Crime in Sports - #81 - An Enemy To His Own Cause - The Miraculousness of Ron LeFlore

Episode Date: August 21, 2017

This week, we navigate one of the most truly miraculous stories in the history of sports, or any other medium. Don't worry, he went from having Levar Burton play him in a big TV movie, and having a best selling autobiography, to being frequently arrested at inopportune times, and generally sliding into a hole of despair. And it's hilarious!Do drugs, hang out with gangsters, and disappoint Levar Burton with Ron LeFlore!!Check us out, every Tuesday. We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie WhismanDonate at...patreon.com/crimeinsportsCheck out or site: shutupandgivememurder.comContact us:twitter.com/crimeinsportsEmail: [e-mail]/Crimeinsportsinstagram.com.smalltownmurder  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can listen to Crime and Sports early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Discover all the best in audiobooks, podcasts, and originals featuring authentic Canadian voices and celebrity talent, like Brendan Fraser and Luke Kirby's latest sci-fi adventure, The Downloaded. A first listen is waiting for you when you start your free trial at audible.ca. on the Mr. Ballin Podcast, now available wherever you get your podcasts, you'll hear strange, dark, and mysterious stories about inexplicable encounters, shocking disappearances, true crime cases, and everything in between. So go listen to Mr. Ballin Podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. hello and welcome back to crime and sports yay oh the yay is washing over me. My name is James Petrigallo.

I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Oh, boy, do we have a doozy for you today. Good. I can't wait. It's so much fun and craziness and wackiness and all that. Before we get into that, I do want to thank everyone out there for your fantastic iTunes reviews this week. Thank you guys so much.

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Thank you guys so much. We appreciate the hell out of it. If you want to do a one-time donation, you can go to PayPal. You can use our address, crimeandsportsat gmail.com to make a one-time donation there. And if you don't want to do any of that, well, go fuck yourself. But besides that, no, seriously, it's fine. You don't have to do any of that. We're fine. It's fine. You just want to sit back and listen to a crazy

ass story, then that's fine. We can do that. We've got one for you. We have that prepared for you today. Let's take it back to the States this week and let us get into baseball. The American pastime. Yeah, we talked about that. It's polite baseball. Let's take it back to the States this week and let us get into baseball. The American pastime. Yeah, we talked about that. It's polite baseball.

Let's get into baseball. I feel much more comfortable here in this arena. Last week on Small Town Murder, which you should be listening to, our other podcast, on Small Town Murder, we did an Australian town, so I was uncomfortable there. I didn't know anything about it. And then we did a Jamaican cricket guy on Crime and Sports. So I was out of my league last week, completely losing my mind, trying to

figure out cultures and sports. This week, no, no, back to the States. Let's do this. Let's find out about Ron LaFleur, shall we? Ron, have you ever heard of Ron LaFleur? No. Okay. Wow. What an interesting tale. Ronald LaFleur, not a junior. That's good. Right away. His parents were John. Ronald LaFleur, not a junior. That's good right away.

His parents were John and Georgia LaFleur. He is the third of four sons born to the couple. So he's, you know, grows up in a nice, nice little family here. Four kids, couple parents together. John, his father, was a Mississippi native who moved to Memphis as a child. And he met as a child. He met Georgia, Ron's mother. They were together ever since then. They lived in Memphis until 1943 when they moved to Detroit. Oh, boy. Yes, they moved to Detroit.

John, the father, finds a job at an auto factory. Of course he does. So in the 40s, you're in Tennessee somewhere, and there's some small town in Tennessee, or not small town, but you're in Memphis, Tennessee. I don't know what the factory or industrial opportunities were in Memphis in the 40s, but you can go work in an auto factory, and that's something. So he goes up there, gets a job at the auto factory, support the family that he wants to grow, that they want to grow together.

Problem with him, though, John, big alcoholic. Oh, boy. Big alcoholic, liked to drink, had a problem with with drinking and had a problem with holding down steady jobs. He will fit in great in the Midwest. Yeah. He's good with drinking anyway. So he gets a job at an auto factory, but then he's fired and he goes here and he's working at breweries and other auto factories.

