This is an excerpt from the upcoming book, Ballplayers: Baseball’s Greats Remembered, Ranked, and Revealed. This entry is from the chapter on center fielders, under the Hall of Fame outfielder Max “Scoops’ Carey.
Max Carey was supposed to be a Lutheran minister, but he was too damn good catching fly balls. While attending Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Carey accepted an offer to play on the baseball team. He’d been a star on the track team and the swim team at Concordia Preparatory College in Fort Wayne. His parents sent Max to pre-seminary when he was 13, the notion that their son might someday travel trains with unrefined tobacco-chewing ballplayers never crossed their minds. But that’s what happened.
Extremely private, Carey played 20 years in the major leagues and let few people get close to him. A teammate once said, “Max gets out of the clubhouse faster than he runs the bases.” Carey spent 17 seasons in a Pirates uniform and only counted one good friend on the team: Honus Wagner, who reluctantly mentored Carey when the youngster arrived in 1910 and proclaimed he was “here to take the shortstop job.” He played his first six seasons under Fred Clarke, but the two men quarreled and Carey was ecstatic when Clarke stepped aside as manager for the 1916 season. Later, Clarke returned as a bench coach and the two men fought after several incidents in the dugout boiled over.
It’s practically impossible to play five years and have more stolen bases than runs batted in, but Carey played two decades and nearly accomplished it. He led the league in steals ten times and batted leadoff or second in nearly every game he played. He frequently came to the plate right after the pitcher made an out. He put himself in scoring position a lot, and even though players were thrown out stealing a lot in his era, he once swiped 31 straight bags.
Carey was credited as being the most studious base stealer of his time. He observed every pitcher in the league until he understood their tendencies and pickoff moves. He was clever too: one of Max’s favorite tricks was to turn to look at the first baseman, and when he saw him move his feet to hop back into fielding position, Carey would bolt for second base.
After his playing career, Carey was hired to manage in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the league featured in the popular movie several years later, A League of Their Own. An adherent to the small-ball deadball era offensive strategies, Carey loved the AAGPBL, and he championed the ladies that played in it. He was eventually named commissioner of the league, and he once said that he preferred the style of play in that league over the “modern game.” He caused controversy when he penned an article and selected his 20 greatest players, ranking Babe Ruth 18th. Carey eschewed the home run and slugging that Ruth ushered in.
Carey was nicknamed “Scoops” after a Pittsburgh-born ballplayer named George “Scoops” Carey who played first base at the turn of the twentieth century.
Best Baserunners by Decade
1890s: Sliding Billy Hamilton
1900s: Honus Wagner
1910s: Ty Cobb
1920s: Max Carey
1930s: Pepper Martin
1940s: George Case or Sam Jethroe
1950s: Jackie Robinson
1960s: Frank Robinson
1970s: Joe Morgan
1980s: Rickey Henderson
1990s: Barry Larkin
2000s: Carlos Beltrán
2010s: Sliding Billy Hamilton 2.0
2020s: Trea Turner
Max Carey was also the best baserunner in the National League in the 1910s. He ranks fourth all-time in baserunning runs above average, behind Rickey Henderson, Willie Wilson, and Tim Raines, each of whom debuted between 1976 and 1979.
