Sam McDowell - 1968
Happy Saturday!
This week, we’re going back in time.
He was a star pitcher who had it all, lost it all—and found a way back.
Sam McDowell.
Before your time?
In the ’60s, he was one of the game’s top pitchers—a 6-foot-5 left-hander who could bring it.
But drinking would destroy his career and marriage, leaving him broke.
McDowell was forced to move in with his parents.
Years later, players would credit this same guy with saving lives.
Let’s get into it.
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McDowell threw so hard that a Cleveland sportswriter gave him the nickname:
Sudden Sam.
McDowell signed with the Cleveland Indians out of high school for $75,000.
He made his major-league debut in 1961, six days before his 19th birthday.
The fastball was already there. Finding the strike zone took a little longer.
By 1965, he had it figured out: 17-11, a 2.18 ERA and an American League-leading 325 strikeouts.
The next season, he threw back-to-back one-hit shutouts and landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated, drawing comparisons to the great Sandy Koufax:
Sports Illustrated — May 23, 1966
Reggie Jackson—yeah, that Reggie Jackson—raved about McDowell’s fastball, curveball, slider and changeup.
And Mr. October had his own nickname for him: Instant Heat.
McDowell made six All-Star teams and led the American League in strikeouts five times.
On his way to Cooperstown?
But off the field trouble was brewing.
His drinking.
McDowell said he never drank alcohol before reaching the major leagues.
It began after a game.
A couple teammates invited Sam out for dinner.
He was thrilled to be included.
So when one of them ordered a drink, McDowell ordered one too.
When they ordered a second, so did Sam.
And another.
When his teammates left the restaurant, McDowell stayed behind and kept drinking.
It was the first time I had been drinking and I didn’t want to stop.
And he didn’t.
On the field, he could still dominate.
Stay out all night. Show up the next afternoon. Pitch a great game.
One of the guys.
He quit drinking in 1967, but went 13-15.
So it was back to the booze the following season.
His ERA dropped to 1.81, and he struck out 283 hitters.
A dangerous lesson McDowell took from that:
He pitched better when he drank.
By 1971, the drinking was so out of hand that the team could no longer ignore it. McDowell was fined $1,000 after an incident on the team bus.
After the season, Cleveland shipped him to the San Francisco Giants for Gaylord Perry and Frank Duffy.
“I guarantee you the Giants are going to win the pennant next season. They’re gonna see a Sam McDowell they’ve never seen before.”
Instead, the drinking got worse.
There were fines.
And more fines.
The joke around the Giants clubhouse was that there was a “Sam McDowell Fund.”
For all the fines that were piling up.
Lexington Herald, Sept. 10, 1972
Meanwhile, Perry won 24 games for Cleveland and received the 1972 American League Cy Young Award.
Quite the lopsided trade.
Soon, McDowell was out of San Francisco, on to the Yankees for a short stay before one final shot with his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates in 1975.
But the drinking followed him.
The Pirates released him.
Sudden Sam was 32 years old.
And done.
He put on a brave face.
“I’ve been in baseball too long to let sudden changes bother me,”
Still, he admitted:
I don’t know what I am going to do.
Whatever Happened to Sam McDowell?
So, McDowell began selling insurance.
He was pretty good. But he kept on drinking.
And drinking.
And…
Soon, his marriage to his high school sweetheart Carol was over.
She divorced him and took custody of their children.
He was broke and deep in debt.
McDowell was forced to move back in with his parents. Back to his childhood home.
How’s that for rock bottom?
One of baseball’s most overpowering pitchers of his generation, living with mom and dad.
Finally, a breakthrough.
In 1980, McDowell faced the truth: Alcohol had won.
He said it to himself:
“You beat me.”
McDowell entered rehab.
He hasn’t had a drink since.
Sam Goes To School
The next question: What now?
He went back to school, studying sports psychology and addiction counseling at the University of Pittsburgh.
He wanted to understand what had happened to him.
In 1982, Sudden Sam became a certified addiction counselor.
Two years later, he started Triumphs Unlimited and hired a staff of counselors.
Want the full story in Sam’s own words? His book, The Saga of Sudden Sam: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of Sam McDowell is on Amazon.
And baseball came calling.
The Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays hired McDowell as an addiction counselor.
Then came the Baseball Assistance Team, where Sam served as its mental-health and addiction-recovery consultant.
For nearly four decades, the lefty helped players get sober and rebuild their lives.
It was here that he would do some of his most important and life-changing work.
Bernie Carbo — 1974
In 1993, an urgent call came in from Joe Garagiola.
Former big leaguer Bernie Carbo was about to commit suicide.
Carbo was in his garage. The car was running.
McDowell got on the phone with Carbo.
“I had to stabilize him and help him see an opening, that the world was not going to end and he didn’t have to end it and there was light at the end of the tunnel…”
McDowell got him into treatment for drug and alcohol abuse.
Carbo rebuilt his life, later becoming a minister and working with at-risk children.
“Sam McDowell and the Baseball Assistance Team probably saved my life. There was never a time you couldn’t call Sam McDowell. Three o’clock in the morning, four o’clock in the morning… He was there.”
Erik Drost
Today.
McDowell is 83 and retired. His son, Tim, now serves in B.A.T.’s mental-health and addiction-recovery role.
After everything he’s been through with addiction, Sudden Sam says he has no regrets.
If I hadn’t gone through what I went through, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today.
For a guy who once lost nearly everything, it has been one hell of a second act.
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Have a great weekend.
John Boxley
High N Tight