He's an underground rapper. Yeah. He's selling mixed tapes out of a briefcase outside the mall. It's just super weird. You're like, what is this about? Super strange. But yeah, the auto factory job does not last too long. Georgia, the mother, worked as a nurse's aide and worked a lot of hours, worked very hard.

She's the one that everybody in this story says that held the family together. It's all the mother. It's all Georgia. Father, not that with it. At least when uh ron was a small a small boy here ron is born to the family like we said he's the third of four sons born june 16th 1948 okay that date is a date of contention because he lies about his age really he lies about his age to the major leagues really and then he like and then, it's funny, he'll lie about it, and then he lied.

Then he said, no, I'm sorry, I was lying, and gave a different age, which is also a lie. And then finally said his. He's like a girl in Hollywood. It's exactly what it is. He's like a guy in Hollywood. He's like someone in Hollywood, except he's a ball player, which is kind of the same thing. He's a model somewhere that's trying to get the cover of some magazine. You actually have less of a shelf life in sports, too,

if they think you're a rookie at a certain age. And it's weird, too, because this story, that made it really, really difficult for me to find what was going on because for the first, I don't know, 15 hours I was looking over this shit, I'd see news accounts from the time, back in the 70s we're going to talk about, where they'd say, you know, this happened when he was only 17. And I'm like, but over here it said he was like 22. How does that work?

And then finally after, you know. Then after that you've got to look up public records and they've got to have a birth date attached to that shit. And then I would see later on that it was like, no, just conflicting ages. And finally I read somewhere, oh, yeah, he lied about his age and that became a big thing. What an asshole. Tops had to change it on his baseball card and the whole, it's ridiculous. So he's born in Detroit, raised in Detroit. He grows up on the east side of Detroit.

Not a great neighborhood. Not the worst neighborhood in the world. It's the 50s. So I mean, really, what's the worst that's going to happen? Honestly. So you get a wedgie and, you know, somebody steals your jacks. I mean, it's the goddamn 50s. He's the goddamn 50s he's a black guy he's a black guy yeah oh yeah anywhere in in the 50s as a black guy true it's tough but it's a black neighborhood yeah it's black but it's still detroit which is very

as we'll find out in the 60s later on very uh very racially divided detroit so it's you know it's one of those things lots of union guys that are like fucking tough dudes that are just beating people up for nothing. Oh, the 50s Detroit auto factory workers and brewery workers. These were tough guys. These are guys that had to lift a fucking quarter panel. There's no quarter panel on a car anymore. It's a tiny ass. It's made of plastic or fiberglass or super thin tin.

Yeah. This is a different. They're drunk, too. These guys are like his father. So they're drunk and tough and strong. It's crazy. Yes. This is a lot of crime're drunk too, these guys. They're like his father. So they're drunk and tough and strong. It's crazy. Yeah. So there's a lot of crime where he grows up though.

It's considered a working class section, but it's a poorer of the working class section. Tons of crime. Tons of it. Alcoholic father doesn't help at all either. Apparently he spent a lot of time out at bars and that sort of thing. Did not spend a lot of time with the family or taking care of business in was that a good or a bad thing who's to say well if he stopped drinking and hung out with the family might have been good but yeah if he shit faced maybe stay down at the bar pops what do you say stay over there and be drunk yeah so at this point here

ron he's free to run the streets yeah do whatever he wants. And he is doing crazy shit, by the way, from a very young age, at age 11. He talks about how he was running with an older crowd. He liked the flashy clothes and the women. Well, who doesn't? That's what I'm saying. Especially at 11. That sounds great. So I want to be my unemployed alcoholic father who sits around in his wife beater shirt, falling asleep on the couch at 8 15 drooling god that sounds amazing or or would i rather be that guy who's got like three women around him and a purple pimp hat and as a giant chains right chains and everything else because it's this you know we're talking about i i see some real real flamboyant action here because this is like 1959 hell yeah like if So I feel like if you're going to be a pimp in 1959, you've got to push it to the extreme.

