmer William Powell Ray and Marietta (Burge) Ray. A strapping red-headed lad, Carl grew to about six feet tall and 170 pounds. He developed “big strong hands from milking cows.”1

Ray attended the Whitsett Institute, a boarding school in Whitsett, North Carolina, and he played on and coached the school’s baseball team. After he fanned 12 Winston-Salem Twins on April 25, 1911, the Twins signed him to a contract.2 He did not meet expectations and was sent home after a month,3 but he was invited back the following spring.

On May 29, 1912, Ray fanned nine batters in Winston-Salem’s 13-2 romp over Greensboro.4 On June 3, “the boy pitcher” struck out 10 in a 7-3 victory over Charlotte.5 And against Charlotte two days later, he completed and won both seven-inning games of a doubleheader.6 Excluding these four victories, he won only one of nine decisions for the Twins. In July, the club sent him to be coached in Florida.7

Ray returned to the Twins in the spring of 1913 and wowed everyone by hurling a no-hitter with 11 strikeouts at Durham on April 28.8 A week later he fanned 14 in a 5-3 triumph over Greensboro.9 His effectiveness declined, however, and late in the season he was loaned to the Richmond Colts of the Virginia League.10 In 184 innings pitched for Winston-Salem, he posted an 11-9 record. He was credited with the most strikeouts per nine innings (6.9) in the North Carolina State League, but he also gave up the most walks per nine innings (4.9).11

In the second game of the 1914 season, the Twins fell 1-0 in 10 innings at Greensboro on April 24. Ray went the distance, allowing five hits and fanning seven. But he gave up 10 bases on balls, and in the 10th inning he walked in the winning run.12

He bounced back in a big way. From April 27 to May 30, Ray reeled off 11 consecutive victories. He threw a no-hitter against Charlotte on May 14.13 In a 10-inning, 3-2 triumph at Durham on May 23, he pitched a complete game and smacked a game-winning single.14 (Sources disagree on whether he was a right- or left-handed batter.) A week later he homered and tied a league record by fanning 15 batters in an 8-3 victory at Greensboro. In that game he walked nine, hit two batters, and threw a wild pitch.15 He was a “clever, though erratic southpaw,” noted the Greensboro News.16

Ray had become the Twins’ ace and workhorse. At Greensboro, he pitched a rain-shortened five-inning tie on July 2; the next day he pitched both games of a doubleheader, winning the first game 5-0 and losing the second, 6-1 in seven innings. In pitching three games in two days, he worked 21 innings, struck out 23 batters, and walked 17.17

Heading into the final week of the 1914 season, the Twins were in a tight pennant race. They stood in third place, 2½ games behind first-place Durham and one game behind second-place Charlotte. The Twins captured the flag by winning six straight games in the final week, and Ray won three of them.

The final standings show that Winston-Salem edged Charlotte by a few percentage points, 70-47 (.598) to 72-49 (.595). Durham finished third at 70-50 (.583). Ray’s record was 28-15 (.651) – he contributed 40% of his team’s wins. Among his wins were seven shutouts. He was Charlotte’s nemesis and achieved a 10-3 record against them.18

Ray’s season was a statistical tour de force. He led the league in wins (28), innings pitched (372), strikeouts (317), strikeouts per nine innings (7.7), and fewest hits allowed per nine innings (6.3). He also led the league in bases on balls (199), wild pitches (17), and hit batsmen (31), a trifecta of wildness.19

In a postseason series, Ray pitched in three games and won all three as the Twins defeated the Norfolk Tars, Virginia League champions, four games to one.20 To top it off, he received a $1,075 prize when he finished second in fan voting for the most popular player in the North Carolina State League.21

Success in the Class D League did not guarantee success at higher levels, and Ray’s lack of control was an impediment to moving up the ranks. The Birmingham Barons, champions of the Class A Southern Association, decided to give him a chance. They drafted him and brought him

to Cuba in November. Barons shortstop Roy Ellam reported from Havana with a first impression: “Ray seems to have an abundance of stuff, but thus far has shown a tendency to shoot at random.”22

