Bugs Raymond decided to become a wrestler. After his disastrous 1910 season—4-9, 2.81 ERA and John McGraw hiring a former police officer to chaperon the wayward pitcher—Raymond decided to try the ring. The Chicago Daily News said during his debut—and finale-at Chicago’s Alhambra Theater:
“(H)is shoulders were twice pinned to the mat by Joe Kennedy, a local semi-professional. Kennedy won the first fall with little difficulty. Bugs came back strong and took the second but was unable to stand the pace and was forced to yield the third.”
Bugs
Three days after the December 17 bout, Raymond told the paper he was done”
“It’s a harder game than I figured on. As soon as you slip out of one hold, they don’t give you time to think, but clamp another on you right off the reel. The strain is something awful. Me for baseball. The worst thing they can do there is chase you to the bench when you aren’t right.”
More importantly for the Giants and McGraw, in January the team announced that Raymond would be going to Dwight, Illinois, to, according to The St. Louis Times:
“Submit to the rejuvenating influence of the Keeley cure.”
The paper doubted the success and concluded:
“The consensus of opinion hereabout is that Arthur is not worth the trouble.”
The St. Louis Star said, “we will bet…Raymond’s seat on the water cart is vacant.”
The Chicago Evening Post reported on Raymond’s final day in Chicago and his trip to Dwight—80 miles from Chicago—accompanied by “Sinister” Dick Kinsella—Giants scout, McGraw’s right-hand-man, and former minor league executive:
“Before starting the course, it is customary to give the ‘patient’ all he desires of his favorite beverage. Kinsella called for his man on the West Side and together they made the rounds of Bugs’ usual resorts. A farewell drink was taken at each place.”
“Sinister Dick” Kinsella
On the train, after lunch, “There were four empties on the table when the stopping place was reached.”
When Kinsella and Raymond arrived at the Keeley Institute–the “institute” was the flagship of Keeley’s alcohol treatment practice which had more than 200 branches throughout the United States and Europe—he initially refused an injection:
“’Don’t put that in my left arm, there’s a sore there that I got in the wrestling match,’ said Bugs when the attendant started to insert the needle.
‘”No, you can’t put it in my right arm either, for that’s my pitching arm.’”
Raymond eventually relented and The Post claimed he passed his first test at the institute, turning down a shot of bourbon after receiving the injection.
When Kinsella left Raymond, he was said to be “sitting in his room smoking a pipe and planning a new curve to use.”
Bugs
Two weeks after he checked in, The New York Herald said Giants Secretary William M. Gray had received a letter from Raymond:
“He notified the club that he would be ready to join the training squad in Marlin Springs when called on by Manager McGraw and would be in first class condition ‘for the first time since I have been a professional ballplayer.’”
Raymond was said to be sober for two weeks and a letter from the institute that accompanied Raymond’s said he was “a model patient,’ and:
“He complies with all the rules of the institution and is getting along as well as could be expected.”
After Raymond had spent six weeks in Dwight, The New York Tribune said, “the eccentric twirler of the Giants has been discharged from the institution completely cured,” and would be leaving St. Louis for training camp in Marlin Texas on February 18,
Raymond spoke to The St. Louis Post Dispatch before leaving for Texas. The paper said:
“Arthur Raymond, who no longer desires to be known as Bugs, may slip from the water wagon he so arduously climbed upon during the six weeks at Dwight Institute.”
Raymond said he had “good reason” for wondering if he could pitch sober:
“’In all my days as a baseball player I always pitched my best when I had a comfortable ‘edge’ on,’ said Raymond naively. ‘Now I am on the water wagon and will probably stick, but wouldn’t it be funny I failed to make good while behaving?’
“’If I find I can’t make a success on the mound as a prohibitionist, I’m going to tumble, because I know that I can pitch ball when I’m geezed. I will be a pretty rich man at the end of the season, though if I keep riding high and dry.”
Raymond told the paper he met with McGraw in Chicago in mid-February and signed a contract that “calls for a boost of $1700 over what I drew last year.” Raymond said his salary for 1911 would be “almost $6000.”
Raymond said he spent three days in St. Louis before leaving for the South and hadn’t “touched a drop,”
Things went well in Texas and The New York Herald said:
“The Mighty Insect is working his head off to make a showing in the practice and exhibition games…He figures that a good showing in the ante-season contests ought to put him in right with the fans back home and now he is really on the penitents’ bench he wants all hands to think well of him.”
