Who is the craziest baseball player of all time?

[AngryAmish]

Jimmy Piersol was committed, so he has to be considered the leader in the clubhouse.

Billy Martin was crazy or maybe just drunk.

Ty Cobb was a total nutcase from what I heard.

Juaquin Andujar was definately nuts. Mark Fydrich? The Perez brothers (the lot of them were looney).

But that Milton Bradley meltdown last week was one for the ages. He seemed really crazed.

[Blue-Jay]

1. Probably Ty Cobb.

He had quite the reputation for being a mean, crazy, racist motherfucker. He used to cleat people for sport.

[Servo300]

3. Craziest, or just plain meanest? (n/t)

[SarahB]

49. I didn't know, but...

I asked Mr Baseba....err...Mr Belle and he agreed with you.

[RoyGBiv]

64. Definitely Cobb

He was a mean, racist motherfucker. But he was also plain ol' nuts.

I sometimes think Tommy Lee Jones, who played Cobb in a movie, reprised the role when he played Two-Face in one of the Batman movies.

[regularguy]

2. Spaceman: Bill Lee.

Ok, maybe not the craziest but one of the , y'know, more funner.

Special mention to: Doc Ellis

[candy]

6. Damn,you beat me to it!

[Kat45]

51. Loved that Spaceman!

[LynneSin]

4. Pedro Bourbon

Didn't he bite the head off of a bat?

[Blue-Jay]

13. Do not blaspheme Pedro!

He wasn't crazy. He was the last pitcher to be able to get away with lofting a pitch when a batter was ready to swing at a fast ball. I remember watching guys take a swing, step back for a smoke, and have a stadium dog before the pitch ever hit the catcher's glove.

But yeah, he was a little nutty. I remember listening to interviews with Pedro and thinking "What the hell was he just talking about?"

[gmoney]

57. Pedro BORBON

rather crazy Cuban... he actually menaced me once threatening to cut my hair with a razor... I was an "honorary batboy" for the Reds once and neglected to get a haircut prior to the game. He was somewhat nuts, but I'm sure there've been crazier.

[Archae]

5. I didn't see or hear about the Bradley one.

What team does he play for and what happened?

[AngryAmish]

8. LA Dodgers

I think he caught a four games suspension. Throwing lots of stuff on the field.

[Archae]

7. Don't forget Bob Uecker and Yogi Berra.

Those two are fortunately still around to crack us up.

[Magrittes Pipe]

9. Don't forget Mark "The Bird" Fidrych!

on edit: damn, I missed the Bird mention in AngryAmish's original post. I am such a fool.

He DID talk to the ball. That's pretty friggin' nutty.

[Blue-Jay]

14. Yeah. The Bird. Also the Mad Hungarian.

The Dean Brothers qualify, as does Gaylord Perry.

I'm seeing a whacko-factor in an inordinate amount of pitchers.

Let's not forget Rob Dibble. He never had both oars in the water.

[Southsideirish]

10. Jimmy Piersall ran the bases back wards - but he's fine now!

He does weekly baseball reports on WSCR in Chicago and his shows are better than anything else on that station. I believe he now lives in Arizona and is a good golfer. He is in his 70's, is doing great and seems almost completely normal - just like the rest of us.
He tells fantastic baseball stories about batting ahead of Ted Williams who always wanted him to take several pitches so he (T.W.) could check out what the pitcher had before he went up to bat.
Go Jimmy!!

[madrchsod]

21. i`m calling b&b and telling

them southsideirish doesn`t like them....the best baseball radio in chicago was jimmy and harry....once harry went to the dark side he became a cartoon in the trib machine..
i wish the sox would get rid of dumb and dumber and get some guys that will get with the "fung"..best team in chicago-the whitesox and the best manager-ozzie!!!

[Joe_VB]

74. My Grandfather told me a story about Jimmy P.

I think he said it was a hot sunny day at Shibe Park in Philly and Jimmy was in the outfield sitting down right in line with a narrow sliver of shadow being cast by a flagpole. The Ump calls time and walks out to ask him what was wrong. Jimmy says "This is the only shade in this whole damn outfield and I'm just relaxin'".

I thought that was funny.

[denverbill]

11. Mark "the Bird" Fidrych.

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

But along came Fidrych -- wiggling and jiggling on the mound, talking to the ball, discarding balls with which opposing batters had managed a hit, chasing away groundskeepers so he could landscape and groom the mound himself, shaking hands with teammates after outstanding plays. And winning.

--------------

[noonwitch]

40. I saw Fidrych pitch once circa 1975

He was very fun, and got the crowd at Tiger Stadium riled up.
I was a kid at the time, and we loved him and were very sad that his career was so short.

