THE SUNDOWN KID

Author

Matthew Garringer
February 29, 2024

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The baseball newsletter that covers everything from the Ty Cobb’s mama to Clemente’s kidnapping.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about one of the most troubled ballplayers to ever play the game.

This one is not for the faint of heart.

Danny Thomas was extremely talented, but he was mentally ill and desperately lost.

He moved around constantly as a kid, living everywhere from Mobile, AL to the outskirts of East St. Louis.

His mom was obsessed with religion and became a member of the World Wide Church of God (WWCG), a sect of Fundamentalist Christianity that had been founded in the 1930s as an over-the-air radio church.

Thomas briefly attended church with his mother, but he stopped participating when he realized that the church's rule prohibiting work from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday would interfere with his baseball commitments.

In the early 70s, Thomas was a highly-sought-after prospect.

He was drafted sixth overall by Bud Selig and the Brewers in ‘72.

At first, he struggled in the minors - striking out 126 out of 458 AB’s when he played for Shreveport.

But in 1975, things were looking up.

Thomas got hot with the bat and seemed to be putting it all together, but one night he let his temper get the best of him.

An umpire made a call Danny didn’t like and he couldn’t let it go.

Thomas waited until after the game, followed the umpire into the parking lot, and punched him square in the face.

He got suspended for two months.

In a complete surprise to everyone, Danny came back better than ever the following season.

He hit .325, dropped 29 bombs, and stole 15 bags for the Berkshire Brewers (AA) in 115 games - which earned him the MVP award and the league’s Triple Crown.

That fall, Thomas got called up to the big leagues and the Brewers made him their starting left fielder.

Honestly, they had nothing to lose - they were 66-95 that year.

Danny turned in a respectable performance, hitting .276 with a .372 OBP.

They invested in their budding new star by sending him down to Venezuela to play in the winter league, but it completely backfired.

Danny couldn’t relax on the field, and he got overwhelmed with anxiety.

So much so, that one night he took a bunch of muscle relaxers and passed out - almost dying.

His wife found him, rushed him to the doctor, and they saved his life.

Unfortunately, it was the first of many incident for Danny.

The Brewers brought him back to Milwaukee, where he spent three weeks in a hospital - they paid for his treatments and found housing for his wife and daughter.

One day, he managed to sneak away from the hospital, only to be discovered by the police as he wandered aimlessly along a Milwaukee freeway.

Once discharged, the Brewers arranged labor work to keep him occupied - he abruptly quit on his second day.

Eventually, he returned to East St. Louis with his wife, and was admitted to another hospital.

Over a span of four months, he worked with psychologists, and somewhere along the way, he stumbled upon the teachings of the WWCG.

Against his doctor’s wishes, he joined the Brewers for Spring training in ‘77.

He got sober, and performed pretty well - earning himself the starting job.

Having rejoined the WWCG, Thomas was now forbidden to work between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday - which is how he got the nickname “The Sundown Kid.”

As you can imagine, that didn’t go over great with the organization.

It’s not ideal to have your left fielder missing for at least two games a week.

Factoring in scheduled Saturday doubleheaders, Thomas estimated he would miss about 40 games per season.

The team tried to work with him, but it didn’t last long.

He hit well for about the first month or so, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the games he was missing.

By mid-May, the team demoted him to Triple A.

Thomas accused the team of threatening to suspend him if he did not play on Fridays and Saturdays, but the Brewers strongly denied that.

They did, however, get him to agree to foregoing his salary on the days he wasn’t available, which costed him about $5,000 of his $19,000 annual salary.

His strange case gained national attention, with newspapers across the country covering his alleged religious persecution by the Brewers.

Even People Magazine featured a piece on him.

He attempted to change positions - from an outfielder to a pitcher - so that his mandatory days off would be less controversial.

The team gave him the opportunity to pitch, but it didn’t work out - the Brewers demoted him again, this time to the AA Holyoke Millers.

Danny went into a downward spiral.

On June 1, ‘80, he was arrested for the rape of a 12-year Mobile girl.

During his interrogation, he didn’t take accountability, but he spoke to the officers about the pressure of success, his addictions, and the deterioration of his mental health.

11 days later he committed suicide.

Lacking the money for a funeral, he was buried in a potter’s field along the highway - his own parents didn’t even show up.

RIDICULOUS STATS

BASEBALL TRIVIA

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

This dude was buried DEEP in Baseball Reference.

There’s pretty much zero information about him.

All we know is that he played in the show for six games as a member of the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1884.

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