Ray went to spring training with the Barons in 1915. The team was also evaluating Burleigh Grimes, a future Hall of Famer who had won 23 games for the 1914 Richmond Colts. On March 15, 1915, in a Florida exhibition game against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Grimes pitched the first five innings and allowed six runs. Ray pitched the next three innings and allowed two walks, no runs, and no hits.23 Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson “seemed favorably impressed with Ray’s shoots and admitted after the game that the Tar Heel left-hander had his men buffaloed.”24 But the Barons kept Grimes and sent Ray back to Winston-Salem. If Ray “ever gets control he will be a wonderful hurler,” said Birmingham manager Carlton Molesworth.25

Instead of vying for first place, Winston-Salem and Charlotte were fighting to stay out of last place when they met on May 18, 1915. In five innings of relief that day, Ray squandered a 7-1 lead by allowing 10 runs. He hit four batters with his errant projectiles, three in succession before surrendering a bases-clearing double. With this defeat, the defending champions had a 5-18 record.26

At Raleigh on June 3, Ray gave up three walks, a hit batsman, and a triple in the first inning of a 6-2 loss.27 Twins manager Charlie Clancy grew exasperated with him and traded him on June 11 to Greensboro.28 Ray, however, was focused on matters of the heart. On June 14, the 26-year-old married Berchie Dunlap, a 31-year-old schoolteacher from Stokes County.29

Ray’s combined record for Winston-Salem and Greensboro in 1915 was 8-20. He pitched 264 innings and ranked second in the league in both strikeouts (267) and walks (138). He led the league in losses (20), wild pitches (22), hit batsmen (33), and strikeouts per nine innings (9.1).30 Though inconsistent throughout the season, he impressed the right man at the right time and was drafted by the Philadelphia Athletics.

Earle Mack, son of Athletics manager Connie Mack, was the playing manager of the Raleigh Capitals. Facing Earle’s team, Ray threw a no-hitter with 15 strikeouts on August 12, 1915, and a three-hitter with 14 strikeouts on August 31.31 Earle recommended Ray to his father.

With the Athletics mired in last place in the American League, Connie Mack was willing to try pitchers from the low minor leagues. It was exceedingly rare for a 20-game loser in a Class D league to be promoted directly to the majors, yet on September 25, 1915, Ray made his major-league debut with the Athletics at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. He started the first game of a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox.

Ray’s wildness was evident. After Happy Felsch led off the game with a single and Buck Weaver sacrificed, Ray walked Eddie Collins and hit Jack Fournier with a pitch. Then, impressively, Ray induced Shoeless Joe Jackson to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. But five hits, three walks, and a hit batsman later, Ray was removed from the game in the fourth inning with the Athletics trailing 4-1. The White Sox won 8-1, and Ray was the losing pitcher. Nonetheless, a local reporter wrote glowing remarks about him:

“Ray pitches entirely unlike any left-hander who ever broke into the major leagues in this city. He has an underhand delivery that is a duplicate of the one Earle sic Moore had, and in addition he has that peculiar overhand cross-fire swing Eddie Plank used. Ray’s fast ball breaks late and fast, while his cross-fire curve sweeps past the left-handed hitters with blinding speed.”32

In a crossfire delivery, the pitching arm swings across the opposite leg. For a left-hander, the left arm swings across the right leg which has landed a little toward the first-base line. The ball approaches home at an angle that is increased by starting the delivery from the extreme end of the pitching rubber (the left end for a left-hander).

A crossfire pitch can be effective, but it is difficult to control. Eddie Plank, a left-hander, had thrown it overhand with great success for the 1901-14 Athletics. Earl Moore, a right-hander, had thrown it side-arm or underhand (submarine style) for the Philadelphia Phillies. Each year from 1909 to 1911, Moore ranked in the top four of the National League in both strikeouts and walks. Ray appeared to be Moore’s left-handed twin. But Connie Mack was seeking a successor to Eddie Plank.

At spring training in 1916, Mack urged Ray to abandon his hard-to-control submarine delivery and stick to his Plank-like overhand crossfire.33 Ray started the second game of the season, on April 13 at Boston’s Fenway Park, but faced only four Red Sox batters before he was taken out. He had given up a single, two bases on balls, and a wild pitch in one-third of an inning, leading to three Boston runs.

