Infinite Inning Reissue 24 (106): Got Those Girl Don’t Want You Team Signed Charlie Hayes Blues

In this week’s new material, we compare a team signing a low-OBP player to the girl you were crushing on choosing the only suitor you would have had her avoid (not that it was up to you, but also not that the universe isn’t cruel that way), all of which may turn out to be a tortured political metaphor. Then we return to 2016 for the Dodgers at third base, the tragic and not-at-all funny tale of Giants pitcher Bugs Raymond, and a lot of talk about Yoenis Cespedes falling off a horse.

The Infinite Inning is a journey to the past to understand the present using baseball as our time machine. America's brighter mirror, baseball reflects, anticipates, and even mocks the stories we tell ourselves about our world today. Baseball Prospectus's Steven Goldman shares his obsessions: history from inside and outside of the game, politics, stats, and Casey Stengel quotations. Along the way, we'll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out? 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Well, hello there, it sounds like the Bombers brought down
the theme song again. I am Steven Goldman, your host
for another Infinite Inning reissue episode. This week, we go
back six long years to episode one hundred and six
for a discussion of Dodger's Third Basement over time. In
a biography of one of the sadder characters in baseball history,

(00:49):
the picture Arthur bugs Raymond bugs like bugs bunny meaning
crazy wahooho. And that wasn't really fair exactly. He was
functionally not all there, but there were reasons, and today
we'd try to treat those reasons. Back then, they just
like to point their fingers at the falling down, drunken laugh.

(01:10):
I should note that during the flashback you'll hear me
joking about horses a few times. Not that there's ever
a bad time to talk or joke about horses, but
at the time, the hot story in baseball was that
Mets outfielder and a Cesspides had busted a leg falling
off of one. At least that was the cover story.
It was the wilpon Arametz, so who the heck knows.

(01:31):
I think a boar was also at fault. A boor
crossed against the light or something, and Cesspades had to
swerve to avoid him. I seem to remember the boar anyway,
I don't know if the boar was ever brought to justice.
Normally for such a crime, a boar would be sentenced
to ten years hunting truffles, but no such penalty in
this case. It is a testimony to the hurried, insane,

(01:54):
merry go round world we've been living in for a while.
Nour on that talking about Cessa but as feels about
as close to yesterday as talking about Joe Tinker or
Johnny Evers. But Jennis's major league career only petered out
five years ago. You know right now, he's only forty.
He started late in the majors, obviously, because he had
to get out of Cuba. Then he had to get signed,

(02:17):
get to the big leagues, and he had barely gotten
going when injuries just started beavering away at him. What
we're left with was essentially his age twenty nine season.
There are a few decent performances around them, or around
that one, I should say, but that was the only
one that seemed to fulfill what had been promised by
his advanced publicity. And you might recall there was a

(02:38):
big build up when he was on his way, this
guy who has sculpted like a Greek god, and he
had power and speed and could complete the hard New
York Times crossword puzzles and under an average of twenty
minutes most days. He won seventeen scrabble contests in Esperanto.
It was really like that, and to some extent he

(02:59):
lived up to it, and to some extent his approach
was kind of limited because it consisted of just being
really hard about everything. He did, run hard after balls
in the outfield, even if he didn't have great routes.
He had the athleticism to keep up with that. Don't
take a lot of pitches, try to kill everything. And
again he had the athleticism for a while to do
well with that. And in twenty fifteen, his age twenty

(03:21):
nine season, which he split between the Tigers and the Mets,
he played left and center at a gold Glove level,
or at least he was awarded one while hitting two
ninety one three twenty eight five point forty two, very
good in context with thirty five home runs. But even
before the fatal stumble by Trigger or Champion or Silver,
he was already sliding off of that high, in part

(03:43):
because of other injuries, in part because it feels like
that is not a durable approach. A player really has
to be at the pinnacle of his abilities to make
it work. His abilities were obviously prodigious, but again, no
one stays up on that pinnacle for forever. That's just
the tragedy of baseball and of life in general. Do
you recall who the Mets traded to the Tigers to

(04:06):
acquire the great Cespides. It was eventual twenty sixteen Rookie
of the Year Michael Filmer and future reliever Luis Sessa.
Good deal, I guess for both sides. Although Fullmer, like Cespides,
was quickly derailed by injuries, He's still out there punching
this year. He was trying to come back from ucl surgery.
Everyone's dreams were thus fulfilled, and yet weren't fulfilled at all.

(04:29):
The Mets did make a couple of postseasons with Cespades
on the roster, but despite reaching the twenty fifteen World Series,
well they didn't win, and they still haven't won a
championship since nineteen eighty six. As for the Tigers, they
were kind of tearing down after reaching the postseason in
four straight campaigns, and ultimately it would be about ten

(04:52):
years before they got back along the way. They had
to endure the one hundred and fourteen loss twenty nineteen
season as well. I bring up these dashed hopes because
sometimes it's easy to feel like no one is on
your side, or that there's some perverse cosmic force that's
listening into all your wishes. And rather than Grantham, Bush
is really hard in the opposite direction, it's dirty Aladdin

(05:14):
with the genie singing you ain't never had an enemy
like me? Oh boy, are you going to regret uncorking
that bottle or rubbing that lamp? Didn't anyone tell you
that rubbing that lamp can lead to blindness? Sometimes it
can happen with the girl you wanted to ask out.
If she says no to me, fine, that's her prerogative,
but don't let her say yes to Brad, and then
she says yes to Brad, who had never looked her way,

(05:37):
or vice versa, until you allowed that thought to penetrate
your mind. Brad who you know? Who you know? Slithered
out of hell to torment you just you and has
no existence independent of that, going back to second grade,
and now Jesse's his girl. As the Rick Springfield song
doesn't quite go, I just gender swapped Jesse and changed

(05:59):
the rolls around, and you can figure out the rest.
It can happen in baseball too. I don't know why
I keep returning to this subject, but third base has
rarely been a solid position for the New York Yankees.
I know. I wrote about the Mike Palierulo era over
at BP towards the end of the season. Here I'm
talking about their whole history. You can pull out some

