Greatest Drunk Baseball Players

[Bill Murphy]

1. Hack Wilson
2. Mickey Mantle [most worthless celebrity with the most apologists, but nevermind]
3. Grover Cleveland Alexander
4. Bob Welch

I'm sure there's 100's I'm leaving off. Both Babe n' Ty could've topped this list, had they choose.

Need a junkie list for Steve Howe, Dock Ellis [not really a junkie, but no-hitter on acid=let's see Tiger win Masters fryin'], Pedro Guerrero, Darrell Porter, etc... /forums/images/icons/smirk.gif /forums/images/icons/cool.gif

[HDPM]

Was Foxx a drunk?

But you are right, it is very hard to top Doc Ellis.

[andyfox]

Paul Waner claimed he hit better drunk because the ball looked big and fuzzy.

Jimmy Reese, who roomed with Babe Ruth, claimed Ruth would drink his scotch and sodas in one gulp, ice and all. /forums/images/icons/shocked.gif

Bill James lists "drinking men" in his decade summaries
as follows:

1980s: David Green, Rod Scurry
1970s: Bob Welch, Darrel Porter, Roger Moret
1960s: Sam McDowell, Pumpsie Green, Joe Pepitone
1950s: Ryne Duren, Don Newcombe, Ellis Kinder, Don Larsen
1940s: Sig Jackucki;Tex Shirley, Tom Seats, Kirby Higbe, Jim Tabor
1930s: Jimmie Foxx, Hack Wilson, Len Koenecke, Bob Newsome, Earl Whitehill, Paul Wanter, Van Lingle Mungo
1920s: Pete Alexander, Flint Rhem, Paul Waner, Phil Douglas
1910s: Slim Sallee, Pete Alexander, Josh Devore, Mike Donlin, Larry McLean, Ray Caldwell, Billy Southworth, Oscar Stanage, Stan Baumgartner
1900s: Howie Camnitz, Rube Waddell, Bugs Raymond, Slim Sallee, Wild Bill Donovan, Ed Reulbach

[Bill Murphy]

Guess he left Mantle off 'cause he figured it went w/o saying. And how could I have forgetten The Micksh buddies, Whitey Ford & Billy Martin[hic!]?

To his credit, I understand Whitey cleaned up once he got away from The Micksh. Same thing'll prolly happen w/Oasis drummer Alan White[note the name], who's Liam Gallagher's designated drinking buddy/chaperone. Talk about a thankless job!

[andyfox]

Hack Wilson was apparently an amiable drunk. Alexander was also an epileptic, so some of his behavior, usually attributed to drink, might have been caused by the disease, although there's no doubt he was a drinker.

Billy Martin was probably the ugliest drunk of the bunch. However, he took the fall for the famous Copa Cabana incident in the 1950s when a bunch of Yankees beat up some people. Casey Stengel himself was apparently there, drunk in his pajamas (!) and the real villian was ex-marine Hank Bauer who really did most of the beating.

A good book could be written with the title from your post.

[patrick dicaprio]

one story about waner: apparently once he was so drunk on the field, that when he rounded second he apparently ran into the bullpen down the third base line and sild into home plate.

On hack: his pitcher was being taken out of teh game and was pissed about it. so the pitcher threww the ball into rightfield. it hit the wall, hack woke up, grabbed the ball and rifled it into third base.

Pat

[Bill Murphy]

Amazing that nobody's ever made even a token run at it, that I can recall.

[andyfox]

Looked like Manny had a shot a few years backs, then he sorta slowed down the 2nd half of the season.

I think Gehrig had 100 RBIs on the road one year. Think about that.