Baseball darkest moments?

[Armchair_QB]

The Pittsburgh coke trial in the mid-80s deserves at least a mention.

 

[old_tony]

Here's a different kind of dark moment in baseball - February 23, 1960.

"There Used To Be a Ballpark."

This particular ballpark was the home of the 1955 world champions - but the team left two years later and the stadium was gone less than three years after that. How does such a thing even happen?? Rhetorical question - I know the story.

Shortly before I headed out tonight to meet some friends for a couple of drinks I had this song going through my head. It was featured prominently in the HBO documentary "The Ghosts of Flatbush" (there are a couple of threads on it, one of which I started) and just last week I transferred the documentary from my DVR to a VHS tape so that my dad could watch it. The Dodgers were in LA for 2 1/2 years by the time I was born, but as one who loves the game and its history, I consider the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn to be baseball's darkest moment.

"Oh, there used to be a ball park
where the field was warm and green,
and the people played a crazy game
with a joy I've never seen.

How the people watched with wonder,
how they laughed and how they cheered
Yes, there used to be a ball park....
right here....

And the people ate rock candy
on a great big 4th of July
and the fireworks exploded
all across the summer sky.

And the air was filled with wonder
from the hot dogs and the beer
Yes, there used to be a ball park...
right here....

Now the children try to find it,
and they can't believe their eyes
For the old team isn't playing,
and the new team hardly tries

And the sky has gotten cloudy
when it used to be so clear
and the summer....went so quickly...
this year....

Yes, there used to be a ball park...
right here....

I've told a few people this, but if there ever was such a thing as time travel, the first thing I'd do is go back to the 50s and attend a game at Ebbets Field.

 

[old_tony]

Another very dark moment not mentioned has to be the two-year period beginning early in the 1939 season when Lou Gehrig left the lineup and was diagnosed with ALS and then dying within two years.

 

[Starman]

It's Ray Chapman's death.

Chapman was a very popular player, a probable HOF electee had he played out his career.
Out of the whole list, this is the only case where a player died as a result of a play on the field -- and it almost certainly wasn't an accident. Carl Mays was a notoriously nasty cuss well known for drilling batters crowding the plate. (Mays might very well have made the HOF as well if not for the Chapman beaning.)


The Black Sox scandal was a big deal, but players gambling on games in the 1910s was like steroid use in the 1990s/2000s -- everybody knew it was going on, but pretended it wasn't. (Cocaine in the 1980s would be comparable as well.)

Ben Chapman, the Phillies, and Cap Anson in the 1880s/90s are simply different manifestations of the same mind-set. From what I've read, Chapman and the Phillies and several other NL teams who attempted to heckle Jackie Robinson off the field were only very indirectly chastised by contemporary news stories -- it was only years later they were actually called out by name for it.

As for Anson, his views and actions seem preposterously racist today, but 120 years ago they were pretty much mainstream. Plessy vs. Ferguson came down in 1896 to general public approval. "Birth of a Nation" was a runaway movie hit in 1915.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

In one of the game's great rivalries, a star player - a future Hall of Famer - wielded a piece of game equipment against an opponent. With lethal and malicious intent.

 

[Batman]

When Roy Hobbs knocked out that bank of lights with a home run. You couldn't see a damn thing in that ballpark after that.

 

[Bubbler]

When the Cubs won the ... oh yeah ... never mind.

 

[Trey Beamon]

 

[Double J]

In one of the game's great rivalries, a star player - a future Hall of Famer - wielded a piece of game equipment against an opponent. With lethal and malicious intent.

The above text loaded before the picture. I was expecting to see Rocket Richard of Montreal bludgeoning Hal Laycoe of Boston toward the end of the 1954-55 NHL season. Hey, it exactly fits the description of Marichal-Roseboro, and it happened 10 years earlier! :D

 

[Ilmago]

The Pittsburgh coke trial in the mid-80s deserves at least a mention.

I did mention it in my OP.

 

[jackfinarelli]

I'm extremely biased of course. But here's my winner:

If you have not read this by Bill Conlin (Philly Daily News) you might want to check it out.


http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/bill_conlin/20100830_Bill_Conlin__Strasburg_injury_no_surprise_to_one_mechanic.html

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

Ben Chapman, the Phillies, and Cap Anson in the 1880s/90s are simply different manifestations of the same mind-set. From what I've read, Chapman and the Phillies and several other NL teams who attempted to heckle Jackie Robinson off the field were only very indirectly chastised by contemporary news stories -- it was only years later they were actually called out by name for it.

As for Anson, his views and actions seem preposterously racist today, but 120 years ago they were pretty much mainstream. Plessy vs. Ferguson came down in 1896 to general public approval. "Birth of a Nation" was a runaway movie hit in 1915.

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

Racism wasn't a permanent condition in this country. The hatred didn't really manifest itself nationwide until years after the Civil War. Blacks were a part of normal society until the Nadir began. They were also in baseball before this mindset took root. Then again, this is something you're not told about in school.

 

[Ilmago]

As for Anson, his views and actions seem preposterously racist today, but 120 years ago they were pretty much mainstream. Plessy vs. Ferguson came down in 1896 to general public approval. "Birth of a Nation" was a runaway movie hit in 1915.