God damn it. So he wanted all of this. He wanted it. He says right away, turn to crime at an early age. Age 11 was his first experience with crime. Yeah, age 11. Unbelievable. This is when he wanted the flashy clothes.

He wanted the women. He wanted to do something with himself. He says his first experience came at the local A&P food store. Okay. So the grocery store he robbed. He robbed it? He robbed it, got away with $1,500. Holy shit.

That's a haul. That's a haul. What he did, this is crazy, too. It's clever. Brought him home a house? Jesus. No, not with the money. How he got the money.

He didn't go in like guns blazing, holding the place up. He put gum, used gum on the end of a stick to fish bills out of the cashier's deposit box. This kid is amazing. That's pretty impressive, I got to say. He's a Mission Impossible kid. Yeah, I wish I would have thought of that when I was 11. I'll put it that way. Wow, I would really do.

$1,500 worth. $1,500. Holy shit. And this is in 1959. Yeah. $1,500. That's a shitload of money. You could buy four new cars for that.

You could almost buy a house back then. That's crazy. Literally, you could put that down on a house and have a nothing mortgage payment back in the... He could have just moved out, bought a house out in the suburbs, just had his own little life. I'm 11. I got my own place. A fedora, a Buick. He would have been set and had bought a house out in the suburbs, just had his own little life. I'm 11. I got my own place.

A fedora, a Buick. He would have been set and had a family. 11 years old, done. No mortgage. No mortgage, done. Talk about that guy, Dave Ramsey. Yeah, do that. So things are going not well, obviously.

So he's an 11-year-old criminal, and he's running the streets. His dad's an alcoholic. His mom is working all the time to support the family, put food on the table. All things a little out of control. He's got his brothers that he loves. His brother Harry, who's his older brother, who didn't get into crime, instead got into boxing and became a professional fighter as a lightweight. Okay.

So he started boxing, and in 1961 he has his third professional bout yeah as a lightweight boxer and dies due to injuries sustained in the match holy shit yeah didn't expect that shit that was a curveball his brother was murdered in the ring murder you thought i was going to say he won a title yeah he did something impressive no no brother could have followed this guy's footprints he straight died. He just dropped dead in the ring. I don't know if it was in the ring or later on at the hospital. I'm not sure about that. Either way.

Not a lot of press coverage of a third professional bout of a lightweight boxer in 1961. But still, Ron's only 13 years old at this point. And he's got a dead brother. And he's got a dead older brother that he looked up to. And not for nothing, that's kind of the straight and narrow. Playing sports and boxing, even though boxing is insanely crazy. We've gone over what a nutty sport it is all the time. Still, that's kind of the straight and narrow. Look at how it worked out for him.

So, hey, maybe the street's not so bad. You know what I mean? Also, two years later, he's 13 now. He was 11 then. If he was a good saver, he's still got enough money to bury his brother. He does. Absolutely. Oh, God.

You could have a whole procession with a limo and everything for that. Release the doves and all that shit. 150 bucks back then. You'd pay a fucking bagpiper on that titanium coffin. Not that they had that back then. But if they did, it was like 150 bucks back then. You can buy a Buick coffin. I'm sure they made them.

Just bury him in a Buick. Fuck it. That's fine. You can afford it. You got it. He's probably got a couple Buicks. So after his brother dies, things start to go off the rails for him.

Off the rails right away. Right when he's about 13 at this time, he spends 19 months altogether in state reform schools. Oh, no. So he's, yeah, he's not. He's screwing up. I mean, he's robbing A&Ps for $1,500. Imagine all the little schemes and scams he's pulling and getting busted for. But he's got a drunk dad, a dead brother.

His mom's the hero of the family. He's got a matriarch instead of a patriarch. And in that time, the patriarch, the father figure was what the American society was. You had to have a dad. Yeah. I mean, you don't even know if you had to have it. But if you didn't have it, you at least needed – and it's not her fault at all, but his mother had to work multiple shifts to keep food on the table because her dad's a deadbeat.