In the Athletics home opener on April 20, Ray again faced the Red Sox. In two scoreless innings of relief, he allowed two singles, no walks, and one hit batsman. Babe Ruth, the Boston pitcher, batted against him and hit into a force out.

Ray pitched in one more Athletics game, his final major-league appearance, on May 9. With the Detroit Tigers ahead 9-0 after two innings, Mack put him in and let him pitch the rest of the game. In seven innings of mop-up duty, Ray allowed seven runs (four earned) on six hits, struck out three and walked 12. Ty Cobb hit a double in three at-bats facing him and received one of the walks.34 The Athletics pitchers combined to walk 18 batters that day, setting an American League record.35 Afterwards, Mack conceded that Ray is, “and probably always will be, naturally wild and unsteady.”36

On May 15, the club released Ray to the Newport News Shipbuilders of the Class C Virginia League.37 In five major-league appearances, his career record was 0-2 with a 4.86 ERA in 16 2/3 innings. He fanned 11, walked 20, and hit five batsmen. It was not the end of his association with the Macks; he and Earle Mack became lifelong friends.38

Ray returned to his sidewinding ways with the 1916 Shipbuilders39 and had a splendid season. He compiled a 19-7 record in 250 innings, allowing only 5.0 hits per nine innings. He hurled a trio of three-hit shutouts, against Norfolk, Rocky Mount (North Carolina), and Hopewell.40 In blanking Rocky Mount, he was credited with 11 strikeouts but should have had more, said one reporter. Ray’s “curves were so wide that [umpire] Rossano could not see them break over the plate.”41

On September 2, Ray threw a no-hitter in the first game of a doubleheader at Norfolk. It was his fourth career minor-league no-hitter. In this one, he struck out 16 and walked only three. The Norfolk batters were “dazzled by his blinding speed and sharp curve.” Some of them “stood at the plate like statues and watched Ray break the ‘money’ ball over a corner or slip one down the groove.”42 His live fastball reportedly broke 12 inches.43

Newport News won the second half of a split season and faced Portsmouth, first-half winners, in a postseason playoff. The Shipbuilders won the series, four games to three, to claim the Virginia League title. Ray pitched in three games and won two of them, including the deciding seventh game.44

The Virginia League disbanded three weeks into the 1917 season due to “poor attendance and the war situation.”45 Ray worked at a Delaware shipyard during World War I and pitched for shipyard teams. After the war, he worked on a farm back home in Stokes County. The first of his two children, Carl Grady Ray Jr, was born on June 13, 1919.

Ray returned to professional baseball in 1920. He enjoyed a fine season with the Greensboro Patriots of the Class D Piedmont League, achieving a 15-7 record and 2.61 ERA in 183 innings. The next year, Ray’s record in the Class B Virginia League was uninspiring: 10-21 in 220 innings. He began the season with the Newport News Shipbuilders and was transferred to the Portsmouth Truckers in August.46

Portsmouth won the Virginia League championship by defeating Norfolk four games to one in a postseason playoff. Ray pitched in one game of the series, on September 28, 1921. It was for him a typical performance. He “handed out free passes galore, winged batters and uncorked wild heaves.”47 He also struck out 13 batters and allowed only five hits. Portsmouth won the game, 7-4. On December 14, 1921, his second child, John Frank Ray, was born in Stokes County.

Ray pitched for Rocky Mount in 1922 and briefly in 1923, before heading north to join a semipro team representing Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. On August 8, 1923, he threw a two-hitter in Mount Carmel’s 3-2 victory over the New York Lincoln Giants, a prominent Black team.48

In 1924 Ray went farther north to pitch for a Gardner, Massachusetts, semipro squad. On September 23, he delivered a one-hitter in winning “the seventh and deciding game of the inter-league post-season baseball series between North Cambridge, champion of the Boston Twilight league and Gardner, champion of the Central Massachusetts league.”49

The following year, Ray joined a semipro team in Nashua, New Hampshire. On July 3, 1925, he hurled a no-hitter with 12 strikeouts in a 1-0 victory over the Lynn (Massachusetts) Cornets, and his single drove in the sole run. Former major leaguer Jeff Tesreau pitched a six-hitter for the Cornets.50

In 1926 Ray went to spring training with the Indianapolis Indians of the Class AA American Association but the club released him in early May. It was the same old refrain: “He appeared to have a lot of stuff, but lacked in control.”51 From there he went to the Hartford Senators of the Class A Eastern League and then to the Nashua Millionaires of the Class B New England League.

