Baseball's biggest miscreants

This goes for players that go beyond the borders of just a general jack-ass or prick. These are guys that are legitimate head cases that can/have/will do physical/emotional harm to others or lead an extremely reckless lifestyle. Barry Bonds may be a first-grade jerk, but he has yet to try & run down trick-or-treaters. I know there must be others added to the list, but for the moment, my brain is fried from working until 4:00 last night.

That being said, my vote goes to Elijah Dukes. How much of a head-case do you have to be that your team's minor league affiliates REFUSE to take you when the parent club wants to send you down?

 

I'll say Ty Cobb. There's no telling what he did that never was reported.

 

Rube Marquard? I know he's a Hall-of-Famer, but that's about it. What'd he do?

 

Ty Cobb -- no question.

 

OK, I took him out because it was a case of mistaken identity. Who I meant was Rube Waddell, who was about the biggest mental deficient ever to play pro sports. Here's the wikipedia entry for him, even though it doesn't do his story justice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Waddell

 

I've got a book about Waddell. I thought you might have meant him.

 

I said Pete Rose only because of all the problems he's caused to MLB, whether his case be just or not. Forgetting about his legal problems, I think he's really cause baseball its biggest headache.

 

I'm surprised Steve Howe, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry or Barry Bonds aren't on the list.

 

I know Albert Belle gets a bad rap, and he should, but heard great story about him the other day. Scorekeeper for local minor league team explains how he once took pictures of Belle during a HR contest in Charlotte, N.C. Sends the pictures to Belle, asking if he can sign them. Package comes back a few months later and Belle has signed. The cardboard the scorekeep had inserted to protect the pictures had a message though.

"Tim, really loved the pictures. Could you make me some copies?"

Albert

 

Damn, dude, lay off Waddell. He doesn't belong here. You're being awfully harsh on a guy who was mentally retarded, dontcha think?

 

No way its Rube. He may be as much hero as miscreant.


From Wikipedia
Recent commentators (such as Bill James) have suggested that Waddell may have suffered from a developmental disability, mental retardation, or autism.

"He was among the game's first real drawing cards, among its first honest-to-goodness celebrities, and the first player to have teams of newspaper reporters following him, and the first to have a mass following of idol-worshiping kids yelling out his nickname like he was their buddy."

Rube Waddell died in 1914 in San Antonio, Texas at the age of 37, apparently from the lingering effects of having stood in icy waters doing extensive flood relief work.

 

Whatever he is, he ain't a miscreant.

Waddell's tendency to chase fire engines, get distracted and (later) drink excessively was certainly a headache for his manager, Connie Mack, but he caused few problems with baseball leadership or opponents (other than striking them all out. He set the single-season and career strikeout records that were later broken by Sandy Koufax and Walter Johnson, respectively.)