(06:19):
spans in which they've been strong there, usually with veteran imports.
The main answers in that category are Frank Baker, Greg Nettles,
and a Rod, plus Scott Broch's, Wade Boggs, Robin Ventura,
and momentary mercenaries of that sort. Their next homegrown third
baseman to become a star for a sustained period of time,
we'll honestly be the first since nineteen o three. Until then,

(06:43):
you get to pick from guys like Red Rolf who
had four really good years, Cleet Boyer, who wasn't really
homegrown but was lifted from the Kansas City as and
to the extent he could hit was really limited by
being a right handed hitter in old Yankee Stadium. And
now we're down to the guy I just mentioned about
a year and a half of my pali Arulo. After
pali Arulo and before weight bogs. During the franchisees lost years,

(07:06):
they tried several third basemen, among them Charlie Hayes. In
three hundred and seventy eight games with the Phillies from
nineteen eighty nine to nineteen ninety one, Hayes had hit
two forty eight with a two seventy eight on base
percentage and a three sixty four slugging percentage. You know
from that little chuckle in my voice when I said
two seventy eight that that is not good. Yes, he

(07:30):
was an above average glove, not a great one, just
above average. That's no way for a third basement to hit,
and you have to be well above average to compensate
four getting on base only twenty eight percent of the time.
I don't know if Charlie Hayes was my least favorite
player of that period. I don't really think in those terms.

(07:52):
As you know, the only players that I root against
in any sense are the ones who are guilty of
something heinous, usually off the field. But I do know
that I had the thought that I ascribed to that
guy who was not jealous of Brad exactly, but covetous
of Jesse and just didn't care where she went, didn't
have to be with him, as long as it wasn't
with Brad Well, I know I had the thought, the

(08:14):
Yankees need to solve their third base problem, and as
long as they don't try to do it with Charlie Hayes,
I'm cool. Well, once again, a dark god was listening
and chuckling as I did at that two seventy eight
on base percentage, because the Phillies gifted him to the
Yankees as the player to be named later in a
deal for a very minor relief prospect named Darren Chapin.

(08:36):
Chapin pitched all of one game for Philadelphia. I should
add here for newer listeners who haven't heard me talk
about this, that I was raised to see Yankees fan
was enraptured as almost everyone was in my part of
the world. By the late nineteen seventies, Bronx Sioux Yankees
I was a child the whole world at that time
seemed to be lines at the gas station, Reggie Jackson

(08:58):
and disco, and I did enjoy lines at the gas station,
and I wasn't too sure about disco either. I kind
of enjoy some of it now. I still think Reggie
was a pretty great player too. All of that ended
for me in relatively young adulthood, when close proximity to
the actual team and its executives cured me of my
fandom right quick. And some of that was based on
things that I experienced personally as I became a professional

(09:22):
adjacent to the baseball industry. Some happened to someone I
care about, and some was just the distancing that being
a professional brings. I've often said that when your hobby
becomes your avocation, it changes your relationship to it. I
have no desire nowadays to write about any team as
a ruter. I never did, actually, so I checked that

(09:44):
starting in about nineteen ninety seven. Was never a raw
ra guy. I wasn't even that before then. I try
to retain my objectivity about everything that goes for you too, Mom,
and I never got it back in any sense, not
as a writer, not in my private life. It's been
good for me, actually, being a non denominational baseball fan
because I don't rise and fall. My emotions don't with

(10:05):
any team, and I can just appreciate good quality, team building,
good players, and in any given year, I can say
that I want to immerse myself in the Brewers or
the Dodgers, or for that matter, the Mets. I actually
have always spent a lot of time with the Mets.
I live in the area. I've never felt subject to
the dumb idea that you have to be a fan
of the Yankees and hate the Mets or vice versa.

(10:27):
I choose both, but also neither. The Hayes period was
towards the tail end of my rooting years, and even
then I rooted for good process, for smart roster decisions. Hayes,
in my mind at that time, was not that his son.
By the way, Cabrian, now with the Reds, is exactly
who Charlie was purported to be. He's almost precisely the

(10:48):
same hitter. But he's a legitimate Gold Glover. Charlie was
just good. Charlie's first stint with the Yankees lasted just
one season. In nineteen ninety two. He hit two fifty
seven two ninety seven to four to ozho nine in
one hundred and forty two games with eighteen home runs.
That was about as good as he can be at
sea level. In fact, it was as good as he

(11:09):
would ever be outside of nineteen ninety three. The Yankees
didn't protect him in the expansion Draft. The Rockies picked
him up and propped up by Mile High Stadium. He
hit three zero five with twenty five home runs in
a league leading forty five doubles. That proved to be
a one off, even for the altitude in Denver, and
he resumed drifting from team to team. Me I was

(11:32):
much relieved that the Yankees had replaced him with Wade Boggs.
Even in aging Bogs Boggs was an underrated fielder, and
without Fenway Park, he wasn't the three forty hitter he
had been for the most part, but at three thirteen
with a three ninety six on base and a four
h seven slugging percentage over five seasons, he was plenty
good enough. A four hundred on base percentage will always play.

(11:54):
Midway through that period, Joe Torrey came in his manager,
and Tory supposedly wasn't a fan. Look if he thought
a thirty eight year old third baseman was past it.
He was entitled. He had been a past it third
baseman himself, although he conked out at thirty six. Still,
for that period, I felt pretty good. The Yankees had
a four hundred on base percentage third baseman for the

(12:17):
first time since the Great Depression, although technically we could
count the wartime third baseman Oscar Grimes, who did a
lot of getting on base in nineteen forty four and
forty five. But even better, Hayes was far away. He
was in Denver, in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. But once again
a dark and mocking god was listening. On August thirtieth,

(12:39):
nineteen ninety six, the Yankees delta player to be named
later the pitcher Chris corn, a former twenty first round
draft pick who barely reached double A in return for
one Charlie Hayes. I was depressed. I mean I was
depressed a lot anyway, but I was specifically depressed because
of that, And I shouldn't have been, because they intended

(13:00):
to use him in the best way that they could have.
As a right handed hitter and a good glove. Charlie
Hayes restricted merely to the role in which the Yankees
intended to use him at the end of the nineteen
ninety six season would have been remembered as a much
more productive player than his final stats show him to be.

