Quotes on baseball's boozers

[Dodgerfan1]

The game of baseball has had some legendary boozehounds. I found some great quotes from baseball people regarding drinking and those who drink.

Source: Baseball Babylon by Dan Gutman

"I was the biggest, most hopeless and most violent drunk in baseball." - Sam McDowell

"Either he was out very late or he was out very early." - Casey Stengel, commenting on legendary drunkard Don Larsen after he had wrecked his car at dawn during spring training in 1956.

"I'd give a hundred dollars for a cold beer." - Joe Dugan
"So would the Babe." - Waite Hoyt
(Exchange between Ruth's ex-teammates while acting as pallbearers during Babe Ruth's funeral.)

"You can't drink at the hotel bar, because that's where I drink." - Casey Stengel, to his players.

"To say that Horace (Stoneham) can drink is like saying that Frank Sinatra can sing." - Leo Durocher

"It's not so bad. It's a great place to meet women." - Bob Welch, about The Meadows, the Arizona clinic where he underwent alcohol rehabilitation, 1980.

"As long as I could pitch a little, no one cared that I was getting drunk." - Don Newcombe

"How dare you belittle my drinking!" - Pitcher Red Evans to Leo Durocher, after the manager suggested that Evans was drunk after drinking six beers, 1939.

"Pure elixir of malt and hops, beats all the drugs and all the drops." - 'Smiling' Mickey Welch's formula for his pitching success, 1890s.

"Drink beer, like a real man, not any more of that milk!" - Boston pitcher Roger Clemens, heckling recovering alcoholics Bob Welch and Dennis Eckersley, 1988.

"Whenever the ball looks like this - ooo - take a chance on the middle one." - Advice to Reds players in a Cincinnati newspaper, 1903.

[vptpt]

"Whenever the ball looks like this - ooo - take a chance on the middle one." - Advice to Reds players in a Cincinnati newspaper, 1903.

They were all good, but I think this one is my favorite. Thanks for posting the list, Dodgerfan.

[VIBaseball]

This list would not be complete without something from Ryne Duren, who -- to his enormous credit -- became a very well respected counselor after conquering his own problem.

This particular passage from the book Pen Men made an impression on me:

"When I was with the Yankees, Whitey and Mickey came to me and told me that I shouldn't drink. This was after a night in Washington when I'd been out with them. I had flipped out and done something really crazy, something that I couldn't remember. They came to me the next day very seriously and told me flat out how they felt."

There's a good bit more, including some exchanges with Casey.

[Dodgerfan1]

This list would not be complete without something from Ryne Duren, who -- to his enormous credit -- became a very well respected counselor after conquering his own problem.

This particular passage from the book Pen Men made an impression on me:

"When I was with the Yankees, Whitey and Mickey came to me and told me that I shouldn't drink. This was after a night in Washington when I'd been out with them. I had flipped out and done something really crazy, something that I couldn't remember. They came to me the next day very seriously and told me flat out how they felt."

There's a good bit more, including some exchanges with Casey.

If Whitey and Mickey were involved, I wouldn't be surprised if they just made up something that Duren 'did' while drunk. It sounds like a prank the two of them would play on a teammate!

[jackmcmanus21]

don't know any off of the top of my head....but there are some great quotes from the Phillies teams of the 90s with Kruk, Dykstra and Daulton

[cogswell]

I always liked...

"The kid doesn't chew tobacco, smoke, drink, curse or chase broads. I don't see how he can possibly make it." - Richie Ashburn

[NJMetfan4life]

When asked why he drinks so fast, Casey Stengal responded"I've drinken fast ever since the accident"

Casey, you were in an accident?!?!?

"Yha, somebody knocked over my beer"

[rkoch]

I think the one who spilled more than these other guys you mention ever drank was Paul Waner. How he could hit and he indeed said more than once that he saw 3 balls coming at him and always hit the one in the middle. Bill Conlin, late sports editor of the Sacramento Union and then the Sac Bee once told me that Waner actually had booze with him on the field. This was hard to believe. Bill said they clamped down on his booze in 1938 and when his BA dropped below .300 for the first time in years, the club said"what the hell" and let him revert. How he could hit for that average and with so many doubles and triples and drink a boatload of booze is to me one of baseballs many mysteries

[Captain Cold Nose]

Not a quote, but a story from Frank Graham's Baseball Wit and Wisdom. Johnny Mize was known to partake in his days as a player. One day after a workout the trainer decided to play a joke on Mize and when he was in the shower (or something like that) the trainer got the short Mize worked out in and soaked it in rubbing alcohol. When Mize was finished the trainer asked him if he had indulged a bit much the previous night. Mize responded by saying he had just taken it easy and had only a couple of beers. The trainer proceeded to take out Mize's workout shirt and light it, and the shirt very quickly caught fire. "That's alcohol you sweated out, John," Mize embarrassingly put the shirt out and begged the trainer to keep what happened between them.

[CandlestickBum]

Not a quote, but a story from Frank Graham's Baseball Wit and Wisdom.

Good story, thank you.