The case of Danny Thomas was more clear-cut, but no less somber. A highly touted prospect in the Brewers’ system, Thomas also had emotional concerns and required psychiatric care. After the 1976 season, he decided to join a religious group known as the Worldwide Church of God. According to the group’s religious beliefs, it was not appropriate to work from sundown on Friday to sundown on Sunday. As a result, when Thomas reported to spring training in 1977, he informed the Brewers that he would have to miss a number of weekend games. Thomas became known as “The Sundown Kid.”
Thomas had enormous power and hit well in two stints with the Brewers, but several disciplinary infractions and his refusal to play on weekends curtailed his career. He seemed to have legitimate mental health problems. Ultimately, the Brewers felt he was too much trouble and demoted him to Double-A; when he refused the assignment, the Brewers gave him his release. In 1979, he attempted a comeback, playing minor league ball for the Miami Amigos in the ill-fated Inter-American League, which folded in the middle of its first season.
The following June, his playing days over, Thomas was arrested on charges of rape and sodomy, a situation made even more complicated because he happened to be married with two young children. On June 12, as he sat in jail awaiting trial, Thomas cut strips from his jeans, tied them to his jail cell, and hanged himself. Like Wilson, Thomas was only 29 years old. To make matters worse, Thomas’ family was so poor that it could not afford to pay for a funeral.Observations from Cooperstown
Wikipedia had this to say about Thomas and Sabbath keeping:
The "Sundown Kid"
After his strong performance in 1976, Thomas required psychiatric care in the off-season.[2] He joined the Worldwide Church of God and began practicing strict Sabbath observance. When he arrived for spring training in 1977, he informed the Brewers that he would not play on Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.[5] "The Sundown Kid", as he came to be called, missed a night game on Saturday, April 23, 1977, when he was slated to be in the lineup as cleanup hitter and left fielder, after having been excused from pre-sundown batting practice earlier in the day.[6][7] Thomas said he heard on the radio that he was scheduled to play in the game and apologized to Brewers manager Alex Grammas.[6]
He told People magazine, "If I'm good at baseball, it's only because God gave me the talent. I'll give it all I've got, but I won't play on the Sabbath".[8] Thomas was also outspoken in criticizing pitchers who hit batters, saying, "I think they ought to make a rule that if a guy gets hit and is able to get up, they should tie the pitcher's hands behind his back and let the hitter smack him in the face."[9]
And then you have to ask where was the Church at this time? Did it stand beside Thomas? Or did it just take and take his money, leaving the family high and dry? Check this out:
Thomas and his wife, Judy, had two children. The family lived near Spokane, where he had difficulty finding steady employment after baseball.[12] Thomas died at age 29 on June 12, 1980, after he was arrested in Mobile, Alabama, by hanging himself in his jail cell.[12][13] His family was so impoverished by then that they were unable to afford funeral expenses or even remain in Alabama for his potter's field burial.[12]
In later years, sports writers such as Furman Bisher have recalled Thomas's once-promising baseball career and eventual suicide, as in Bisher's 1986 column, "When great talents fail", and Howie Stalwick's 2003 article, "Remembering the Tragedy of Danny Thomas".[13][14] Sports columnist John Blanchette of the Spokane Spokesman-Review described him that same year as a "troubled soul", saying, "no one was more haunted than Danny Thomas".[5]
What a sad story! One can only imagine how different Thomas' family and baseball career would have been -but for the WCG.
ReplyDeleteThe Brewers were at a competitive disadvantage by carrying Danny Thomas on the 25 man roster because they were competing with one man less on essentially 2 consecutive days (Friday night/Saturday day & night). The manager had one less competitive option in game situations than his opposing team.
You ask a good question though. Where was the WCG while Danny Thomas was playing in the bigs? I figured things out and left the WCG in 1976, but my family members stayed. I don't ever remember hearing about Thomas in the news or from my family.
Richard
We had Danny Thomas in our home during the Feast of Tabernacles and took him and his family out to dinner at a steak house, where he told us some of the background.
ReplyDeleteHe told us over dinner that he had taken drugs and it got so bad that he couldn't even take children's toy wooden blocks and put one on top of the other. I don't remember clearly, but I think his mother was in the church but his father was not.
I remember so clearly when he and his friends were at the stream outside our home watching the salmon swim upstream. Danny jumped in and tried to catch one with his bare hands -- he was rather impulsive.
Several of us were downtown Seattle during that Feast where it was being kept that year. Danny was walking by the Seattle Mariner's office and decided to go inside and talk with the team management. They stonewalled him.
My over all impression of him was that he was a sad grown up impulsive kid with rather narrowly defined by very intense talent. It isn't clear that his life could have ended any better had he not been associated with the Worldwide Church of God.
He was yet another youth who didn't really engage with the WCG until he was an adult and "got religion" at a most inopportune time. I feel sad. He was likeable. I felt really sorry for his wife and children.
That said, no, just like others who gained brief fame and fortune, the WCG was no help at all. At some point, everyone needs to understand that the WCG then, the GCI now and all the Armstrongist Churches of God are all about one thing and one thing only: Prestige, their salaries and their retirements -- for the leadership only. Nothing else matters. Every one of us must remember that we were all nothings. We were the cash machine that provides for the needs of the ministry and leadership. Nothing else matters, nothing else is worth anything.
Oh sure, sometimes one minister or another might find a spark of comradeship with an ordinary member. Oftentimes, that association was based on the fact that the lowly member either was well to do or in some way had influence the minister might be able to use to further his own goals. And sometimes, the minister would be associated with members through his kids playing around with the member's kids.