(13:21):
I wasn't thinking that way, though. I was thinking that
they kept picking Brad. It doesn't matter if they don't
love me. It matters that they are hugging the source
of my misery to their bosom. Did you know baseball
teams had buzzoms. I guess they can. Championship teams often
have a hangover, in part because they load up on
veteran talent that sticks around, clogging up the roster the

(13:41):
next year. For the nineteen ninety seven Yankees, that group
included Cecil Fielder and Charlie Hayes. Fielder was just about
done and didn't really help as the DH, but he
didn't hurt either. In baseball, that's not actually a good thing. Hayes,
playing about two thirds of the time again, hit well
by his standards, which was to say, a low average
two fifty eight, three thirty two three ninety seven. That

(14:04):
three thirty two showed great patience for him by his standards,
but the glove work was starting to Erode at thirty two,
so he didn't contribute that much. Meanwhile, Boggs also almost
finished at thirty nine hit two ninety two, three seventy three,
three ninety seven, which was better than both those other guys.
That winter, the Yankees traded for Scott Procius. That worked

(14:26):
out in two of the next four years, although it
also fooled Brian Cashman into thinking he should trade Mike
Globell to the Marlins for spare parts. I think all
of this is my long winded way of saying that
all too often the Democratic Party reminds me of the
Yankees trading for Charlie Hayes in February nineteen ninety two.
We are alone. No one benevolent or kind is listening,

(14:49):
and to the extent that someone or something is listening,
its intentions are malevolent. We call him Brad, and nowadays
he's dating Jesse, the female Jesse. And this is where
we CA came in. So this is where we will
go out on the other side. A Tale of Dodgers
Third Baseman a short story about a wagon with sales
and yeah, a Mets player falling off a horse. And

(15:11):
after that bit of silliness, we have the tragedy of
one of the game's saddest alcoholics. That's it for me
for this reissue episode. You may hear from me again
to patch over breaks and to say so long farewell.
El readers ain't at the end of the episode, so
fire up the time machine, sit back, and enjoy the
ride as we go back, back, back back, and we

(15:31):
won't be caught at the wall. There are a lot
of jokes about horses in this episode, except for in
the second segment, which is a very serious discussion of

(15:52):
an unseerious guy named Bugs. Wait, actually there's a brief
mention of horses in there too. Uggs was good to
the horses. In fact, horses were the only people he
was ever very good to it all, including himself. First, though,
I want to talk about something a lot more frivolous,
Dodgers' third Baseman, which, to be honest, is also about horses.

(16:17):
You can divide the history of the Dodgers into BRC
and ARC before Ronsey and after Ronse, a period which
includes Ronse himself, although it doesn't sound like it before
say became a regular in nineteen seventy three, a role
which he held through nineteen eighty two, the Dodgers had

(16:38):
no franchise, third basement, and barely anyone who was notably
good for more than a year or so at a time,
and even given those qualifications, they were usually only good
in one way or the other, with the glove or
with the bat, never both at the same time. Since
they brought his power, patience, and glove to Los Angeles,

(17:01):
all wrapped up in a low slung frame that earned
him the nickname the Penguin. There have been several excellent
Dodgers at the hot corner, primarily Adrian Beltrey and the
incumbent Justin Turner, but you could also throw in the
odds short timer like Juanyuribe or Casey Blake, who each
had a couple of good seasons. There have been a
few others before, say, though in those long decades in

(17:26):
Brooklyn and even after, there were so many desperation ploys
like Ali O'Mara, who hit two thirteen with a two
forty two on base and a two forty two slugging
playing every day in nineteen eighteen, or Milt Stock to
forty two batting average to seventy seven on base, two

(17:47):
ninety two slugging every day again in nineteen twenty four,
but it was hard to hit quite that badly. They
did have a few decent players for short periods of
time in the fifties and sixties. Billy Cox had a
tremendous defensive reputation. It doesn't wholly show up in the stats,
but we have to believe what people were saying. He

(18:09):
mostly didn't hit, though. And then there was Jim Gilliam
Junior Gilliam, who played every day, but he was a
ben Zobrist. He didn't appear at any position on the regular,
although there were several years from nineteen fifty eight through
nineteen sixty six where he got the majority of Dodger
reps at third base, and he was very good at it.

(18:31):
But he was a leadoff type, kind of a league
average hitter with speed and some walks, and I think
that was the reason that the Dodgers so often looked
for an alternative to him as regular, even if they
did end up defaulting back to him the majority of
the time. Imagine, though, if you were looking at Dodgers'
third baseman and your knowledge only extended into nineteen forty four,

(18:56):
well before the advent of Jim Gilliam, then it would
look even worse. You have basically three choices, none of
them exactly Mike Schmidt. You had Cookie Lava Jetto, who
we've discussed before, who at that moment was in the
Navy working as a flyer. You had Jersey Joe Strip
who hit two ninety five as a Dodger, but it

(19:16):
was at a time when a lot of people hit
two ninety five, and he didn't walk or hit for power,
and he got hurt a lot. So the total package,
one hundred games a year of empty singles wasn't that great.
Imagine Bill Miller. But take away thirty walks a year
and you'll have the picture. Once you get past them.
You'd have to pick dead ball era transient Red Smith,

(19:37):
who actually played his best baseball for the Braves after
the Dodgers traded him to Boston in a kind of
a snit because he didn't get along with his manager
Uncle Robbie. In nineteen forty four, it was kind of
the nadir of all this. Due to the wartime manpower shortage,
the Dodgers had no regular third baseman. The bulk of

(19:58):
the playing time went to Frenchy Bordagghery, a fourth outfielder type,
who even then was best known for being more of
a goofball than a ballplayer. It says something about some
of the guys I've mentioned prior to him that he
doesn't rank among the worst that the Dodgers have ever
had there. Well, given that lineage, it's no wonder Wilber

(20:19):
Shram thought that the Dodgers couldn't do any worse at
third if they gave up on people and tried a horse.
Not that horses aren't people in their way, Shram. Doctor
Shram actually was more of an academic than a sportswriter
or even a writer of fiction. He was a co
founder of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, but he's best remembered