He also dropped 17 pounds, after arriving in Texas weighing 210.
McGraw said:
“Raymond is the best right-hand pitcher in the big leagues when he’s sober and decent.”
As was well, until March 31.
The Washington Times reported that Raymond fell off the wagon when the Giants got to Atlanta:
“After pitching a few innings Wednesday against his old club, Raymond proceeded to celebrate, and that evening did not appear at the hotel until very late.”
The paper said Raymond also “was willing to mix things up” with Washington scout Mike Kehoe who was staying at the same hotel, Kehoe “seized a bat standing in the corner and made a rush for Raymond,” in order to back him down.
The New York Herald claimed Raymond was not drunk. After the Giants arrived in Norfolk, Virginia and he pitched three hitless innings against a local club, the paper said:
“Raymond was not in condition to pitch at Atlanta. It is true, but it was not drink. He contracted a bad case of malaria there and was confined to his room.”
Multiple papers retracted the story that Bugs had been drunk, John Wray, sports editor at The St. Louis Post Dispatch said the pitcher was “getting all worst of his past reputation.”
The Atlanta Georgian and News did not retract:
“Raymond skidded off the water wagon and into the pickle vat the night after he pitched against Atlanta. He showed up his old-time teammates so strong that he just had to celebrate some.”
Raymond won three games to begin the regular season, but by mid-June was 6 and 3 and seemed to have lost McGraw’s confidence. On June 16 he was sent in to relieve Louis Drucke in St. Louis with the bases loaded and no one out in the first inning. Four runs scored before Raymond retired the Cardinals.
Raymond allowed four more runs in the fifth and was removed after the sixth; he walked six and hit Steve Evans twice with pitches. McGraw promptly fined him $200 and suspended him:
The St. Louis Times said:
“A too intimate communion with lemonade, seltzer, fer-mil-lac, and other popular beverages, is said to have been the undoing of Raymond for the ‘steenth time.”
Raymond signed with a semi-pro team in Winsted Connecticut, where he lasted just one game. The Associated Press said:
“Raymond arrived last night and after amusing a street crowd for several hours, during which he was threatened with arrest, he kept a majority of the guests at a local hotel awake all night. Bugs refused an invitation to drive the village water wagon and was finally put to bed by friends, being resuscitated a couple hours before the contest was called.”
Winsted lost 6 to 4 and Raymond was let go.
He then began pitching for various semi-pro clubs on the East Coast, including a July 1 game in New Brunswick, New Jersey where Raymond pitched for a the all-woman Female Stars. The New Brunswick Daily Home News said:
“No score was kept, and no one could tell who won. In fact, no one cared…The sun proved too much Bugs and he was glad when the agony was over. He tried to be funny and succeeded only partially.”
The National Commission said Raymond’s participation in these games as a suspended player was “contrary to the letter and spirit of the National Agreement,” and that he would be subject to penalty before ever becoming eligible to play organized baseball again.
Throughout late July and early August, various reports had Raymond heading to either Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, or Mobile I the Southern Association.
The Atlanta Constitution said:
“That Bugs would prove a drawing card with any Southern league team goes without saying.”
Instead, he returned to Chicago and signed first with Harry Forbes’ Athletics—he was hit hard and beaten 7 to 1 by the Indiana Harbor semi-pro club and was let go. Next, Raymond signed with the Gunthers in the Chicago City League. Raymond showed flashes of his talent; in his first league game with the teams he beat Smokey Joe Williams and the Chicago Giants 2 to 0, and in late September he beat Frank Wickware and the Chicago American Giants 3 to 2.
In October, The New York Herald noted that while the Giants would be playing in the World Series in week, Raymond, “instead of participating” and earning “about $3000,” had given up eight runs in the first inning to the West Ends.
In less than a year, Raymond would be dead at age 30.
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Tags: Bugs Raymond, Chicago American Giants, Chicago City League, Chicago Giants, Dick Kinsella, Frank Wickware, John McGraw, John Wray, Louis Drucke, Mike Kehoe, National Commission, New York Giants, Smokey Joe Williams, Southern Association, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals, William M. Gray
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