On the blog today, a card I meant to create years ago, but would flip-flop about because of the troubled player depicted, a "not so missing" 1978 card for the "Sundown Kid", Dan Thomas of the Milwaukee Brewers:
Thomas
appeared in what ended up being the last 22 games of his short MLB
career in 1977, hitting a respectable .271 after hitting .276 in his
rookie year of 1976, when he appeared in 32 games.
Coming
into the 1977 season, Thomas, who recently joined the "Worldwide Church
of God" and began strictly observing the Sabbath, notified the club
that he would NOT play on the Sabbath, earning him the nickname
mentioned earlier.
The
media played the situation up somewhat, even leading Thomas to being
featured in People Magazine, where he is quoted as stating, "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."
Even
though the young hitter was hitting .271, he was still demoted to the
Triple-A Spokane Indians, with one columnist stating that "No matter how
tolerant and ecumenical Brewers' management wants to be, they are irked
by having a player sit out two games a week".
Thomas'
relationship further deteriorated after he even agreed to a pay cut of
one day a week while with Spokane, refusing another demotion to their
Eastern League affiliate in August after a decline in performance,
prematurely ending his season.
Brewers'
President Bud Selig even chimed in on the matter, stating "It's just a
tragic story. I know a lot of people are mad at us because of what they
think we've done to him...He's really a nice kid who wants to do the
right thing."
From
there, Thomas' pro career was essentially done, as he was unsuccessful
in later attempts to latch on with other organizations.
He'd
go on to play for the Independent Boise Buckskins in the Northern
league, where he'd actually win the Class-A batting title in 1978,
before putting in some time with the Miami Amigos of the Inter-American
League in 1979 before quitting baseball all together shortly after.
Things
took an even more terrible turn for him when, in June of 1980 Thomas
was arrested on a rape charge involving a 12-year-old girl in Mobile,
Alabama.
While
in jail on the rape charge, Thomas committed suicide by hanging, with
his family so poor that they couldn't even afford a proper funeral,
leading him to be burried in a "Potter's Field".
Thomas had a history of mental health problems, even taking to drink and pills to combat his inner-demons in the mid-70s.
In
1976 while in Venezuela, he was even hospitalized after overdosing on
pills, telling his wife, "...I wish I had cancer, then at least people
would realize what was the matter with me."
Just a tragic story all-around.