I agree with starman on this. When the racists enjoy majority support, that's not easy to overcome. And most Americans did believe in 'separate but equal'.

The victims of 'separate but equal' had their work cut out for them to change public opinion.

 

[Rosie]

How does the disco riot not make anyone's list?

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

How does the disco riot not make anyone's list?

In that genre, the cheap beer night in Cleveland would top it.

 

[Joe Williams]

"Mr. Kekich, Mrs. Peterson."

"Mr. Peterson, Mrs. Kekich."

(Oh, and when Joe Pepitone introduced hair spray and blow-dryers into clubhouses for that tarantula he wore on his head.)

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Ben Chapman, the Phillies, and Cap Anson in the 1880s/90s are simply different manifestations of the same mind-set. From what I've read, Chapman and the Phillies and several other NL teams who attempted to heckle Jackie Robinson off the field were only very indirectly chastised by contemporary news stories -- it was only years later they were actually called out by name for it.

As for Anson, his views and actions seem preposterously racist today, but 120 years ago they were pretty much mainstream. Plessy vs. Ferguson came down in 1896 to general public approval. "Birth of a Nation" was a runaway movie hit in 1915.

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

Racism wasn't a permanent condition in this country. The hatred didn't really manifest itself nationwide until years after the Civil War. Blacks were a part of normal society until the Nadir began. They were also in baseball before this mindset took root. Then again, this is something you're not told about in school.

Racism was absolutely a permanent condition in this country from when the first slaves came off from the boat. And the Constitution counted slaves as 3/5 of a person. And "Normal society" back then meant, "The (insert derogatory word that rhymes with trigger) better know their place, or we'll show them with a rope."

Yes, there were a handful of blacks in organized baseball in the 19th century. And they were treated horribly. Frank Grant, a star second baseman in the 1880s had to shift to the outfield because he kept on being slashed with spikes on purpose by runners sliding into second base.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Ben Chapman, the Phillies, and Cap Anson in the 1880s/90s are simply different manifestations of the same mind-set. From what I've read, Chapman and the Phillies and several other NL teams who attempted to heckle Jackie Robinson off the field were only very indirectly chastised by contemporary news stories -- it was only years later they were actually called out by name for it.

As for Anson, his views and actions seem preposterously racist today, but 120 years ago they were pretty much mainstream. Plessy vs. Ferguson came down in 1896 to general public approval. "Birth of a Nation" was a runaway movie hit in 1915.

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

Racism wasn't a permanent condition in this country. The hatred didn't really manifest itself nationwide until years after the Civil War. Blacks were a part of normal society until the Nadir began. They were also in baseball before this mindset took root. Then again, this is something you're not told about in school.

Racism was absolutely a permanent condition in this country from when the first slaves came off from the boat. And the Constitution counted slaves as 3/5 of a person. And "Normal society" back then meant, "The (insert derogatory word that rhymes with trigger) better know their place, or we'll show them with a rope."

You should read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States." He makes a strong argument that black and white and Indian all got along well in the lower income class, until the rich landowners (the ones who put the 3/5 clause on the books) promoted policies that turned the various factions of the lower class against each other instead of against the rich themselves, who knew they could be overtaken in a heartbeat if the poor ever rose up in revolt.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Ben Chapman, the Phillies, and Cap Anson in the 1880s/90s are simply different manifestations of the same mind-set. From what I've read, Chapman and the Phillies and several other NL teams who attempted to heckle Jackie Robinson off the field were only very indirectly chastised by contemporary news stories -- it was only years later they were actually called out by name for it.

As for Anson, his views and actions seem preposterously racist today, but 120 years ago they were pretty much mainstream. Plessy vs. Ferguson came down in 1896 to general public approval. "Birth of a Nation" was a runaway movie hit in 1915.

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

Racism wasn't a permanent condition in this country. The hatred didn't really manifest itself nationwide until years after the Civil War. Blacks were a part of normal society until the Nadir began. They were also in baseball before this mindset took root. Then again, this is something you're not told about in school.

Racism was absolutely a permanent condition in this country from when the first slaves came off from the boat. And the Constitution counted slaves as 3/5 of a person. And "Normal society" back then meant, "The (insert derogatory word that rhymes with trigger) better know their place, or we'll show them with a rope."

You should read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States." He makes a strong argument that black and white and Indian all got along well in the lower income class, until the rich landowners (the ones who put the 3/5 clause on the books) promoted policies that turned the various factions of the lower class against each other instead of against the rich themselves, who knew they could be overtaken in a heartbeat if the poor ever rose up in revolt.

I have read Zinn's book, and it occupies a nice place on my shelf. My favorite part is during a late 1800s railroad strike in Pennsylvania, the powerful railroad interests had the leaders arrested, only the juries were all sympathetic to the strikers and acquitted them, which when you think about it, was pretty dumb of the railroad.

 

[93Devil]

Steroids/HGH, Black Sox, Strike...

Take your pick, but Pete Rose might need to be mentioned along with the trading of Frank Robinson at the prime of his career.

I think coke is overrated because probably just as many players drank their careers away than snorted it up their nose.