Читать книгу Bad Boys, Bad Times. The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Prewar Years, 1937–1941 онлайн

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Late that same evening he found his way back to San Antonio with a girl on each arm and two bottles of liquor stuffed in his back pockets. He stumbled into the lobby of the Browns’ hotel, where idling near the entrance were, of all people, new St. Louis owner Don Barnes, new general manager Bill Dewitt, and manager Rogers Hornsby. The men stared at Rollie for several minutes, then left for their rooms. Hemsley knew he could not talk his way out of this one.

The next morning Hemsley received a message to see his bosses immediately. The end result of the less-than-friendly meeting was a substantial fine and suspension. Rollie estimated he racked up a whopping total of $20,000 in fines, almost certainly the most of any ballplayer of his era. The deductions in pay never had any effect. He simply moved on to the next episode.

Over the course of the 1937 season, Hornsby grew weary of trying to curb Rollie’s behavior. He let the other American League clubs know his catcher was on the trading block. Near the end of the season, the Tigers showed interest in completing a trade for Hemsley. The Browns happened to be in Detroit for a late September series. After one of the games, Rollie, totally drunk stumbled into the team hotel. He raised a ruckus in the lobby, bad enough for the Detroit front office to hear about it. That incident killed any chance of a trade happening.