His formative years and he's- He's got nobody around. Not living what is a picturesque American dream. He's got to feel like shit and he's going to act out. Yeah. The only role models he really had that were around are his two older brothers and now one of them's dead. So, I mean, that has to give you a little bit of a sting, you know what I'm saying?

So now he's in reform schools and that's the thing too. This is early 60s juvenile shit. Right. We don't have the records for this. No. Who knows how many, he's like, I don't even know how many times I got picked up by the cops. It could be crazy. No, it could be, it's like Mike Tyson level probably of just, you know, every day he's getting picked up by the cops for something.

But he went to reform school, didn't help him, didn't make him want to do better or didn't straighten him out any. We'll put it that way. It did the exact opposite at that point. The mother tried. She tried when he got out of reform school. She tried to get him on the right path. But like we were just saying, the father figure thing hurt him and he said it himself. It really, really hurt him bad.

He just didn't have anybody that he was really, really hurt him bad. Of course. He just didn't have anybody that he was afraid that would knock him on his ass, basically. I don't know. His mother probably could have knocked him on his ass, I'm sure, but I think he was probably afraid of his alcoholic father. She was probably too tired from working all day to be able to muster the energy to knock him out. She's working night shifts at the hospital. She's like, I don't know. I just don't have it in me at this point.

I don't know. Get arrested. Do whatever you got to do. By the time he was 15 years old, 15, he is pimping women. Wow. He's involved in prostitution. Wow. Yeah.

He's literally pimping women by 15. Unbelievable. At 15 years old. 15. Yeah. He started out as like a pimp's assistant. I wish that was fake, but it's not. He started out as like a pimp's assistant.

He legitimately ran a fucking apprenticeship. And then he started at a couple of girls. He started out as like a pimp's assistant. He legitimately ran a fucking apprenticeship. And then he started at a couple of girls at 15. He's a journeyman at 15 years old. I'm a journeyman pimp.

Yes, I am a journeyman solicitor. That's what I do. Yeah, so he's doing that. He also is shoplifting like crazy. Of course. He's got con games going. Why the hell not?

He's playing like shell games on the side of the sidewalk. Really? Yeah. Playing three card money? Fucking follow the queen. Ripping people off at 15. He's a little hustler, this kid.

He's a liar. He's a hustler. He's a cheat. But he's 15. He's had a shit upbringing. I don't blame him that much. He said that his parents always told him that the crowd he ran with wasn't good. But he said he was hard-headed like everybody else, all the other kids in the neighborhood,

and he just didn't pay attention and he said that he said didn't matter anyway because they weren't in a position to give me the things i wanted yeah so he basically said like look unless you guys are going to provide me with these fine fine pimp threads right i have no fucking interest in what you have to offer you know i need a regal royal purple robe and i don't see you providing it like i don't see a single peacock feather in this entire place. Look at Ron. Look at my brother. He played by the rules. Look what happened to him. He wasn't hard headed enough. Not hard headed enough.

So by 15, all this is going on. He's pimping, shoplifting, you know, follow the queen. What's under the shell? He's doing all this shit. Also gets hooked on heroin at 15. So he's a 15 year old junkie. Bananas. This is an inverted tale, by the way. This is amazing.

If you've noticed, this is, normally we do all this stuff and it builds up to a crime. He has a whole bunch of stuff now and a bunch more later. But right now, just a whole bunch going on. A wild story so far. What the shit? He's a teenager still. He hasn't, by the way,

he has not picked up a baseball yet. Nor is he even allowed to drive a car legally. No, a teenager still he hasn't by the way he has not picked up a baseball yet nor is he even allowed to drive a car legally no i mean he hasn't even like played stickball out in the street he said he thinks he went to a tiger's game once with his dad when he was a little kid but he didn't pay attention and the experience didn't stick with him at all didn't give a shit about baseball so this isn't like he's doing all this but then on the field he has something to put nothing he's got nothing to put anything into he's doing all this, but then on the field he has something to put – nothing. He's got nothing to put anything into. He's just a shithead right out of the gate.

