Monday, August 1, 2011
The Sundown Kid: How Sabbatarianism Destroyed a Career and Life
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]
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