Show Grandson places spotlight on rumor madness Jerry Crowe Los Angeles Times Probably the last thing anyone wants to read these days is another story about drugs and baseball But this ones one's different This one predates by many years Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire and Roger Clemens and the Mitchell Report not to mention public awareness of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone At the center of this story is not a villain but a victim But its it's another sad tale And baseball in the end winds up smelling badly again Its It's the story of Babe Dahlgren a major league first baseman from 1935 to 1946 probably best remembered as the man who replaced Lou Gehrig in the New York Yankees' Yankees lineup on May 2 1939 ending the Iron Horses Horse's incredible year 14 game consecutive-game streak after a then-record then 2130 games Less widely known is that Dahlgrens Dahlgren's career and life were waylaid by an unsubstantiated rumor that he smoked marijuana Dahlgren who lived in Southern California for more than 40 years before dying in 1996 volunteered to be examined by a doctor doctorin in Philadelphia in 1943 thus becoming the first major league player to be tested for drug use It seemed to matter little that the tests came up clean A strong defensive player who batted and hit 82 home runs fins while playing for eight teams in 12 major league seasons Dahlgren spent the last half of his life trying to track down the source of the rumor and clear his name appealing to a succession of baseball commissioners who showed little interest The details are spelled out in Rumor In Town a new book written by grandson Matt Dahlgren a 37 year-old year former Southern California College catcher and time first-time author who made good on a pledge to bring his grandfathers grandfather's story to light I was turned down many times by literary agents and publishers says the Irvine Cali based based f.-based Dahlgren who published the book himself But what kept me going was I promised him Id I'd Iddo Iddo Iddo do it I know that might sound corny but its it's the reality I loved him to no end I respected him And I know how badly he wanted this story told I 1 know how badly this game hurt him And so I had to do it I just couldn't let him down Using a a. a page manuscript left behind by his grandfather as a guide and after tracking down details through interviews and research Dahlgren believes the rumor was started by bythe bythe bythe the late Joe McCarthy a highly respected Hallof Hallof Hall Hallof of Fame manager who guided the Yankees to a record seven World Series championships McCarthy the book says was upset that Dahlgren sought batting tips from fellow San Franciscan Lefty ODoul a respected hitting instructor after Dahlgren and ODoul spoke at the November 1939 wedding of Joe DiMaggio and actress Dorothy Arnold Apparently viewing ODoul as a threat McCarthy engineered Dahlgrens Dahlgren's sale to the Boston Braves after the 1940 season explaining to reporters that Dahlgrens Dahlgren's arms were too short to play ri ria a W l lI 9 I w Los Angeles Times photo by Mark Boster Matt Dahlgrens Dahlgren's the damage done to his grandfathers grandfather's baseball career by rumors of drug use first base Never mind that Dahlgren at the time was considered the cleverest fielding first baseman in inthe inthe inthe the league a widely held opinion articulated in a column written by Shirley of The Washington Post Later Matt Dahlgren writes McCarthy offered a amore amore amore more inflammatory reason for dumping Dahlgren Speak Speaking ng with a group of baseball insiders including a New York Times reporter McCarthy blamed the Yankees' Yankees failure to win the 1940 pennant on a season late-season error by Dahlgren And the book quotes McCarthy as saying Dahlgren doesn't screw strew up that play if he wasn't a marijuana smoker Dahlgren oblivious to the talk played for four teams over the next two seasons bouncing around the majors before running into the rumor on head-on early in 1943 during a contract negotiation with Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey Rickey the book says asked Dahlgren Do you smoke marijuana After Dahlgren was then traded to the Philadelphia Phillies the book says a former Dodgers coach told him that Rickey was spreading the rumor explaining to his bosses that he traded Dahlgren because he smoked pot Dahlgren an Star All-Star with the Phillies was traded again after the 1943 season this time to the Pittsburgh Pirates He retired in 1946 According to the book then baseball then commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis told Babe Dahlgren that castration would be an appropriate punishment for the culprit behind the rumor But Landis failed to act Nor did any of the subsequent commissioners Dahlgren implored Fay Vincent never heard from Dahlgren who finally tired of beseeching baseballs baseball's hierarchy But Vincent Vincent- baseballs baseball's commissioner from 1989 to 1992 has read Rumor In Town and is quoted on the book jacket as saying Baseball like life can sometimes be a cruel and vicious business Some of the people in it from time timeto to time are not worthy of the game Babe Dahlgren felt the same way his his- grandson says |