(20:41):
today for pioneering that seemingly a morphous field of study communications.
He was, however, an accomplished writer of short stories. His
nineteen forty two tail Wind Wagon Smith won the O.
Henry Award, and in nineteen sixty one was animated by Disney.
You can check it out. They animated it on the cheap,

(21:02):
but it still has some charm. Tram story My Kingdom
for Jones first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in
nineteen forty four. And it's been reprinted in baseball anthologies
ever since. Do they still do baseball anthologies? I wish
they did that in the days of Tinker Evers and Chants.
The story weirdly anticipates what would happen just a few

(21:25):
years later when the Dodgers brought Jackie Robinson to the majors.
Baseball Men argue about who else they'll be forced to
play if they let one of them in, and opposing
teams hold meetings to decide if they'll even take the
field if the Dodgers insist on using their new player,

(21:45):
the Horse. The sports writers name the horse Jones because
they can't just put a horse in the box score,
and they have to put him in the box score
because the horse is really good. Here's how described what
happened after the future Jones just wandered onto the field

(22:05):
one day during spring training. Someone tried to chase it
off by hitting a baseball toward it. The horse calmly
opened its mouth and caught the ball. Nothing could be neater.
While they were still marveling over that, the horse galloped
thirty yards and took a ball almost out of the
hands of an outfielder who was poised for the catch.
They said, Willie Keeler couldn't have done it better. So

(22:28):
they spent an hour hitting fungo flies, or as some
wit called them, horse flies to the horse short ones,
long ones, high ones, grass cutters, line drives. It made
no difference. The animal covered Dixie like the dew. They
tried the horse at second in short but he was
a little slow on the pivot when compared with men

(22:49):
like Napoleon laju Away. Then they tried him at third base,
and knew that was right the inevitable place. He was
a great wall of china. He was a flash of
brown lightning. In fact, he covered half the shortstops territory
and two thirds of left field, and even came behind
the plate to help the catcher with foul tips. The

(23:10):
catcher got pretty sore about it. The superbas, they hadn't
begun calling them the Dodgers yet, were just starting batting practice.
Nap Rucker was tossing them in with that beautiful smooth
motion of his, and the horse was at bat. He
met the first ball on the nose and smashed it
into left field. He laid down a bunt that waddled

(23:30):
like a turtle along the baseline, he sizzled a liner
over second like a clothes line. I don't think this
story was meant to anticipate Jackie Robinson, or the influx
of players from all corners of the globe from which
we've all benefited, or the idea of women playing with
men in the Big League someday with Jones as a

(23:53):
metaphor for any or all of them. I think it's
just a goof on how bad Dodgers' third baseman had
had traditionally been for most of fifty years. And yet,
and yet, as funny as the story is, as unrealistic
in its subject matter, I can't help but think of
one thing. Where is Jones today? Is it possible? Could

(24:18):
it be? Did did Jennie Espades break his ankle falling
off of Dodger's third baseman? Jones me, I believe it,
but I wouldn't blame you if you were to say nay.
I'm Steven Goldman and this is the infinite inning. Well,

(25:15):
hello there, and welcome back to the show, number one
oh six in an ongoing series. Why is it that
families only get back together at weddings and funerals? We
really should get together in between, but somehow we never do.
Do you know how many earnest pledges of that sort
I've made in my life? How many I've actually kept

(25:36):
in how many I regret not keeping? If I'm going
to be honest with you. They answer to both questions
is zero. That's not right. I do regret not keeping
some of them. It's too easy to get swept away
in the day to day of life and focus only
on the opportunity costs that are attendant on making special
going out of your way plans to see someone. But

(25:58):
here is an iron clad rule of life. A formerly dear,
dear friend said this to me before he got confused
himself over what should be the primary focus of his attention,
the life he was living now or the next life,
And he opted for the next life, which meant disassociating
from the people he knew now while he was alive.

(26:21):
He's still alive, but he's busy earning his place in
heaven by alienating everyone he used to know. So be it.
I do not debate these things. I merely watch. You know.
What he said was and this is so simple as
to seem elementary. But it's true that people make time
for what they care about. Every time someone we love

(26:45):
or like deep prioritizes us, we like to make excuses
for them because they really did have to pick up
their dry cleaning right now today rather than spend time
with us. But I tell you, I testify, based on
my own life experience and common sense, that if you

(27:05):
make too many of those kinds of excuses for another person,
a supposed friend, a supposed loved one, you are doing
yourself a disservice. You are a sucker. Put your money
where your mouth is, put your time where your mouth is,
and joyfully step up to the plate when it comes

(27:26):
to those you care about. Deed speak ever so much
louder than words, and at a far greater volume than
dry cleaning. And besides, you may regret someday the choices
you make now, because those loved ones they won't always
be here. And that brought to mind a poem. Yeah,
I know, I'm sorry for quoting poems. I mean, who

(27:47):
quotes poems anymore? But it's a baseball poem, and not
one of those cheesy sentimentality for sentimentality sake poems that
just list out how you used to love to watch
Derek Jeter Frolic in the Pastures, Raphael Belliard on the
Green Sward, and Nick Markakis and the hits He'd bake
us No. This was written by Rolf Humphries, a twentieth

(28:11):
century American poet who, at one time, back when poets
could have some celebrity, was very well known and won
some big awards. It's called Polo Grounds, and it does
have a list of players in it, but the names
are not called out just to invoke their memory, for
the warm feeling that it might give you to hear
those names, or it would have given someone in the

(28:32):
mid twentieth century to hear those names, but for the
very fact of their ancientness. Because there is a broader,
more universal, more urgent point to be made here. This
is how it wraps up. Time is of the essence.
Remember Terry, Remember Stonewall, Jackson, Lindstrom, Frish when they were good,

(28:52):
Remember Long George Kelly, Remember John McRath and Benny Coff,
Remember Bridwell ten merkle Young's Chief Myers, Big Jeff Testrow, Jufflin,
Phil Remember Matthewson and Ames and Domlin, buck Ewing, Russie
Smiling Mickey Welch. Remember a left handed catcher named Jack Humphries,

