May 23
60 Years Ago Today: "Faster Than Koufax? Cleveland's Sam McDowell" (Sports Illustrated - May 23, 1966)
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60 Years Ago Today: "Faster Than Koufax? Cleveland's Sam McDowell" (Sports Illustrated - May 23, 1966)
The agency has “confirmed 34 killings” out of the 90 women he says he killed.
Detectives are working to match confessions made by Samuel Little with evidence from women who turned up dead in Florida.
The Saga of Sudden Sam
I was excited to read that Sam McDowell was writing an autobiography. This Cleveland baseball fan wanted to read all about his best games, his part in a very underrated rotation, and his thoughts on manager Alvin Dark moving him to second base when Frank Howard came to the plate.
Well, it's not that kind of biography. While he covers his time in baseball, the 'saga' in the title refers to his battle with alcohol.
Like all stories involving addiction, it is a hard read. From the beginning he makes it clear this story is about alcohol, denial and living in a fog. But as is usual, it makes the ending all the sweeter.
From a baseball fan's perspective, perhaps the most interesting part of the book is his role in counseling for several major league teams, and his thoughts on the game itself, such as sabermetrics, Greg Maddux, strikeouts (too many), and the near extinction of the drag bunt.
But most of all it is a story of redemption, of a man seemingly obeying a higher calling to counsel his fellow athletes. At one point he talks of his son Tim boasting of his accomplishments. But Tim "would eventually be far prouder of me for my recovery and forty years of sobriety, [and] the 3 a.m. calls from panicked athletes that I never let ring their way to voicemail."
Considering where Sam McDowell once was, we too should be proud of him.
Scrimshaw (carved whalebone) pocketknife by Sam McDowell for the defunct Parisian shop Arnys. It really did bring together some wonderful things. For sale on teh internets at https://www.ebay.com/itm/Couteau-de-poche-collector-Arnys-Sam-McDowell-acier-nacre-ivoire-de-baleine-TBE/264551304589
These incidents are either linked to victims who have not yet been identified (Jane Does) or to murders described by Samuel Little that have