Paupers

[Brian McKenna]

we've had threads on millionaires but what about ballplayers who ended up poor - living on the streets or off of family or the state:

some:
ezra sutton
moe berg
jim thorpe
willie keeler
john kerins

[runningshoes]

Didn't Hack Wilson die in poverty?

[wamby]

I remember reading that Eric Show and JR Richard were homeless for a time.

I believe that Grover Cleveland Alexander died in extreme poverty.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

we've had threads on millionaires but what about ballplayers who ended up poor - living on the streets or off of family or the state:

some:
ezra sutton
moe berg
jim thorpe
willie keeler
john kerins

Wasn't Moe Berg the catcher who worked for the U.S. Government as a spy?

[csh19792001]

we've had threads on millionaires but what about ballplayers who ended up poor - living on the streets or off of family or the state:

some:
ezra sutton
moe berg
jim thorpe
willie keeler
john kerins

Nobody 19th century player was more beloved- nor probably lived harder and higher than Michael "King" Kelly. His revelry was legendary, he was called "The $15,000 Beauty", and he was sold by Spalding for an unheard of $10,000 after the owner had enough of Kelly's boisterous antics (National League owners had supposedly fixed the salary at $2,000).

In 1893-94 he had been working the stage, doing comedic bits for a small NY theather company. They were en route to do a show in Boston when Kelly fell ill. I've read that he was destitute at the time he contracted pnemonia, which seems incredible for someone who was baseball's affluent player- but his profligacy was eqully famous.

[csh19792001]

Wasn't Moe Berg the catcher who worked for the U.S. Government as a spy?

Yes. He might have been the most intelligent baseball player ever. I watched the hour long Sportscentury on him. Absoultely brillant man- fluent in seven languages, had degrees from Princeton and Columbia Law School and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne.

Here's a nice tribute:

http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Berg_Moe.html

A book I'd love to get to someday, also:

The Catcher Was a Spy : The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg (Dawidoff)

[Mike D.]

The Catcher Was a Spy : The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg (Dawidoff)

I read a book about Berg many years ago, I believe it was this one. I remember it being very good. I'll have to check it out again.

[Chadwick]

Bill...

How bad off was Jimmie Foxx? The movie Cobb portrayed Foxx as down on his luck and almost implied he was dependent on Cobb for financial support. As our resident Cobb scholar, what can you tell us about this?

An aside: my wife got Jimmie Foxx and Jimmie Dugan confused while watching A League of Their Own the other night. "I just can't picture Tom Hanks hitting that many home runs," she said.

[Bob Hannah]

Yes. He might have been the most intelligent baseball player ever. I watched the hour long Sportscentury on him. Absoultely brillant man- fluent in seven languages, had degrees from Princeton and Columbia Law School and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne.

Here's a nice tribute:

http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Berg_Moe.html

A book I'd love to get to someday, also:

The Catcher Was a Spy : The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg (Dawidoff)

The book is great read. I've done so a couple times. Berg was strange and fascinating character. The reader begins to wonder if Berg played ball to retreat from life in some regards. He certainly didn't have the natural talent to stick around as long as he did but was kept on major league rosters for reasons that don't always seem clear.

As was said by a former teammate of Berg's regarding the languages Berg was fluent in... he couldn't hit in any of 'em!

[GrahamC]

Hal Chase ended up living with his sister, before spending the final two months of his life in hospital. He had sold his scrapbooks and trophies in an attempt to make ends meet.

[JR Hart]

I remember reading that Eric Show and JR Richard were homeless for a time.

I believe that Grover Cleveland Alexander died in extreme poverty.

To my knowledge , he was living modestly, but not in poverty. He was living in a boarding house in St Paul Nebraska, a pretty small town. He traveled east to attend the 1950 World Series, about a month before he died. Having lived part of my life in Nebraska, I can't imagine that the good folks there would let someone of Alex's stature endure extreme hardship.

[ian2813]

I think Leon Wagner died in poverty as well.

It's probably more common for ex-athletes to end up broke than you think. I once read a Sports Illustrated article about that very subject. I'd imagine many of the guys whose lives were derailed by drugs probably ended up poor at some point.

[Cowtipper]

Frank Williams, who pitched from 1983 to 1989, died in poverty. Following his career, he became an alcoholic and lived on the streets. He died in 2008.

Win Remmerswaal, who pitched for the Red Sox in 1979 and 1980, currently lives in a nursing home in the Netherlands after suffering from double pneumonia (and slipping into a coma).

[Second Base Coach]

Pete Gray is from a town near where I grew up. He did not have a lot of money when he died.

Fred Dunlap had a lot of money when he retired, but lost it all for a variety of reasons and died broke.

Pud Galvin died young and his large family was described as very poor when he passed. He had many children and his bar business was a flop.

[Ben Grimm]

Lenny Dykstra's been doing his best to join this group. I believe he gets sentenced tomorrow for his latest felony charges.