(29:14):
who sometimes played the outfield in eighty three. Time is
of the essence. The shadow moves from the plate to
the box, from the box to second base, from second
to the outfield to the bleachers. Time is of the essence.
The crowd and players are the same age always, but

(29:36):
the man in the crowd is older every season. Come on,
play ball. I don't think I have to explain to
you the overarching point that Humphreys was making there, but
I think he's not only doing that, but also advocating
on behalf of Marlin's fans, if there are still any
or Brewers fans or Cleveland fans. The rest win for

(29:59):
the night comes when no man can win, or at
least he won't be around to watch it. And that's
true of you and me and Derek Jeter. Two. Not
that this is a heavy episode. I just have some
heavy thoughts early on. We are going to have some
strange shifts of tone because Jesse and I actually did
a whole lot of laughing. We were quite giddy over

(30:20):
the then fairly recent news that Jenisespidez had broken his
ankle and a fall or stumble on his ranch. The
Mets were very insistent that he stepped in a hole.
That sounds like something that Woody from Toy Story would
say when you pull his string. I stepped in a
gopher hole. We also reminisce about our own baseball injuries,

(30:42):
appreciate Texas Rangers stars past and present, and get into
a debate about old stats like wins and RBIs. I
almost said that as one word old stats, which seems appropriate.
Jesse feels they still have some inherent value as illustrations
of what happens in a game. Or maybe it's not inherent,
maybe it's just latent. Before I move on to the

(31:05):
next thing, I want to make one correction of something
I said during that conversation about Cespades. I recalled rather
spontaneously that Ronald Reagan had fallen off a horse on
his ranch during his presidency. But that was inaccurate. I mean,
the memory of it. The fact that he suffered a
severe head injury while falling off a horse was correct.

(31:28):
It was the time frame that I got wrong. It
happened about six months after he left the White House.
We were safely in the hands of George HW. Bush.
One other note before we proceed believe it or not,
I cut some stuff for time this week. The podcast
is always long, and you wouldn't think there was any

(31:49):
subject too digressive for me to eliminate it, but I do.
Sometimes We hadn't talked for a while, as I said, Well,
we more than remedied that. In fact, we talked for
so long that I removed two dialogues of oh twenty
minutes total. They weren't bad or anything, they just didn't
exactly fit. And you'll hear me mention one of them

(32:12):
during the interview because I wanted to alert you to
what seems like an abrupt change of subject. There just
wasn't a good way for me to move the transition.
The other I just kind of let sail by it's
towards the end. In both cases, it is my intention
to shortly make those excerpts available on the Patreon page

(32:32):
so that subscribers might enjoy hearing some bonus nattering. I
just mentioned abrupt shift of tone. Well, I have one
more story before I rolled Jesse in here. It is
a serious story, a variation on a theme that I've
been dwelling on of late, which is that I think
we make a category error when we take our actions, policies,

(32:52):
theories of government, even relationships, and assign them labels like
liberal and conservative. This is a big story, trusts me.
I think the real labels should be humanist and anti humanists.
I hope to develop that theme in writing elsewhere this week.
For now, here's a story that asks, I hope a
difficult question, which is where des our responsibility to a

(33:17):
self destructive person? And in the Book of Genesis, Cain asks, sarcastically,
am I my brother's keeper? I think we are, or
should be, at least up to a point. You've often
heard of players who had an off field problem, say
an addiction to drugs or alcohol, that sometimes became an

(33:37):
on field problem and affected their ability to play. With
pitcher Arthur Bugs Raymond, there was no sometimes, it was always.
He frequently couldn't get through a nine inning game without
wandering out of the ballpark in search of a drink.
That his nickname was Bugs short for bug House, a

(33:59):
one word paraphrase for this dude should be in an
asylum for the insane. Shows that people grasp the effects
without quite having a handle on the cause. In nineteen
oh eight, Raymond had gone fifteen and twenty five for
the last place Saint Louis Cardinals. The twenty five losses
led the National League. New York Giants manager John McGraw

(34:22):
traded a very good player, the ben Zoebis, to invoke
this model against style catcher Roger Bresnahan to get him.
Despite all those losses, Raymond cra had been a respectable
two point zero three, tenth best in the league, and
he also had a strong strikeout rate. The theory was,
give that guy a little offensive and defensive support, and

(34:44):
McGraw probably reasoned, I can make an a sat of him.
As for the whole bugs thing, well, McGraw figured he
could work with that. He always assumed he could work
with that. The great journalist Heywood Bruin wrote that McGraw
could take unformed kids, and this is a quote, make
them walk and talk and chatter and play baseball with

(35:05):
the look of eagles. That was true, although, as we
shall see, within limits. McGraw acquired Raymond despite, as Grantlin
Rice later wrote, his being about as easy to handle
as the Balkans see. The question was and is, when
you feel like you can take on a Bugs Raymond
and remold him, what are you prepared to do to

(35:28):
get that result? What is the price to you and
to him? Are you going to do more than be
a hard ass about things? Even in nineteen oh nine,
there were people who understood that tough love alone wouldn't
do it, That you needed to have the love, not
just the tough. The stories of Raymond's attempts to get

(35:48):
around mcraw and consume alcohol have long been told as
humorous stories, but they're sad and pathetic. A desperate drunk
trading signed Baseball's for Who's mid game after McGraw had
cut off his supply of money by sending it to
his wife. Of the player cadging packs of cigarettes from

(36:09):
teammates so he could resell them and use the money
to buy liquor. The players had to learn to open
the packs and remove a few cigarettes before handing them
over to eliminate their resale value. Of his being sent
down to the bullpen to warm up, and instead leaving
the park and heading for the nearest bar, he would
write out fake passes for the bartenders and exchange them

(36:31):
for drinks. When he didn't have money, he would lurk
around the dining room at the team hotel on road trips,
wait until his teammates left a tip on the table,
then steal it and respend it on. Well, you know,
there are so many stories about Raymond doing this sort
of thing, even though it was a very long time ago.

(36:54):
He generated so much newspaper copy, all of it openly riddick,
fueling his penchant for the bottle, that I had to
stop researching this story or I'd still be going. There's
a book length essay on the Fellow. I don't know
if anyone would want to wade through it because it's sad.