[denverbill]

50. Yeah, I was lookin at his stats today.

He had just that one amazing rookie year and then injuries got him. He was paid $15,000 for that year.

You gotta wonder if modern medicine would've turned him into a Hall-of-Famer.

[Beware the Beast Man]

12. Dock Ellis

Pitched a no-hitter while high on acid. Now that's focus!
Don't believe me? Here's the link:

http://www.snopes.com/sports/baseball/ellis.asp

[VOX]

15. He also threw at FIVE Reds batters in a row once (hit three)...

http://www.baseballreliquary.org/ellis.htm
Perhaps Ellis’ most startling act occurred on May 1, 1974, when he tied a major league record by hitting three batters in a row. In spring training that year, Ellis sensed the Pirates had lost the aggressiveness that drove them to three straight division titles from 1970 to 1972. Furthermore, the team now seemed intimidated by Cincinnati’s "Big Red Machine." "Cincinnati will bullshit with us and kick our ass and laugh at us," Ellis said. "They’re the only team that talk about us like a dog." Ellis single-handedly decided to break the Pirates out of their emotional slump, announcing that "We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I’m going to hit these motherfuckers." True to his word, in the first inning of the first regular-season game he pitched against the Reds, Ellis hit leadoff batter Pete Rose in the ribs, then plunked Joe Morgan in the kidney, and loaded the bases by hitting Dan Driessen in the back. Tony Perez, batting cleanup, dodged a succession of Ellis’ pitches to walk and force in a run. The next hitter was Johnny Bench. "I tried to deck him twice," Ellis recalled. "I threw at his jaw, and he moved. I threw at the back of his head, and he moved." At this point, Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh removed Ellis from the game. But his strategy worked: the Pirates snapped out of their lethargy to win a division title in 1974, while the Reds failed to win their division for the first time in three years.

[Beware the Beast Man]

16. Ahh-

Back when the Reds/Pirates rivalry actually meant something.

[Westegg]

55. It's true and it's fucking brilliant. Dock is the man! (n/t)

[Bombtrack]

17. Carl Everette

[wysimdnwyg]

18. How about...

Steve "Psycho" Lyons? How many other players dropped trou while standing on first base?

[Beaker]

19. Turk Wendell. Hands down.

nt

[PVnRT]

34. He doesn't hold a candle to The Bird

although he is definitely an original.

[flakey_foont]

20. Piersall

Fidrych.... Dizzy Dean, ..........
how about Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich swapping wives?
how about Daryl Strawberry?
Juan Marichal hitting Johnny Roseboro with a bat?

[dolo amber]

23. I thought of Strawberry

almost immediately...but then, I don't know if he's more ill with the disease of addiction, or just stupid...either way, he's definitely not right in the ol' heid...

[flakey_foont]

22. A Few More

Joe Pepitone...........Tug McGraw.....

and if you talk about crazy...in a fun loving way..who could forget the Babe?

[tom_paine]

24. Jay Johnstone

Pinch Hitter mostly, over .300

Played with many teams.

Pretty zany guy. Just thought I'd mention him.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/j/johnsja01.shtml

[7 Lazy P]

25. Rube Waddell

Turn of the century pitcher. O.k., he wasn't crazy, but he had the intellect of an 8 year old. To quote Bill James, 'in today's world he'd be given an appropriate label and his competition would be limited to heaving a rubber tipped javelin in the special olympics'. They had to assign a teammate to him to make sure that he came to the park when he was scheduled to pitch, as he might go chasing after fire engines. Some pretty good stories about him in the book "The Glory of Their Times".

[underpants]

26. What was that guys name who played fo rthe Red Sox a few years ago?

Damn I can see him but can't think of his name. I think he played there until what two years ago and was traded.....damn.

[Commendatori]

28. Carl Everett - someone beat you to it

The guy who said that dinosaurs and the moon landing was a myth, is that the one you had in mind?

[underpants]

31. Yep that's him-------------Dinosaurs? "Didn't exist."

"God created the sun, the stars, the heavens and the earth, and then made Adam and Eve," Everett said last Friday, before the Red Sox lost two of three in Atlanta. "The Bible never says anything about dinosaurs. You can't say there were dinosaurs when you never saw them. Someone actually saw Adam and Eve. No one ever saw a Tyrannosaurus rex."

What about dinosaur bones?

"Made by man," he says.

As an Apostolic Christian, he believes that the Bible, interpreted literally, is the infallible authority on all matters.

