The couple were poised for a bright future following his anticipated retirement. He married Kathleen Daly, who came from one of the city’s prominent families. Unlike Mays, the shortstop was a beloved figure in Cleveland and beyond. They had similar types of qualities – any cost to win. Someone like Carl Mays, I think, was more of the norm.” He likens Mays to Ty Cobb: “They hated each other. Life expectancy for men was usually 50, not very long. He was born in 1891 in the Midwest with a lot of things we don’t grow up with – sudden injury and death.
“ had a very, very rough ,” Billman says. The filmmakers found rare footage from the era – including audio of Mays discussing his tough childhood in Kentucky, and video of the pitcher’s sidearm delivery, with his upper body parallel to the ground. The project is adapted from a 1989 book called The Pitch That Killed by Mike Sowell, who came on board as an advisor. Billman also explores the drama that played out in the 1970s, when a Cleveland native named George Steinbrenner tried to buy his hometown team, got rebuffed and purchased the Yankees instead. Score survived, but the team could not overcome his loss or the trading away of another star, Rocky Colavito – a deal that supposedly placed a curse on the Indians. In 1957, promising Cleveland pitcher Herb Score suffered a frightening eye injury when a ball off the bat of the Yankees’ Gil McDougald hit him in the face. The rivalry includes another tragedy eerily similar to the one spotlighted in the film. While the Yankees have generally had the better of it, the Indians have enjoyed some moments too – including in 1948, when they broke the AL color barrier with Doby and Satchel Paige, and in the 1990s and 2000s, when the Indians frequently thwarted the Yankees in the playoffs, such as during the infamous 2007 “bug game”. It posits that the 1920 season sparked a rivalry between the Indians and Yankees that’s still going strong. His latest project is an ambitious venture.
”īillman is from Cleveland and can talk at length about the city’s sports scene and its fans – which he chronicled in a previous film, Believeland, for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series. We don’t really hear much about 1920 … I did not know a lot about the 1920 team before I started. We boast about Jim Brown, Paul Brown … a lot of boasting about Feller, Lou Boudreau, Larry Doby.
“Growing up as a Cleveland Indians fan, I didn’t hear much about the 1920 ,” Billman says.
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