(37:15):
But it's not all sad. Here's the one fun part.
It's the part about horses. He not only bought booze,
he bought vegetables and used them to lure horses. I
know that sounds dire, but no harm befell the horses,
though their owners were often rather pissed off because they'd
go looking for Tony or Scout or Black Beauty and

(37:38):
find them, and often the buggies. They were attached to
blocks away from where they'd left them, in a sort
of parade, behind this pied piper who was feeding them
leaves of cabbage, beckoning them onward by dangling additional leaves.
People would call the police and they their horses had
been stolen, and the police would sigh and say, no, no,

(38:03):
they haven't been, They've just have you heard of bugs, Raymond,
that bug bugs is in town? Or the conga line
of horses and carriages caused a traffic jam. They had
those even before cars, and it must have been a
huge pain to untangle the lot and return them all
to their proper owners. But the horses were happy. As

(38:26):
a teammate of Raymonds later observed, it made the horses
feel very kindly towards bugs. At least someone did. And
on that foreboding at quine, note, I think this is
an appropriate place to take a break, because the tail
turns darker from now on, and so favor for a moment,

(38:47):
if you would, Those happy horses munching on vegetables that
they would not have otherwise received from a man who
was at his best and equally success full free spirit
both on and off the picture's mount Back to bugs, Raymond,

(39:26):
here's an example of what I mean about applying no
love but only the tough. McGrath resorted to one of
his usual tactics with Raymond. He assigned him a minder,
a sort of bodyguard whose job it was to protect
him from himself, to go wherever he went and say
uh uh uh whenever he tried to have a drink.

(39:48):
Raymond was seemingly okay with this for a while, and
he and the minder, who was a retired detective whose
name was Fuller, got along. He's a nice fella, Raymond
told McGraw, he needs the work. At some point, though,
and this is pure speculation on my part because the
reasons for their falling out have been lost to history.

(40:11):
Raymond insisted on having a drink. At least I think
that's what happened. Then Fuller punched him in the eye,
which will dissuade you from having a drink. It may
cause you to resort to stronger stuff. So Raymond goes
crying back to McGraw, pointing to his black eye and
saying Fuller did it. Fuller meanwhile quitting a huff, and

(40:31):
McGraw responded by punching Raymond in the other eye, so
he had a matching pair. It wasn't the only time
that Raymond and McGrath came to blows over drinking. Raymond
was born in Chicago in eighteen eighty two, and I
wish I knew more about what his life was like

(40:51):
before he starts showing up in the baseball records in
nineteen ought for when he took his first drink, when
he took his second, for that matter, when he became hooked.
I don't know those things. He was that person upon
reaching the major leagues, first with the Tigers and then

(41:12):
more explicitly, more obviously with the Cardinals. In nineteen oh seven,
he threw a good fastball and a curve, but his
outpitch was his spitball. In nineteen oh nine, his first
season with the New York Giants, he kept it together
well enough to go eighteen and twelve with a two
point four to seven era, which sounds really good to us,

(41:34):
but it was the dead ball era, and at the
time it was just okay. Although if you look at
the game by game record, there are some tremendous performances
buried in there, like a twelve innings shutout twelve innings.
I know that was more common then, but it's still impressive.
Of the Braves on May sixth. As we'll see in
a moment, it's hard to square many of the reported

(41:56):
details of Raymond's career with the Objective Record. For example,
even during that one good season with the Giants, Raymond
struggled to control his addiction. In July of that year,
McGrath said, great pitcher, but you know a man can't
pour thirty five drinks of beer a day and stay
long in baseball. I've pleaded with him to cut it

(42:17):
out and get down to work, but he won't behave.
According to McGraw's best biographer, Charles Alexander, after Raymond went
on a binge in August, his manager, that is, McGraw,
intentionally left him in a game to take a ten
run pounding in front of the home fans, then suspended

(42:38):
him for the rest of the season. That did not happen.
Raymond did take an eleven run complete game pounding from
the Pirates that month, but he went right on pitching
after that. If he was suspended, it was in mid September,
when the Giant schedule still had three weeks to go.
He just disappears from the box scores at that point.
By the next year, nineteen ten, Raymond's addiction had gotten

(43:02):
so bad that, with suspensions and excursions out of the
ballpark to look for a bottle. He only got into
nineteen games and went four and eleven with a well
below average three point eight to one er. His mind
wasn't exactly on the game. On June seventeenth, it was
reported he had spent the day refereeing boxing matches. That

(43:23):
report mentions, by the way, that Raymond was one of
the few folks in the civilized world who has the
constant attention of a chaperone. It wasn't working on the
seventeenth itself. A twenty one year old named Louis Druck,
who was a fantastic one year wonder for the Giants,
and this was that one year started against the Pirates
and held a three to two lead into the ninth.

(43:45):
When Druck allowed the first two hitters of the ninth
to reach on a single and a walk, McGraw brought
in Raymond to close it out. Raymond had, and I
feel a little guilty about saying it, quite this way,
kind of a Trevor Rosenthal twenty nineteen appearance. He threw
his first pitch over the catcher's head to move the
runners up, and then he hit the man at the

(44:06):
plate to load the bases for Hans Wagner. Now he
got Wagner to hit a week comebacker to the mound,
and that was an accomplishment in itself. However, it still
didn't work out because Raymond made a throw to first
base that and I quote one of the game stories,
hal Chase himself couldn't have touched. Well, hal Chase might

(44:28):
not have deigned to touch it if he had bet
a few dollars on the game, but I suppose they
didn't know that as of nineteen oh nine, So that's
a story for another time. Raymond went on to allow
two more hits, hit another batter, and by the time
the frame was over, instead of the Giants being up,
they were actually losing six'. Three upon investigation by, McGrath

(44:50):
it turned out That raymond had never warmed up to
enter the. Game you couldn't see the bullpen from the
dugout at that time in The polo g so he
had slipped, out crossed the street from The Polo grounds
to a, tavern created the warm up ball for a,
drink and then returned in time to take the mound. Cold,

