Don Muenz
Kill the blow. Let the devil sort them out.
Yeah, mebbe they could kidnap him and keep him in the basement, like Brooklyn did to Flint Rhem.
Alleged Kidnapping by Brooklyn Dodger Fans
The hurler was at the center of one of the most bizarre stories in baseball history
Andrew Martin
Dec 3, 2020 · 5 min read
Right-handed pitcher Charles “Flint” Rhem looked like a blossoming star early in his career, winning a National League-leading 20 games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1926 at the age of 25. Unfortunately, a fondness of drink rendered that season the highpoint of a 12-year big-league career of largely unfulfilled promise. Instead of tapping into what might have been Hall of Fame potential, he is instead perhaps best remembered for his claim of being kidnapped by Brooklyn Dodgers’ fans to prevent him taking the mound in the thick of a pennant race.
A native of South Carolina, Rhem reached the big leagues in 1924 with the Cardinals when he was 23, having balanced the previous few years of baseball with studying engineering at Clemson University. It was a double life necessitated by parental pressure, as the hurler later explained, “I’d have to sneak off and play baseball when I was a kid… My parents thought only cutthroats and roughnecks played baseball. Maybe they were right.”
Although Rhem rapidly became an emerging star, with his rising stock came problems with drinking. It didn’t help that he roomed with star pitcher Grover Alexander, another alcoholic. He hit the bottle hard, even having one incident where he fell asleep in the bullpen during a game after a night of partying. When he came to, his teammates had covered his eyes with tape and he had a brief moment of terror where he believed he had gone blind.
Over the years, his addiction severely hampered his career, including spending time in the minors and a total of three stints with St. Louis.
In 1930, Rhem was 29 and had a relatively disappointing season with the National League pennant-winning Cardinals. Despite a 12–8 record, he had a 4.45 ERA and threw just 139.2 innings in 26 games (19 starts). He also gave up 173 hits and lasted just 3.1 innings (giving up seven hits and six runs) in his lone start in that year’s World Series that was claimed by the Philadelphia Athletics in six games.
What is remembered most from his 1930 season was his claim in September that he had been kidnapped and forced to get drunk. In the waning days of the season, he had been on a hot streak, winning his past five starts, including the last four by complete game. With fellow pitcher Wild Bill Hallahan unavailable after catching his finger in a taxi door, manager Gabby Street decided on the 16th to move Rhem’s turn in the rotation up a day to try to catch lightning in a bottle in the rubber game of a three-game series against the Dodgers..
According to SABR’s Nancy Snell Griffith, the Atlanta Constitution reported the details in a wire service story published on September 19, 1930:
“Rhem, who through his diamond career has never been celebrated as an ardent prohibitionist, failed to appear at the Cardinals’ local headquarters on Monday night. Last night, however, he returned and faced ‘Gabby’ Street, the manager. ‘Yes?’ said Street coldly. ‘Yes,’ mumbled Rhem. ‘Bandits. Guns. Kidnapping. They made me drink the awful stuff.’” Rhem’s claim was that two thugs had kidnapped him and taken him to a remote roadhouse. They were armed and forced him to drink a large quantity of hard liquor. “‘And I am sorry to say that I got drunk. Imagine that happening to me! Of all people, me!… I was helpless, always in fear of my life.’”
The story quickly evolved into two men (assumed to be Brooklyn fans) taking Rhem to a house in New Jersey to keep him out of the series. Dan Daniel of the New York Telegram quoted the pitcher:
“I am ashamed to say that I got drunk. Imagine me getting drunk! I pleaded with the bandits not to make me drink hard liquor, which you know I abhor, but they would not listen to me. I was in their power. I drank and drank — always at the point of a gun, always threatened. It was horrible.”
Despite the unavailability of Rhem, the Cardinals beat the Dodgers behind a 10-inning complete game by Hallahan, who gamely competed with the injured digit. After three more St. Louis wins, Rhem finally went out on the 20th and tossed a complete game to help the Cardinals win yet again.
The kidnapping story quickly spread on a national level. The National League briefly considered investigating, but St. Louis general manager Branch Rickey convinced them the story was hogwash. The pitcher later admitted to being drunk but claimed he never left his hotel the night in questions and that his manager had made up the kidnapping details in order to tell a good story. Regardless of its veracity, the “abduction” became synonymous with Rhem from that point forward.
Later, Rhem’s son and only child Sonny explained, “He had an alcohol problem. It would come and go, come and go. He struggled with alcohol his entire life. That was his weakness.”
In his 12 seasons in the majors spent with the Cardinals, Boston Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, he finished 105–97 with a 4.20 ERA. He pitched in four World Series (winning two and losing two) but was ineffective, going a combined 0–1 with a 6.10 ERA in four appearances (two starts).
Later in life, Rhem’s version of the kidnapping story evolved. He claimed that on the night in question, he hadn’t been drinking at all but was felled with a bout of food poisoning from a bad steak dinner. He elaborated:
“Mr. Rickey came by my room… Outside in the hall there were a few sportswriters… Mr. Rickey said, ‘You look like somebody kidnapped you’ and I responded, ‘call it what you like.’ Now that’s all I said so help me.”
The legend of the kidnapping is simultaneously humorous and extremely sad. Rhem had moments of great achievement throughout his career but also likely left a lot on the table given his ability and the obstacles presented by his addiction. His legacy should be greater than an absurd story, but nearly a century later it appears he will be measured more by the sum of his faults than his achievements.
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