Bad To The Bone
Jim Devlin
Devlin was a workhorse of a pitcher in the National Leagues first two seasons.
Pitching nearly all of the Louisville teams' games, he logged 1,181 innings. He seemed to be on the road to stardom when disaster struck.
Late in 1877 word leaked out to National League president William Hulbert that games were being thrown by members of the Louisville Club. An investigation was launched and eventually Devlin and three of his teammates were implicated.
The games in question had cost the Colonels what had seemed to be a sure pennant. It was found out that several of the players had been walking around with expensive diamond stick pins and were throwing around money.
At first, Devlin denied the charges, then finally broke down and admitted to giving into gamblers. He blamed the cheap Louisville owners as well as the gamblers for his plight. The Louisville owners were not willing to pay an honest wage according to Devlin, and so, he was driven into the arms of the gamblers by "cheap skate" owners. Sound familiar??
Though NL President William Hulbert liked Devlin, he had no recourse but to ban he and his fellow teammates from baseball for life. Devlin did try to get re-instated, even writing legendary Manager Harry Wright for help! No help ever came though!
Driven from baseball, Devlin finally found work as a Philadelphia Policeman. He died from complications complicated by severe alcoholism on October 10th. 1883.
Pitching nearly all of the Louisville teams' games, he logged 1,181 innings. He seemed to be on the road to stardom when disaster struck.
Late in 1877 word leaked out to National League president William Hulbert that games were being thrown by members of the Louisville Club. An investigation was launched and eventually Devlin and three of his teammates were implicated.
The games in question had cost the Colonels what had seemed to be a sure pennant. It was found out that several of the players had been walking around with expensive diamond stick pins and were throwing around money.
At first, Devlin denied the charges, then finally broke down and admitted to giving into gamblers. He blamed the cheap Louisville owners as well as the gamblers for his plight. The Louisville owners were not willing to pay an honest wage according to Devlin, and so, he was driven into the arms of the gamblers by "cheap skate" owners. Sound familiar??
Though NL President William Hulbert liked Devlin, he had no recourse but to ban he and his fellow teammates from baseball for life. Devlin did try to get re-instated, even writing legendary Manager Harry Wright for help! No help ever came though!
Driven from baseball, Devlin finally found work as a Philadelphia Policeman. He died from complications complicated by severe alcoholism on October 10th. 1883.