Ray remained in the New England League until 1929, pitching for Nashua, Haverhill (Massachusetts), Brockton (Massachusetts), and Portland (Maine). He was regarded as one of the best relief pitchers in the league in 1928.52

At age 40, Ray was done with baseball. He resided with his family in Walnut Cove, Stokes County, North Carolina, where he served as a deputy sheriff for more than 20 years. His eldest son, Carl Jr., pitched in the New York Yankees farm system in the late 1940s.

Ray played banjo and was fond of dogs. An avid hunter, he trained hunting dogs. He also trained bloodhounds to assist in law enforcement.53 He was a kindhearted gentleman, greatly admired by the people of Stokes County.54

On April 2, 1970, Ray died of a stroke at the Haven Nursing Home in Lexington, North Carolina. He was interred at the Walnut Cove Cemetery.

Acknowledgments

This story was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Tom Reinsfelder.

Sources

Ancestry.com, Baseball-reference.com, and Retrosheet.org, accessed June 2023.

Author’s interview of Jill Ray, granddaughter of Carl Ray, on June 13, 2023.

Photo credit: Register of Whitsett Institute, 1913-14.

Notes

1 Author’s interview of Jill Ray, granddaughter of Carl Ray, June 13, 2023.

2 “Fanned Twelve Men,” Danbury (North Carolina) Reporter, April 26, 1911: 1; “Stokes Boy Lands,” Danbury Reporter, May 3, 1911: 1.

3 Danbury Reporter, June 7, 1911: 4.

4 “The Twins Again,” Raleigh (North Carolina) News and Observer, May 30, 1912: 3.

5 “Two Home Runs,” Raleigh News and Observer, June 4, 1912: 3.

6 “Ray Breaks a League Record,” Raleigh News and Observer, June 6, 1912: 3.

7 “Carl Ray Going to Sanford, Fla., Team,” Twin-City Sentinel (Winston-Salem, North Carolina), July 8, 1912: 6.

8 “Ray Pitched No-hit Game,” Charlotte (North Carolina) News, April 29, 1913: 10.

9 “Ray Sets Up New Record,” Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer, May 6, 1913: 9.

10 “Win and Draw for Goobers,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, September 2, 1913: 11.

11 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1914 (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., 1914), 503.

12 “Won in Tenth,” Durham (North Carolina) Herald, April 26, 1914: 3.

13 “Ray Eased Hornets Down without a Hit, Taking His Game,” Charlotte Observer, May 15, 1914: 9.

14 “Bulls Succumb to Ray’s Curves,” Raleigh News and Observer, May 24, 1914: 15.

15 “Carl Ray Too Strong for Patriot Batters,” Greensboro (North Carolina) News, May 31, 1914: 6.

16 “Patriots Open Week at Charlotte Today,” Greensboro News, June 1, 1914: 6.

17 “Hickman Hero,” Asheville (North Carolina) Citizen, July 3, 1914: 6; “Patriots and Twins Divide,” Charlotte News, July 4, 1914: 10.

18 Determined by the author from box scores at Newspapers.com.

19 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1915 (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., 1915), 324.

20 “Twins Win the Championship of Two States; Carl Ray Humbles Norfolk for Third Time,” Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal, September 20, 1914: 6.

21 “Jim Kelly Gets Auto,” Raleigh News and Observer, September 18, 1914: 3. Jim Kelly, Durham’s playing manager, was first in the voting.

