Hall of Infamy

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I was at a dinner meeting of a trade group last night and we got to talking about baseball. We decided to try to come up with a list of all the crooks who've played the game in the majors. We came up with the following (convicted criminals only):

Denny McLain
Lamarr Hoyt
Fergie Jenkins (although his conviction was overturned)
Pete Rose
Ken Caminiti

can anyone think of any other crooks?

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Posted By: Jamie

Long list of druggies: Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Alan Wiggins, Steve Howe, etc.

Beny Kauff was indicted in a car theft ring though I can't remember if he was charged. He was kicked out of baseball for it.

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Posted By: dennis

orlando cepeda got caught with pot. wil cordero was a wife beater(not sure if convicted)

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Posted By: J Levine

Jeff Nelson, Gabe Kapler for the incident last year at Yankee Stadium, Albert Belle domestic violence, Cobb for assualt, Billy Martin, Rafeal Furcal, Strawberry, Milton Bradley (and many others) for DUI, that is a quick list...

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Posted By: horseyoucameinon

If you want to talk about a hall of infamy, let's talk about the NBA! A WHOLE litany of druggies, sexual predators, violence prone spoiled bad boys there.
Of note, in MLB: Dave Winfield, another wife beater. Dave Parker, Peruvian marching powder. And anyone recall the Stargell interview where he talked about the prevalence of "greenies" (amphetemine) available to players in the 70's?
A dishonorable mention should also go to Jose Conseco, convicted of carring a loaded .45 on the Berkely campus. I believe he also has some anger management issues with his wife as well.

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Posted By: Anonymous

Hank Thompson (1st African American to play in NL and AL), George Steinbrenner (politics), Ron Leflore (common Tiger fans, guy got a second chance when he was discovered playing baseball in the Michigan prison system)

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Posted By: dennis

http://www.historicphotoarchive.com/caps3/00200.html

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Posted By: Richard Masson

Didn't he shoot his wife? I remember firing cap guns from the left field pavillion at Dodger Stadium.

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Posted By: Jay Miller

Richard-Cedeno supposedly shot some woman he was shacked up in a Santo Domingo hotel room with, but it wasn't his wife. He got off with a $100 fine for involuntary manslaughter. Here are a few good ones:

John Clarkson--Slashed his wife to death with a razor. Voted to HOF in 1963--hey Pete Rose that'll teach you to gamble. If you had only just done the old lady in you'de have a bust in Cooperstown by now.

John Glenn--Played for the Chicago team in 1876 and 1877. He was only a robber till he left prison. Then he raped a 12 year old girl. He was shot and killed by a policeman.

Then there is the all time favorite Terry Larkin:

Terry Larkin--Terry also played for the Chicago team, 1878 and 1879. After he retired from baseball he shot his wife and slit his own throat. Not being a good shot or very adept with the razor, both survived. The little episode did send Larkin to an asylum. While there he dived into a radiator. His wife, more forgiving than mine would have been, nursed him back to health. So, never wanting to leave a good deed unpunished, he killed her father and then thankfully himself.

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Posted By: Brian H (misunderestimated)

This list would be truly incomplete without Hal Chase.... considered by many Baseball's most corrupt player (even though many Ebay sellers seem to think he's in the Hall of Fame).

Might also want to at least nominate:

1st player banned from baseball for "hypodroming" (throwing) ball games Jim Devlin; Steve Garvey world class hypocrite); Carl Mays (for a high inside rising fastball that got away); Cap Anson (for his starring role in drawing the color line); ex-player Charles Comiskey (for excessive cheapness in paying some of his players); Harry Frazee (for selling you-know-who to you-know-who); Brien Taylor (failed Yankee bonus Baby whose career was largely ruined by hurting his hand punching) and the worst owner ever: Andrew Friedman.

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Posted By: Rhett

The craziest lunatic ever to play baseball is without a doubt Marty Bergen. Bergen was apparently insane and one day he finally "lost it" altogether and hacked his wife up, then took an axe to his two children, and as if that weren't enough he cut his throat with a razor so deep that he nearly decapitated himself. This guy was as insane as they come.
-Rhett

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

maybe I should call the Hall of Fame Librarian...Jay Miller, where can I Read All About It?

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Posted By: Jerry Spillman

Jose Canseco - Not sure of the reason for the arrest.

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Posted By: Greg Ecklund

Wasn't that from when he was playing "bumper cars" with Esther in the parking lot of a stadium?