(45:12):
well he was warm, INSIDE i, suppose but his arm
was cold that. Time mcross suspended him for about three,
weeks then thought it, over brought him, back didn't get
results that were any, better and suspended him. Again this
was after the fight with The Black eye THAT i
mentioned that was On july twenty. First raymond didn't pitch

(45:33):
after Mid, july at least not in the. Majors he
pitched for semi pro. Teams about nine days after the
McRath punch, out he took the mound for a New
jersey team called The Female, stars an all girls team
that wasn't above putting in the odd, FELLOW i, guess
even Though raymond was kind of thumbing his nose at
The giant's authority by going off and pitching an unauthorized

(45:57):
contest when he was supposed to be home drying. Out
McGraw And giants', ownership which were kind of one and
the same but. Not holly McGraw was a minority owner
hadn't given up on, him and that, offseason the one
between nineteen ten and nineteen, eleven The giant sent him
to a clinic to dry. Out that was both out

(46:18):
of self interest and it was the right thing to.
Do pay attention to this quote from The New York
telegram because there's a bifurcation in attitudes About raymond observed,
here and one that still sometimes pertains to addicts that
we have to talk about. More this was written By JOHN.
B foster almost exactly one hundred and eight years ago this.

(46:40):
Week at least The New York National League Baseball, club
through its owner and, manager can take credit for trying
to make a man out Of Arthur. Raymond there has
been a great deal of sympathy For raymond and some
channels of, baseball and little in. Others his ability is,
unquestioned and had he taken strict care of, himself he
would have been one of the best pictures in the

(47:03):
history of the major. Leagues it was the desire Of
giants' Owner JOHN. T brush That raymond be sent To,
Dwight illinois in the winter of nineteen ten to see
if it were not possible to cure him of what
is considered to be a disease as well as a. Misfortune,
see they knew even in nineteen, eleven at least some

(47:26):
people knew That raymond was not just weak or self
indulgent or lacked, character but that he had an. Illness and,
LOOK i understand that the relationship between addicts and those
who are forced to be their caretakers or feel an
obligation to be is extremely, difficult extremely, painful with many

(47:50):
false dawns and painful retreats from what seems like an
exit from the. Addiction and SOMETIMES i understand as well
that you have to detach a little or a lot
to avoid being dragged down into the hole in which
the addict. DWELLS i am not judging those who have
been forced to do, so not Even john. McCraw what

(48:13):
is fair to, JUDGE i, think is when we act
not out of self, preservation but out of judgment or.
Condemnation that's what that article from The telegram was. Doing
it was kind of having it both, ways making reference
to alcoholism as a, disease but also talking about the
giants trying to make a man out Of, raymond the implication,

(48:38):
being of course that he, wasn't and the note that
in some channels of baseball he had received sympathy but
not in. Others here's how that played out For Arthur,
raymond how he affected others and others affected. Him his
cure at The Kieley institute did not. Take he was
thrown out before he could complete the. Program mcgras said

(48:59):
that punted him for having scared his, roommate who mcgrad
described as an old businessman quote almost to death by
some rough. Horseplay there are those horses. Again raymond had
also gained something like forty pounds while taking the. Cure
The Kihle institute is no longer, around but it lasted

(49:20):
about ninety, years and its founder's slogan was drunkenness is a,
disease AND i can cure it on a scientific. Basis
the various chemicals that Doctor keeley injected his patients with
to cure them sound like pure quackery and bunk them
on a humane, basis, though his decision to treat patients

(49:43):
as sick people in comfortable, surroundings rolling campuses and nice
houses and such was a big step forward from strait
jackets and rubber. Rooms raymond used the extra time to
start a wrestling act while The giants brought him back
in the spring of nineteen, eleven, anyway and reports had

(50:03):
him on the straight and narrow at least for a.
While in, fact a headline in The New York Times
Herald tribune at that moment Said raymond Cured big, letters
but that was too, hopeful and we know there's no,
cure just. Remission he had actually fallen off the water
wagon pretty much right away in spring. Training, McGrath, though kept,

(50:25):
trying kept giving him more. Rope it wasn't out of
the goodness of his. Heart he thought the guy was
a great pitcher with flawless. Mechanics he remembered years after
his catcher at the, Time Chief, meyer saying That fellow
can do more tricks with a baseball than any man
in the, world and McGrath thought that was about. Right

(50:45):
but In, June raymond gave up eighteen runs in eighteen
innings and was once again frequently. Drunk his final game
of the, season which was also his final major league game,
ever Was june, sixteenth when he came in in really
leaf of drug again who in the bottom of the
first had walked the bases loaded Against Resnihan's cardinals and

(51:07):
was hooked without recording so much as an. Out raymond
gave up eight runs and six, innings having walked six batters.
Himself his career rate was three per. Nine he also
hit two McGrath fined him two hundred dollars for breaking
training rules and not being in condition to pitch. Effectively
that's how it was, reported and suspended. Him that was the. End,

(51:29):
ACTUALLY i don't know if that was exactly the. END i,
MEAN i do know that that was the last, game
but the version That i've just told you seems to
match the facts most. Closely raymond saber biography says the
final straw came in a game against The. Pirates bugs
was sent to the bullpen to warm up in the
fifth inning when mcraw needed. Him two innings, later he had,

(51:50):
disappeared turning up at a local. Saloon But raymond was
still pitching for The giants after their previous series against
The pirates and was gone at the time of their.
Next Noel heinz book on The, giants which is pretty,
good seems to conflate a few Different raymond games and
says the nineteen eleven breaking point came when the pitcher
staggered in from the bullpen in relief Of Rube marquard

(52:13):
at home Against. Pittsburgh hine seems to have picked up
that story From Frank graham's earlier histories of McGraw and The,
giants which cite McGraw as the source of that, story
but that and maybe it was McGraw who did, this
mixes up the nineteen ten game in relief Of druck
with the events of nineteen, Eleven so it didn't, happen

(52:34):
not under those. Circumstances it's described very specifically as a
game at home Against pittsburgh with Markquard well that just never.
Happened in the glory of their, times Former giants Outfielder
Fred snowgrass remembered McGraw tried bringing his wife and children
along with the, team both at home and on the,
road so they could be with them all the. Time

