a pennant winner. After the Yankees lost the pennant to the Senators in 1933, Dan Daniel of the World-Telegram blamed MacFayden, who had a dreadful 5.88 ERA as a spot starter and reliever, for the Bronx Bomber's failure to repeat as American League champions. In '34, the Yankees again used him as a spot starter and reliever. After the 1934 season, he was purchased conditionally by the Cincinnati Reds for $5,000 and an additional $7,500 if they chose to keep him after June 1, 1935. MacFayden told the press he was happy to be leaving the Bronx, as he did not like the way manager Joe McCarthy (another future Hall of Famer) handled him. MacFayden pitched both overhand and sidearm, claiming that his sidearm delivery was more effective, but McCarthy dictated that his pitchers use an overhand motion. The Reds returned him to the Yankees in June 1935, and they put him on waivers. MacFayden was picked up off the waiver wire by the Boston Braves, which paid the Yankees $4,000 for his contract. MacFayden was returning to his hometown to play for yet another abysmal team. Back to Boston He would play five season with Boston's National League team through the end of the 1939 season. The team, which was partly owned by Bob Quinn, the former Red Sox owner who first signed MacFayden, started calling itself the Boston Bees in 1936 in a bid to get the fans to forget their dismal performance. Ironically, his first three full seasons with the Boston Bees would be the best of his career. A harbinger of what was to come occurred on September 28, 1935, when MacFayden tied Dazzy Vance's 11-year-old National League record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game when he fanned 15 New York Giants hitters in a game. (Hall of Famer Vance also struck-out 17 batters in a 10-inning game in 1925.) MacFayden had his best year in 1936. His ERA of 2.87 ranked second best in the senior circuit, which along with his 17–13 record on a team that came in 6th in an eight-team league with 71 victories, won him votes for Most Valuable Player. (He came in 9th in a vote topped by Hall of Famer pitchers Carl Hubbell of the pennant-winning New York Giants, the N.L. M.V.P., and runner-up Dizzy Dean of the St. Louis Cardinals, that year's bridesmaid for the N.L. pennant.) His