"Carl Everett is the best player in the major leagues," says Marlins righthander Ryan Dempster. "Just ask Carl Everett."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/news/2000/07/19/everett_flashback/

[JohnKleeb]

27. Moe Drabowsky famous for giving Bowie Kuhn a hot foot

[Commendatori]

29. Dave Kingman

Having hit for 100 HR over the previous three years (back then, those were good numbers) and being only 58 away from 500 (back then a sure ticket to Cooperstown), he mails a rat to a reporter and gets himself blackballed.

[JohnKleeb]

30. and he didnt have a good average either

but the rat mailing yep.

[Commendatori]

33. Career of .238, I believe,

(might be .236, too lazy to look it up) but he was on teams for one reason.

I used to go to shea to watch him. No one EVER went to the bathroom if his at-bat was coming up soon.

[JohnKleeb]

35. ahh I see

the lowest average of a famer belongs to Ray Schalk who had one of .254 I believe and he had no power and was just a good catcher.

[Commendatori]

37. To be honest, election criteria is BS to me

Phil Rizzuto is in as a player. A PLAYER.

Take a look at his career stats and tell me he'd be in the hall if not for his being lucky enough to be on so many championship teams.

I don't know why Don Sutton is in and Bert Blyleven (#4 all time in career strikeouts) isn't, I don't know why Robin Yount is in at all, and when I see stuff like that it makes me really not understand why the Hall is such a big deal.

[JohnKleeb]

42. I have this book by Rob Neyer

Where he says he considers Sutton a poor man's Blyeven. I think Blyeven is the better picture. Yeah Rizzuto I really dont consider hall worthly as a player.

[Commendatori]

44. We're in comlete agreement on both counts (n/t)

[JohnKleeb]

46. Blyeven may have less wins but he ranked higher in catgories

He was also the better postseason picture and he won less IMO because he pitched for bad teams.

[Commendatori]

47. True, and he had the

meanest cureball any MLBer ever threw. Sutton would never have won 300 games on Blyleven's teams.

[Fight_n_back]

48. Anyone who can say

"I don't know why Robin Yount is in at all"

shouldn't be allowed near a keyboard.

He won MVP awards at two different positions.

[PVnRT]

32. Mark Fydrich

If you've ever seen film of him pitching, you'd know that he was completely insane.

Cobb wasn't insane so much as he was a virulent, murderous racist.

[Blue_Tires]

36. another vote for 'the bird'

and add Kevin Mitchell and Albert Belle to the 'psycho' list...

I never got to see this guy play, but his name says it all:

Al "The Mad Hungarian" Hrabosky

[AngryAmish]

41. Don't you mean "Joey" Bell?

The only time I have seen a player visibly upset with hecklers is when Al Bell was being taunted with "Joey" chants.

Meanest heckle of all time was the right field bleachers at Wrigley chanting "Wil Cordero beats his wife, doo-da, doo-da". He took it though. Probably because he did beat his wife.

[Jack Rabbit]

66. Al Hrabosky story

I served in the army with a former minor league player. In case you're wondering what happens to minor league players who don't make it to the bigs, now you know. This guy played first base for the St. Louis Cardinals AAA team in Tulsa for three years until some kid named Keith Hernandez took his job ("When I saw him, I knew I was through").

Anyway, back to the story.

One day, the Cardinals played their Tulsa farm team. Our hero comes up in the late innings against Hrabosky. "He struck me out on three radio pitches. I could hear 'em, but I couldn't see 'em."

[camero]

69. Fydrich gets my vote too

The guy talked to baseballs. What more can you say?

[LTR]

38. Jose Canseco

Certifiably nuts.

[Lestat]

39. Darryl (sp???) Strawberry.

[Spirochete]

43. Don Stanhouse

"Stan the Man Unusual"
Also Bill Caudill, Tug McGraw, Greg Minton, and John Rocker

[camero]

70. I remember him

The windup and the haircut. Good reliever though.

[Fight_n_back]

45. Michael Jordan was crazy for thinking he could play ...some others

Alex Johnson carried a gun in the clubhouse because he didn't trust his teammates. (He is famous for losing the batting title to Yaz by percentage points)
http://www.baseball-reference.com/j/johnsal01.shtml

Mike Ivie is bi polar
http://www.baseball-reference.com/i/iviemi01.shtml

Any Dominican Right Handed pitcher
Juan Marichal hit a Dodger with a bat (but wouldn't anyone, if given the chance?)
Pasqual Perez says he was late for a game because he couldn't find the off ramp for the stadium (it was a home game) and also thought he was posessed by demons during a slump.


Dirty Al Gallagher was pretty wierd. He didn't bathe and ate disgusting things.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/gallaal01.shtml

It is hard to say if Rube Waddell was crazy or if he was "developmentally delayed". He was the first pitcehr to strike out over 300 in a season.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/wadderu01.shtml

What Milton Bradley did was very Lou Piniella-esque.

