Worst clubhouse chemistry guys

[Victory Faust]

They were talking about Milton Bradley's troubles on the MLB Network today and it got me to thinking about some of the worst clubhouse chemistry guys in history.

Ty Cobb comes to mind. I don't know if anyone upset clubhouse chemistry as much as he did when he joined the Tigers in 1905. Things settled down after a few years, but during his first couple seasons the Tiger clubhouse was pretty tumultous.

Cleveland manager Ossie Vitt gets a vote. His players were so mad at him during the 1940 season, they were ready to stage a walkout, which earned them the nickname "Crybabies," and fans in opposing ballparks would tie baby bottles to strings and dangle them in front of the Indians' dugout.

Of course, Jackie Robinson's arrival in 1947 made for a pretty dramatic clubhouse upheaval, but I wouldn't put that on him. It was his teammates' prejudices that made for the problems, not anything Jackie did.

Barry Bonds, with his easy chair and sunny disposition, also breeded resentment from some teammates.

Any other nominations for Worst Clubhouse Chemistry Guy Ever?

[Los Bravos]

Carl Everett
Jeff Kent

It was such a perfect storm to have Bonds and Kent on the same team

[Bill Burgess]

Cobb's a good choice and an obvious one. Barry Bonds is also a good, obvious choice.

I'd add Rogers Hornsby as a manager. Way too blunt when diplomacy would have served his cause better, as in the case of Hack Wilson.

Joe McCarthy showed that diplomacy with Hack payed good dividends.

[Gee Walker]

Albert Belle was a gem, from his bat-throwing incident through his insistence on keeping the clubhouse temperature at 55°F, to his chasing down trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

[Captain Cold Nose]

Albert Belle was a gem, from his bat-throwing incident through his insistence on keeping the clubhouse temperature at 55°F, to his chasing down trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

If you're going to egg someone's house, you'd better be ready to get chased.

[Extra Innings]

I'm sure its not labeled as the worst, but Kenny Lofton's tenure in Atlanta wasn't exactly all sunshine in the clubhouse.

[swingman24]

If you're going to egg someone's house, you'd better be ready to get chased.

Exactly. The previous post is a bit misleading. Trick-or-treaters? Please. Those kids or teenagers, which would be more appropriate, had it coming.

If you egg my house; I'm coming for ya.

[dgarza]

If you're going to egg someone's house, you'd better be ready to get chased.

Especially on Halloween.

[Victory Faust]

If you're going to egg someone's house, you'd better be ready to get chased.

Heck, when we did stuff like that as kids, we were hoping we'd get chased! That was half the fun!

[banny]

I gotta believe Alex Johnson would make the list. Only guy I know that was suspended for "dogging it" on the field.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

I gotta believe Alex Johnson would make the list. Only guy I know that was suspended for "dogging it" on the field.

but did he almost get into a fistfight with his manager on national TV for dogging it?

[9RoyHobbsRF]

Aug 1, 1969 - Dick Williams pulls Carl Yastrzemski from the Boston lineup after one at bat and fines him $500 for "dogging it."

[9RoyHobbsRF]

AJ Pierzynski was called a cancer when he played for the Giants

[Captain Cold Nose]

Aug 1, 1969 - Dick Williams pulls Carl Yastrzemski from the Boston lineup after one at bat and fines him $500 for "dogging it."

That doesn't necessarily make him a bad clubhouse guy. Nor does it mean he really was "dogging it." When you don't get along with a manager (Williams is far from the most cuddly of people) they do this sort of thing.

There did seem to be a Yastrzemski faction and a Conigliaro faction at that point. But, again, that doesn't necessarily make either bad clubhouse guys. What about Bill Lee, who was openly subordinate to Don Zimmer about a decade later? Yaz never tried to pull the stuff the adored flake tried to pull.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

That doesn't necessarily make him a bad clubhouse guy. Nor does it mean he really was "dogging it." When you don't get along with a manager (Williams is far from the most cuddly of people) they do this sort of thing.

There did seem to be a Yastrzemski faction and a Conigliaro faction at that point. But, again, that doesn't necessarily make either bad clubhouse guys. What about Bill Lee, who was openly subordinate to Don Zimmer about a decade later? Yaz never tried to pull the stuff the adored flake tried to pull.

no excuse for not hustling, ever

and bad hustling to me is example #1 of bad attitude and therefore bad clubhouse presence


from a manager's standpoint, bad presence is criticizing your players in the press, etc

and the example was used to answer if johnson was the only player suspended for bad hustling

it was an example

[banny]

but did he almost get into a fistfight with his manager on national TV for dogging it?

Reggie would be right up there as well.

[64Cards]

I gotta believe Alex Johnson would make the list. Only guy I know that was suspended for "dogging it" on the field.

Curt Flood mentioned him in his bio from early 70's. Flood said that the 67 Cardinal team all got along great, everybody had fun, white, black, Latin, no cliques...except for Johnson, who was a jerk.

Whitey Herzog said that Jim Gentile, whom he played with in Baltimore, early 60's was another guy who was toxic.

Depending on the situation and whom he was dealing with, I'd add Leo Durocher to the list. After LA blew game 3 to SF in the 62 NL playoff to SF, Leo, who was the Dodgers 3B coach, immediately began backstabbing manager Walter Alston, implicating that if he had been managing the Dodgers the year end and 9th inning collapse wouldn't have happened.

Garry Templeton.

Dick Allen. From all indications he got along ok with his teammates, but consistently showed up late in the clubhouse and at times was suffering from brown bottle disease. If he was hurt he would exit early to go to the race track.