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Posted By: 823dek

Are you sure that this is a vintage board ?

Adam, hmmm...Chick Gandil ring a bell ? Had to pick on you for that one !

Joe Jackson paid dearly from this clown.

Also,let's not forget about that reciever who shot his girlfriend cause she was pregnant, can't say that the crime is classified as being a crook...sorta stole that baby's life...right ?

Well others broke off the crook meaning, had to add that dirtbag jerk for killing 2 innocent people so he could be a player or is that now called in modern day schlag, "playa".

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Posted By: Pcelli60

Mike Donlin (Turkey Mike) did a year in jail for punching out and very badly hurting a guy while drunk. I believe it was in Cincinnati..

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Posted By: David Vargha

Pedro Guerrero?

He was arrested in September, 1999 for trying to buy 33 pounds of cocaine from an undercover agent and was acquitted of drug conspiracy charges in June, 2002 after his lawyer argued that Pedro's low IQ prevented him from understanding that he agreed to a drug deal.

DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: David Vargha

Kevin Mitchell

He was arrested in August, 1999 for felony battery after hitting his own father during a dispute. The dispute took place because Mitchell was trying to evict his own father from a house he was renting to him. Apparently pops was behind on the payments.

DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: Brian H (misunderestimated)

Comiskey & Anson (see my post above)
also perhaps :
Ty Cobb (probably not the nicest guy in the HOF to say the least...)
Frankie Frisch (for screwing up the HOF by engineering the selection of his less talented chronies from the Giants in the 1920's etc)
A.G. Spalding - Pitcher, Mogul and Entrepreneur extraordinaire who propagated the Doubleday creation myth.

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Posted By: Julie

Frank Francisco, last month, threw a chair into the stands, breaking a woman's nose--she is sueing him for a very healthy sum. He's of the Texas Rangers, and it happerned in the Oakland Coluseum.

He just pleaded "not guilty," because, he said, in spite of many films and much testimony, nobody saw him do it!

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Posted By: runscott

I normally sit in the nose-bleed seats, but even from decent seats it's rare that the players can actually hear the heckling - you have to be fairly close. The last game I was at I sat very close to the action and was amazed at the filth I heard the Braves fans laying on the Astros players - comments about their wives, etc. Yes, the players could hear them, and yes, the looks on their faces showed the same disgust that I was feeling. It doesn't warrant throwing objects in the stands, or even responding, but the ushers could be trained to keep an eye on the fans sitting closest to where the players walk, and toss their lousy *sses when they behave like they are from Philadelphia.

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Posted By: Darren J Duet

I'm certain many guys like the Babe were drinker's during prohibition, but innocent until prove guilty.
Kirby Puckett I believe had some trouble.

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Posted By: Sean Coe

"Baseball Babylon" by Dan Gutman mentions Clarkson slashing his wife as well as other scandals and misdeeds. One incident that sticks in my mind although I can't remember his name, was when a player attacked the pilot of a plane and had his head bashed in with a fire extinguisher? by the pilot or co-pilot. He for some reason just went crazy and could not be subdued until it became a life or death situation.

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Posted By: Greg Ecklund

Sean,
I think the guy you are referring to is Len Koenecke (not sure if the spelling is right). I don't know the circumstances behind it, but I know that is the name.

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Posted By: Sean Coe

Greg, yes that's the name, thanks. He apparently got booted from an American Airlines flight and chartered a plane. He had been drinking, but at the start of the flight was quiet and then ...chaos

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Actually, we were looking for convicts, not merely heinous acts. That was what made it a challenge. We tried football too, but it was no fun because it was too easy to come up with convicted felon football players.

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Posted By: canjond

What about Donnie Moore... I didn't see him mentioned yet. After losing to the Sox is 1986, he shot his wife and killed himself...

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Posted By: dennis

K Brown 2004 post season
NYY 0-1 era 21.60 gs 2 ip 3.1 2004 salary = $15,714,286

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Posted By: shoo

I dont know if you would call him a crook or not but John Rocker

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Posted By: john/z28jd

James Galvin once killed a whole bowl of grandma's homemade pudding and was forced to go thru life with the nickname 'Pud'

this is my signature

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Posted By: John Spencer

One of the worst must be Lefty Grove who carried on a long-time affair with his son's wife. When the son found about it he committed suicide. If that isn't sick behavior then I don't know what is.

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Posted By: Marc S.

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