Johnny Evers had a "nervous breakdown" in the middle of a season and was considered pretty nutty by his teammates.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/e/eversjo01.shtml

Billy Martin was more than an alcoholic, he had pretty severe anger mnagement issues.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/martibi02.shtml

[Bluzmann57]

52. Lou "The Mad Russian" Novikoff

He had a very brief career with the Cubs, I think in the 40's or 50's, due in part to the fact he wouldn't go anywhere near the ivy in Wrigley Field. For an outfielder, thats not good, especially considering some of the pitching the Cubs have had over the years.

[henslee]

53. Didn't Met Lenny Randle have some problems - like punching out coaches?

If not, then I am getting him mixed up w/someone else.

[argyl]

58. He was with the Rangers at the time.Beat manager Frank Luchese

viciously in preseason.Thought he wasn't being given a chance to compete for his starting 2nd base position as the Rangers had acquired rookie Bump Wills(son of Maury Wills).

[mitchum]

54. Easily Ty Cobb. I live 32 miles from his hometown (Royston, GA)...

and I always get a kick out of seeing all of the things that they have named after that violent psychopath.
He was arguably the greatest player, though...

[Digger]

56. Glad the Indians dumped Bradley

I'll give him another year or two and a few more teams, and he'll be out of baseball. Bad apple. Damn shame.

Albert Belle was able to last much longer because he hit many home runs.

Anyone here ever read "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton? I highly recommend it. He's one of my favorite liberal thinkers.

[Bluzmann57]

60. Yes indeed, "Ball Four" is a good book

I read it when it first came out and I have worn out a few copies of it since then. Bouton is an honest to gosh Liberal who was actually a delegate for New Jersey at a Democratic National Convention, for Carter, I think. If anyone knows that I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.

[Digger]

61. Hmmm...

I didn't know Bouton had a go at politics, but I'm not surprised. Given the chance, I'd vote for him in a heartbeat.

Yup, I wore out my first copy of "Ball Four" too. Found a hardcover copy at Goodwill to replace it. For years I would re-read it during spring training; kind of a "season starter" thing with me.

If my house goes up in flame - "Ball Four" and my bicycles will be the first to be rescued. Then, if there's time, I'll go back for my wife. ;)

[mitchum]

67. Bouton also came up with "Big League Chew" bubble gum

"Ball Four" is a great book.
Does anyone else remember the short-lived "Ball Four" sitcom?

[Digger]

68. Yes,

I had completely forgotten about it; thanks for the memory jolt. It possibly holds the record for the quickest cancellation of a sitcom, ever. Didn't Bouton play himself? It was such a fleeting series I don't recall much about it.

He also wrote a second book which was a disappointment; I forget the title. It seems "Ball Four" was a hard act to follow.

[No2W2004]

59. Juaquin Andujar

in the 7th game of the 85 world series...

Royals are already up by 10 runs (I think...alchohol induced haze) and Whitey Herzog tells Juaquin to warm up. Juaquin gets pissed off because he wants no part of this particular game, so when Whitey calls him in from the bullpen, he hits the batter with his first pitch (obviously on purpose) and gets tossed from the game and tries to attack the umpire. Juaquin is never heard from again.

[WindRavenX]

62. No one has mentioned Lou Pinnella?

C'mon, his outbursts are beyond hillarious!
I remember, I think last year it was, he was pissed at a called strike, so he goes up to homeplate and covers it in dirt :D And the poor catcher doesn't know what to do because the umpire is pissed and won't get that brush out and clean it! :D He also ran onto the field and threw a few bases around. Oh lord, he is a riot.
For historical figures, Ty Cobb is the craziest mofo ever to play the game. Ruthless. He'd kill hecklers.

[King_Crimson]

63. The "Mad Hungarian"..

Al Hrabosky! Relief pitcher for the Braves and Cards! I think he does radio for the Cards now!

[Dees]

73. You're right. He could stare down any batter.

Had the wicked look. He would walk down off the mound towards the batter and stare at em' Does Cards radio now.

[Insider]

65. sam malone

the only one i know :shrug:

[SiNiK]

71. Rollie Fingers

Does Rollie Fingers get a vote for lookin' nuts and havin' a crazy name?



OK, He was a bad mother fucker.... granted.

[SiNiK]

72. Wade Boggs....

Wade Boggs used to eat a bucket of chicken before every game because it, "brought him luck."

With a hitting record like his, who could deny his superstition's effectiveness. I give him points, also, because he played most of his career in Boston against The Green Monster.