But this is survival of the fitest and the minister and leader of the Armstrongist CoGs were the fitest of the fit: Wolves (in sheep's clothing of wool suits), seeking prey for their own sustenance, nothing more -- entirely selfish.
So expecting human compassion is like believing in horror fantasy science fiction -- you can't believe it, but it's still scary!
They lie to you and then they take your money.
I never knew any thing about Danny. Such "inconvenient" things weren't publicized.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't have made any difference. We were all blinded by the same dillusion. God had to be obeyed, no matter what happened to you as an individual. Such is the horrible effects of blind religious faith and the horrible virus is still being spread not only by the Armstrongists but by the entire religious world.
There was no seven day creation and there is no God to whom anyone owes any obedience. I will keep hammering home that fact as long as I draw breath, but it's maddening that my small voice is so inadequate while these deceivers continue on with their nonsense, destroying lives all the while.
Their type of blood-sucking "vampire" is all too real.
A man in the Midwest in the Church of God Seventh Day Denver Conference, has had cancer and other debilities which has kept him hospital bound for months. He has a family, but not been able to work. His situation is dire.
ReplyDeleteA volunteer unpaid minister in the CoG7D from the Pacific Northwest whose congregation has been following the situation, asked the congregation if the local church could send a contribution to the man's family. The congregation approved and the deacon drew the check to send to the family of the ailing man.
The CoG7D has been around for a century and a half. It is family oriented. Most of the people know most of the other members in the United States, or at least they know the families, since it is rooted and oriented in family. Many of the Kids know each other from Springvale Academy. It's a rather close knit community.
Contrast that with the WCG which come on the scene, made a lot of noise and died. There wasn't that much community to it: You sent your money to headquarters and money, if any, was distributed back. This is exactly the opposite of the CoG7D structure where the money can be sent to Denver, but it is usually given to the local congregation and a percentage goes to the District. The District then supplies a percentage to Denver. It's the difference between having a family oriented organization with a sense of community versus Church Corporate.
So the main question remains: What happened to the Danny Thomas family?
Supposedly, there was third tithe to help the fatherless and the widow. Now Danny Thomas had a $50,000 signing bonus with the Brewers which he blew on a Corvette and drugs, so there was nothing left for the family.
From the story, one could conclude that the WCG did nothing for the Danny Thomas family. Third tithe was mostly spent on the jet for Herbert Armstrong. I know what you're thinking, but consider, Herbert Armstrong, even though he received a salary of $500,000 per year with perks, his father had died, so he was one of the fatherless -- so it was reasonable and logical that he should receive third tithe for his jet (to do THE WORK!). The bereaved widow and orphaned children were just collateral damage to be swept under the carpet as so much inconvenient embarassing messy ugly rubbish.
Or so it seems.
That's just the way it is in the souless Church Corporate.
Another thing you have to take into consideration is that Danny probably never received proper mental health care.
ReplyDeleteArmstrongism/Ambassador College never taught how to do REAL counseling. They never permitted members or students to go to psychiatrists or therapists. Mental health issues were always dealt with as if the person had allowed Satan to enter their mind. It was their fault they were not mentally healthy.
HWA, Meredith, and GTA made a big production out of ridiculing psychiatrists, so you can be guaranteed members would not be caught dead going to such people.
If Danny had received proper mental health care he probably would still be alive.
I never knew until very recently that Stephen Hill, the original leader of the IMF team on Mission Impossible was an orthodox Jew who refused to work from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, and ended up getting fired and replaced by Peter Graves simply for keeping the sabbath.
ReplyDeleteMost of us know Stephen Hill as Adam Schiff, the District Attorney Jack McCoy reported to on Law and Order.
BB
I only had brief contact with a few CoG7D members. I know they were loving people. That still doesn't change the fact that they are caught up in another SDA slinter cult that is really ruining their potential as human beings.
ReplyDeleteAll religion is corrosive and destructive. The farther away one can stay, the better off they will be.
Allen, perhaps that is so- but you would be really hard pressed to make a worse choice than WCG.
ReplyDeleteThe real point is that the WCG never knew how to treat people because it was a soulless Church Corporate and that is best explained by using a contrast of what the church it came from is like.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was "soulless" as was its reprobate founder. I also agree that in choosing it, I chose something worse that CoG7D. I really had no choice. Herb got there first and warped my mind.sda
ReplyDeleteThough a little less corrosive, the parent group still messes up people's lives with their sabbatarian and legalistic nonsense.
Again, all religions are alike in warping human beings with superstitious, mind numbing idiocy. Just look at the Tea Party.
WCG was like a Venus Flytrap. As a group, it attracted many, many people who were seeking healing. These peoples' tithes were certainly devoured, but once the people themselves were seen as too challenging to deal with, problematic, disruptive, or never recovering and going on autopilot, they were cast aside.
ReplyDeleteThere are other cruel and exploitative church groups, for sure, but there are also some nurturing and compassionate ones.
1980 is now over thirty years ago. Does anyone know how Danny's widow and children have fared?
BB
I grew up with Danny and graduated highschool with him. Danny was one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life, the rape and sodomy charge is impossible to believe. The Danny I knew would never do that especially to a 12 year old child. Now that being said Danny had demons brought on by a drunken overbearing tyrant of a father and a religious fanatic mother. Many times his father was ejected from the high school games because of a loud foul mouth and I'm almost sure there was physical abuse to Danny and his brothers. Miss you Danny, Rest In Peace my Friend!!
ReplyDelete