Carey, Max
[Maximilian Carnarius]
Baseball
b. Jan. 11, 1890, Terre Haute, IN
d. May 30, 1976
A baseball and track star at Concordia College in Indiana, where he was studying to be a Lutheran minister, Maximilian Carnarius took the name Max Carey to protect his college eligibility when he began playing minor league baseball in 1909.
After graduating in 1910, he returned to professional baseball and played the last two games of the season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, collecting 3 hits in 6 at-bats.
The switch-hitting Carey became Pittsburgh's starting centerfielder and leadoff man during the 1911 season. Never a great hitter, Carey could draw walks and was a great base stealer when he got on base.
Carey was one of the first stealers to study pitchers and their moves, rather than relying on sheer speed and abandon. He led the league in stolen bases ten times, the last time when he was thirty-five and not nearly as fast as he had once been.
Because of his speed and knowledge of how to play hitters, Carey led NL outfielders in putouts a record nine times. When he retired after the 1929 season, he held career records for stolen bases with 783, outfield putouts with 6,363, and outfield assists with 339.
Carey's best season was 1922, when he batted .329, stole 51 bases in 53 attempts, and scored 140 runs. When the Pirates won the 1925 NL pennant, he hit .343 and stole 46 bases. The Pirates beat the Washington Senators in a seven-game World Series in which Carey got 11 hits, batted .458, stole 3 bases, and scored 6 runs.
During the 1926 season, Carey had a dispute with the Pittsburgh front office. He was suspended and then released. The Brooklyn Dodgers signed him and he played there through the 1929 season.
Carey managed the Dodgers to a 146-161 record in 1932 and 1933. He also managed several minor league teams and the Grand Rapids Chicks of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.