“80 Percent of the Good Ballplayers now Before the Public are Drinking men”
Mike Donlin had, arguably, his best season in 1905. The next season did not go so well. Donlin was suspended on March 15 by John McGraw while the team trained in Memphis.
The New York Times said Donlin was forced to move from the team hotel while he served the indefinite suspension:
“McGraw gives out a statement in which he says he warned the entire team at a formal conference against unnecessary violations of training methods. He says this conference was called at a time when Donlin was thought to be the one in need of advice. Today he was accused of again straying from the patch of sobriety and the ban was placed on him.”
A week later, with Donlin having apologized and been reinstated, The Buffalo Enquirer said:
“Several times this winter the statement has been made that Donlin would be barred from the professional ranks because of his habits. This severe comment however always emanates from other cities, where the critics would be happy if the Giants, for any reason whatever, were deprived of the services of the greatest slugger on the team.”
After all, said the paper:
“Whether it is right or wrong, fully 80 percent of the good ballplayers now before the public are drinking men, and this applies to those who have seen more than 10 years of service as well as the younger players.”
The paper said that “One of the leading managers,” told his players:
‘”I would rather have on my team a ‘rummy’ who can bat .350 than a Father Mathew who hits around the .100 mark.’ The same manager made reference to Abraham Lincoln’s famous remark when told that General Grant was a whiskey drinker.”
According to the paper, a manager of a “Western” club:
“Wise in his generation, recently framed a rule for his players the effect that any man caught drinking before a game would be fined $5 for each drink. The astute manager said nothing about after a game.”
The Enquirer quoted John Montgomery Ward, “one of the most intelligent men that ever played the game,” on the subject:
“Baseball makes such demands on the nervous energies that most men really need something quieting after a hard-fought struggle. There is always more or less said and written about what is called dissipation among players, but it is principally commented on in connection with losing teams. As a matter of fact, there is very little real dissipation among professionals.”
The paper concluded:
“What was so in Ward’s day is doubly so today. And further, experienced managers will tell you that as many young players have killed their chances in fast company through overeating as through dissipation.”
Donlin married actress Mabel Hite less than a month after his suspension and it was assumed that she would have a positive influence on his habits; a month later he broke his ankle while sliding and missed the remainder of the season.
