06-25-2015, 09:45 AM
(06-24-2015, 11:53 AM)Wyche Wrote: I wrote a letter to Bud Selig around 1995 about this very topic.....only the names have changed. One player that REALLY sticks out, and I used as a basis for my arguments, was Steve Howe. He was banned for life and reinstated over his cocaine abuse......he was suspended SEVEN times over the course of his career. Cocaine is illegal everywhere, gambling is not. Makes no sense in the grand scheme of things......yeah, I know...."integrity of the game" and shit. If they were so worried about the integrity of the game, then Roger Marris' and Hank Aaron's records would be reinstated......
Steve Howe? For some reason I thought the seven times and banned for life guy was Bob Welch. But you are correct. Welch was an alcoholic who went into treatment when playing and later wrote a book about it. The book was called 'Five o'clock Comes Early." In 1979 there were reports if him getting drunk in the clubhouse and blacking out in there. I thought he was suspended too but it looks like he just voluntarily went to tx. Thanks for helping me get the hx right - Howe suspended seven times and banned for life and then reinstated. Somehow Pete pissing away a bunch of his own money via a different addiction - the punishments just seem unbalanced.
JOHN ROBERTS: From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly so that you will come to know the value of justice... I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.