22 H.C. Vance, “On the Level,” Birmingham (Alabama) News, November 21, 1914: 6.

23 Richard F. Lussier, “Bold Barons Fail to Hit and Prove Easy for Dodgers,” Birmingham (Alabama) Age-Herald, March 16, 1915: 7.

24 H.C. Vance, “On the Level,” Birmingham News, March 18, 1915: 10.

25 “Axe Falls in the Camp of Barons,” Birmingham News, April 10, 1915: 5.

26 “Loose Game Won by Sisson’s Club,” Raleigh News and Observer, May 19, 1915: 3.

27 “Ray’s Wildness Help to Capitals,” Raleigh News and Observer, June 4, 1915: 3.

28 “Schwartje Is Traded to Clancy for Ray,” Greensboro News, June 12, 1915: 3.

29 “Ray-Dunlap,” Danbury Reporter, September 1, 1915: 5.

30 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1916 (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., 1916), 306.

31 “Ray Pitched No-hit Game,” Charlotte News, August 13, 1915: 6; “Ray Lost a Hard Luck Game,” Charlotte News, September 1, 1915: 6.

32 “One Loss for Boston Clinches National League Flag for Phils,” Philadelphia Ledger, September 27, 1915: 10.

33 “Unusual Number of Star Southpaw Pitchers May Stop American Sluggers,” Philadelphia Ledger, February 23, 1916: 12.

34 Deduced by the author from the play-by-play given for the two innings Ray did not pitch, in “Tigers Open in Philadelphia,” Detroit Times, May 9, 1916: 1.

35 “Base on Balls & Intentional Bases on Balls Team Records” at Baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_wk2.shtml.

36 “Mack Attributes Wildness of Pitchers in Detroit Series to Strong Breeze,” Philadelphia Ledger, May 12, 1916: 14.

37 “Mack Releases Pitcher; Rube Bressler Under Ban,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Telegraph, May 16, 1916: 10.

38 Author’s interview of Jill Ray.

39 “Shipbuilders Take First,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, June 6, 1916: 9.

40 “Shipbuilders Wallop Crew of Mary Jane in Very One-sided Match,” Newport News (Virginia) Press, May 19, 1916: 5; “Carl Ray Outpitches Tar Heel Flinger and Blanks Rocky Mount Yesterday,” Newport News Press, June 10, 1916: 5; “Ray Blanks Powder Puffs,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, June 27, 1916: 9.

41 “Sporting Comment,” Newport News Press, June 10, 1916: 5.

42 “Carl Ray Fans 16 Tars in Working No-hit No-run Game,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, September 3, 1916: 13.

43 “Shipbuilders Win Third Game from Pirates after Hard and Close Struggle,” Newport News Press, September 14, 1916: 5.

44 “Newport News Wins Championship,” Newport News Press, September 21, 1916: 1.

45 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1918 (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., 1918), 252.

46 “Casey’s Homer Puts Truckers in Lead,” Portsmouth (Virginia) Star, August 20, 1921: 6. Baseball-reference.com indicates that Ray also pitched for Rocky Mount in 1921, but the author found no evidence of this.

47 “Tars Whipped in Own Back Yard,” Portsmouth Star, September 29, 1921: 6.

48 “Mount Carmel Wins from New York Colored Boys in the Lucky Ninth,” Mount Carmel (Pennsylvania) Item, August 9, 1923: 4.

49 “Final Game in Twilight Series,” Lynn (Massachusetts) Item, September 22, 1924: 5; “Gardner Wins over Cantabs,” Lynn Item, September 24, 1924: 5.

50 “Carl Ray Twirls Hitless Contest,” Boston Globe, July 4, 1925: 11.

51 “Milwaukee Goes on Slugging Spree to Wallop Indianapolis, 18 to 8,” Indianapolis Star, May 4, 1926: 12.

52 “Bill Diehl Leads N.E. Loop Hurlers,” Portland (Maine) Express, January 31, 1929: 22; “Lewis Has Fine Talent for the Portland Club,” Lynn Item, April 23, 1929: 4.

53 Author’s interview of Jill Ray.

54 Harriet J. Helsabeck, “Tribute to Carl Ray,” Danbury Reporter, April 9, 1970: 1, 8.