This story is Willie Mays Akins plus Toe Nash divided by Marvin Barnes. That's what we have here. And if you've listened to those episodes, you can really see – you can see the Voltron I just made. You really can. I'll tell you. That's a lovely sandwich. So let's do this. Let's get into our first In Their Own Words.

Okay. Last week, because it was from like the 30s and 40s, we didn't have a lot of In Their Own Words. This week, more than I could handle. Really? I had to pick and choose, because I was like, this is all going to be In Their Own Words, and I don't feel like doing all that music in the editing process. He could tell his own story.

So I have to find. He could tell. Oh, he did tell his own story. We'll get into it. But he talks a lot, let's just say, in their own words. Quote, Stealing was my specialty. As far back as I can remember, I was stealing things and getting

away with it. Every time I went into a store, I would steal something, even if it was just a rubber ball or one of those 10-cent miniature pies, just to show the other kids I could do it. Sometimes I would steal for the thrill of it. I got away with so much stuff that I began to believe I couldn't get caught. Usually, everything I did was right out in the open, too. I thought I for the thrill of it. I got away with so much stuff that I began to believe I couldn't get caught. Usually everything I did was right out in the open, too.

I thought I was the invisible man. Wow. The invisible man. Wow, you are a dipshit, sir. Sir, you're not invisible. I don't know if you've noticed. And who was stealing a 10-cent pie? I don't know.

What do you mean? Does he mean like the hostess pies? I'm thinking like the little pecan pies. You remember those? Oh, that too. Yeah, I was thinking like the hostess. I can can see those too yeah like they're like 90 cents now it's like an envelope pocket of bread with like very little fruit cardboard it's just made of cardboard so disgusting i'll eat the shit out of those too if i have a lemon one or a chocolate one oh baby bring

it to me glazed cardboard bring it to me bring me that glazed cardboard so i think maybe that's what he's talking about. I'll take one right now. They were hostess, weren't they? Fuck yeah, they're hostess. They're still hostess, goddammit. In like a wax paper wrapping. Yeah, it's a wax paper wrapping. It looks like it's from the 40s.

Like some 40s kid bought it from an ice cream truck because he's lactose intolerant. And they were all made in the 40s. They don't make them anymore. That factory shut the fuck down. I'm sure it is, yeah. The apple one has chunks of apple in it that are questionable for the quality of pie you're getting. I'm not sure. Also at this time.

And how dare they call that shit a pie? It's not a fucking pie. No. You know what? Don't. Fuck that. Last week some asshole had a raisin pie. We were talking about it on another podcast.

No. You know, a pie is a very specific thing. It's very specific. Very specific. You cannot break off some shitty little piece of cardboard and call it a pie just because you stuck some phony false fruit inside of it. Some gel. The fucking balls to call that a pie.

You injected it with fruit gel and you're going to call that shit a pie now? No. I don't think so. Pick your pie and shove it right up your ass, hostess. Fuck you. I wish you would have stayed out of business. What is that? Take your pie and shove it right up your ass, hostess.

Fuck you. I wish you would have stayed out of business. What is that? So, back to Ron here. On several occasions, what they would do, a lot of his buddies, they would break the Stroh's brewery is right around there. Stroh's is a god-awful beer. It's so gross. That they drink in the Midwest for some reason. It's so vile.

Because they make it there, I guess. Still, you don't have to drink it. No. You can stop now. This isn't the 30s. They import beer from all over the place. Everywhere. It's not like you can't get Coors west of the Mississippi like back in the No. You can stop now. This isn't the 30s. They import beer from all over the place. Everywhere. It's not like you can't get Coors west of the Mississippi like back in the day.

You can get anything you want. You can get shit from other countries, and it's amazing. Absolutely. But in the 60s, you couldn't get Coors, but you could get everything else. You can get – Strohs is what they would do. So they'd go to the local Strohs brewery, and they would break in all the time. Wow. Him and his buddies would break in to steal beers.

Just bring straws? They'd steal beer. Okay. They'd go in and steal a shitload of beer and climb out a window, and then they'd have a bunch of beer, a bunch of teenagers with a shitload of free beer. Yeah. That's not bad if you're 15. Stolen straws.

