We've never heard of a lot of players in the Baseball Encyclopedia....
Wait...
Different thought for a moment...
Once, a long time ago, there was a poll. This poll was about books.
It asked questions like which book has been the most influential in your life.
If you could memorize a book, which book would it be?
What character in any book has meant the most to you.
When the answers from the poll were revealed much later, it was found that most of the answers were Bible related. The Bible won the first two questions by a wide margin, and God was THE character for a book.
My answers were the Baseball Encyclopedia and Lou Gehrig.
I was the only one that had those answers.
Now, looking back on it, and in strictly a fantasy and amusing sense, those others were 'sheep'.
Ok, now back to ordinary players, let's talk about a couple. These stories would never happen with all the money thrown at players now. Or if players were versed in how to handle the press. as they are now.
Let's go back to a time where players were working another job during the off season or thought of baseball as a means to an end....and unfortunately, these players would have a mean ending.
Jake Powell was a baseball player in the late 30's and most of the '40's. Powell had another job as you will find out in a little bit.
And radio, especially baseball on radio was relatively new. Also remember that this was a time before integration and a time when black folks treated as non-equals.
Powell earned good money in the late 30's. Not because of his contract, but because he was a part of the World Champion Yankees. Back in the day, those World Series checks could double a players salary.
Before a game in 1938, Powell agreed to do a pre-game interview with Bob Elson, the White Sox announcer.
Elson asked, "What do you do in the off season to keep in shape?"
Powell answered, "I'm a policeman in Dayton, Ohio, and I keep in shape cracking niggers off the head with my nightstick."
Powell may have gotten horse laughs from teammates with this sort of joke. But, he forgot about the power of radio. Radio was THE communication device of the times. News of Powell's remarks spread like wildfire, especially through black communities. Outraged, they implored the Commisioner of baseball to ban Powell for life. Asking for so much gave the Commisioner a lot of leeway fror a compromise and Powell was given just a 10 day suspension.
Powell kicked around baseball, in and out through the 40's afterwards.
In 1948, he and his girlfriend were brought in for questioning over a bounced check at a hotel.
He asked the police if he could speak to his girlfriend alone. In the conversation with her, he admitted that he had written a bad check, apologized, and asked her to marry him.
She responded, "No", and started giving him the business for getting her involved in all the monkey business.
He gave her money for a cab and as she was pulling away, he yelled, "To Hell with it. I'm ending it all!"
He pulled out a gun, put it to his temple, and did indeed, end it all.
There was also the strange case of Johnny Broaca. A Yale graduate.
Broaca pitched for the Yankees in 1936, helping them to a World Series. He had life by the balls, or so it seemed.
He got a big World Series check and married his sweetheart. But, in July of 1937, with his wife eight months pregnant, Broaca went AWOL.
Nobody could find him.
It was rumored that his wife had slept with teammates.
He missed the rest of the season and was only seen again when his wife took him to court petitioning for divorce. She accused him of beating her, chasing her out of the house in his undies, and also threatening to slash her throat or shoot her before giving her another red cent.
She won the divorce and was awarded alimony from Broaca's future jobs.
The next year, late in the season, the Yanks asked Broaca if he was interested in pitching.
Broaca asked to be paid 'under the table' as medical expenses instead of salary so his ex-wife wouldn't see a cent.
The Yanks said no.
In 1940, He went to the Giants and may have been paid under the table. But, he never entered a game and was released and through with baseball.
He would spend the rest of his life doing manual labor to avoid paying his wife anything. The son which she bore, he would never know or want to know.
This yale graduate. This teammate of Ruth, Gehrig, and DiMaggio would live in small apartments and dig ditches with workers who knew enough not to mention his wife or baseball in front of him ever.