(52:56):
it worked pretty well for a, while but then that
flew all to. Pieces Two bugs and McGrath finally had
it out one night on the, train And bugs was
told that the next time he didn't show up would
mean the end of his. Career the next, day we
were playing In Saint. Louis we were supposed to be
at the park at, noon and by two O'clock bugs
still hadn't shown. Up finally we Saw bugs in civilian

(53:19):
clothes walking across the field toward the. Clubhouse McGraw met
him at the. Door, bugs he, said you're through in.
Baseball here's your. Uniform you got to keep your uniform
back then you had paid for. It see Mister, foster
and he'll give you a ticket back To New. York
you're through with The. Giants when we finally got back

(53:40):
To New york, ourselves hanging in the window of the
nearest saloon to The polo grounds Was Bugs raymond's uniform
with a sign on it that Said Bugs raymond tending
bar here twenty twenty, Five Steve here saying That Mickey
mouse is pointing to break time one more before the
end of the, episode so hang with me and will

(54:00):
conclude on the other. Side his last game was In Saint.
Louis the only difference between the record And nodgrass's memory
is That raymond actually pitched one of those games In Saint.
Louis so maybe he showed up on time for the

(54:21):
first game and then was late for one of the subsequent,
two but that was in fact the. End raymond left
the team and joined a semi pro club In, Winstead.
Connecticut he next pitched On june twenty, Fourth Bugs raymond
routed In. Winstead Bugs, raymond a suspended pitcher of The
New York. Giants essay To twirl For winstead Against torrington

(54:45):
this afternoon in the second game of the, series but
on account of his, pranks he was taken out of
the contest at the end of the seventh inning after
having allowed seven hits and made two. Errors torrington won
six to four before the largest crow of the. Season
raymond arrived last, night and after amusing a street crowd

(55:06):
for several, hours during which he was threatened with, arrest
he kept a majority of the guests at a local
hotel awake all, night bugs refused an invitation to drive
the village water, wagon and was finally put to bed by,
friends being awakened a couple of hours before the contest was.
Called raymond's performance here today will be his last. One,

(55:30):
well it was going to be his last one, regardless
because The giants notified The National, commission The triumvirate that
preceded the creation of The commissioner, system That raymond was
making those. Appearances The commission banned him and said that
any teams or players who participated in exhibitions against teams
on Which raymond was playing would also be subject to.

(55:53):
Sanction so much for semi pro. Pitching raymond instead started
the nineteen twelve season pitching in an ups start circuit
The United States, league but he performed poorly and before
he could get straightened. Out if he was going to
get straightened, out the league. Collapse at that, point he
sent a wire to McGraw asking to be taken. Back

(56:14):
McGraw sent back a very short, REPLY i have enough.
Troubles raymond did manage to get reinstated by The National,
commission and it seems as if he just assumed at
that point that The giants would take him back as.
Well he told reporters that he was on his way
to joining the. Team that was the first McGrath had

(56:36):
heard of. It, well he, said he can report whenever
he gets, ready BUT i have no use for. Him
and they asked, McGraw the reporters if that meant that
he would not be Pitching, raymond and McGrath, said this
is a sort of strange trumpetan. Reply it seems that.

(56:56):
Way so no return to The, giants no other team
and the majors would touch. Him raymond's wife dumped, him
his two children died of the. Flu, sadly he resorted
to pitching On chicago. Sandlots it's impossible to know just what,
Happened but during one of those, games just watching, it not,
playing he got into a, fight apparently over. Nothing someone

(57:19):
threw a piece of broken pottery at. Him it was
a sandlot. Game anything could have been lying, around and
he picked it up and threw it at someone, else
and that someone else responded by stomping his head. In
he was knocked down and repeatedly kicked in the skull
it was. Fractured he somehow staggered back to his, flophouse

(57:43):
crawled into, bed and died. Alone his body wasn't found
for a, while, or as it was initially, reported he
suffered a heart attack brought on by excessive, heat or
he died of general excessive. Drinking all of those endings
were reported On september, seventh nineteen, twelve after he was.
Found all of them have the same root cause and

(58:07):
the same solitary, ending rotting alone and being found by a.
Housekeeper it's the first one that's the. Truth though a week,
later a coroner's inquest determined That raymond's death was due
to internal hemorrhages and injuries to his brain due to external.
VIOLENCE a twenty six year old, Male Frederick sigrans was

(58:28):
arrested and supposedly confessed to doing the. Deed he said
he had Known raymond for fifteen years and had no
idea that he had been. Hurt the only line that
comes down to us from the moment When john McGrath
found out That raymond had died was his saying that
man took seven years off my. Life he took more

(58:51):
years off his own, life of, course but who knows
if McGraw reflected on that or. Not in her, memoir McGraw's,
Widow blanche recalled well That john had a habit of adopting,
dog sometimes too many at one, time including a long
succession Of boston bull, terriers all Named, truxton after mcraw's
hometown In New. York blanch remembered That truxton number seven

(59:16):
had discipline, problems getting out and barking loudly at all.
Hours don't lose your, Temper blanche McGraw would, say remember
he's only a. Dog when she would get angry, anyway
he would, say now you know WHAT i went through
with poor, Bugs, Raymond poor. Bugs that's as close as
McGraw came to expressing sympathy For raymond and it was

(59:39):
really for the. Dog and that is the conclusion of
the book Of Bugs, raymond except perhaps for periodic reopenings
by sportswriters who had column inches to. Fill in the
ensuing couple of, decades Grantled rice went back to him several. Times,
actually you figure there wasn't much else going, on And

(01:00:00):
raymond was always good for a laugh or a shake
of the. Head very rarely, though was. He in, fact
never THAT i have seen Was raymond exhumed with the
intention of learning anything from his, life or for saying
he had a responsibility to, himself and he failed that.
Responsibility but we had a responsibility to him, too and

(01:00:24):
we failed as. Well By tanto's, pinto we have come
to the end of Another if you've listened to enough
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(01:00:44):
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(01:01:04):
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(01:01:25):
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(01:01:45):
have been listening to throughout the episode was a co
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(01:02:07):
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