That's great, right? Yeah, it's terrific. So January 1970, he is 22 years old, or not quite 22 yet. He's 21 and a half at this point. What they would do, these guys here, there was a bar called D's. It was a local bar. What they would do is the guys from the brewery and a couple of auto workplaces around their auto workplaces, auto factories, auto workplaces, that was slick. They would go there and they would cash their paychecks at D's because back in the day,

the bar was like the center of everything. And you don't want people to have to go to the bank and then come there because then they might not come and drink. They might go home. But if they can cash their paycheck right at the bar. They can stay and spend that whole fucking thing. They can stay and spend that shit. And it was also, too, a lot of the guys were, you know, they had different shifts. So they'd get out second shift and the banks aren't even open.

Right. So they could just cash their check at the bar. So it was that sort of thing. Very good. A lot of these bars did this back then. This was, I don't know if you, oh no, Jimmy doesn't watch The Wire. Second season of The Wire, you could cash your paycheck at that bar down by the port. It's a brilliant marketing

move by bars is what it is. It is. It's smart. They'd come in and spend their damn paycheck. That's probably what happened to his father. You know what I mean? He was probably spending too much time at D's. So what they would do is they would cash tons of these checks, just tons of them. People would come in. A lot of the neighborhood people would come in. So the day before payday, they'd get a huge influx of cash from the bank so they could

pay out the checks. So they would have a lot of cash on hand the night before. So what this dipshit does, him and his friends, he has two accomplices, this moron. They're high as shit on heroin all night, by the way, too. This is in the morning. They're all high on heroin. They go in that morning, the day that the people would come with paychecks. Right.

Still doing heroin now. This is six years later, so it's got to be getting bad at this point here. Oh, he's got to be so ugly. So bad that, yeah, the bar is also right across the street from Chrysler's Mack Avenue stamping plant is where it was. That's where most of the people cashed their checks. They come into the bar. LeFleur has a rifle. Oh, shit.

And holds up the bar and steals money from them. Now, how much do you think he might get away with in 1970? More than $1,500. $36,000. Holy500. $36,000. Holy shit. $36,000. Wow. Which, I mean, that's- That barely buys you a Chrysler today.

Today, gosh. But back then. Back then. Split three ways. So even 12 grand a pop in cash in 1970, that's a year salary in 1970. That's a lot, yeah. That's like you're doing, eh, that's a decent year salary. I don't think Archie Bunker made that much for all the fucking family.

I doubt it. So, you know, this is what it is. So that's a lot of money. So they, you know, they go home and they you know, kind of party it up during the day. They get high. That's a lot of heroin. They get high as shit. Yeah. And the next day he's caught. Yeah.

Next day they're caught. Because he took a nap. Police knock on the door. And Ron tries to play stupid with the whole thing. He's like, hey, what are you guys doing here? What's going on? Hey, what's up, fellas? Hey, guys, remember I'm a con man. You know what I mean? So he's like, hey, guys.

You guys want to play three shells? It's early out there. Yeah, anybody follow the queen? Follow the queen. Red card, red card. Where's the red card? Follow the red card. So he's trying to be like, what do you mean?

As they're doing that, the other kids know they're busted, the two accomplices. As they're cuffing the one guy, the one accomplice, he points to Ron and goes, he was with us. And so they're like, okay, and they cuff Ron's ass too. Cart his ass off. Ron is already thinking about how he can kick the living shit out of that guy. Yeah, he's like, that son of a goddamn bitch.

But he was the one, Ron was the only one with a weapon in this, with a rifle. That's a bad thing. So, yeah, that makes it armed robbery, which is very, very, very bad. There's so many stories that say he was 15 at the time. And, you know, this poor kid, and it's like, he wasn't 15. He was.

He was 38 at this point. It drove me nuts. Yeah. He's charged with multiple felonies, armed robbery, and that sort of infraction. Things you would expect when you walk in with a rifle and you start aiming it at people and demanding money. An establishment and a business. What he ends up doing is he gets convicted. And for his dumb shit actions, he receives a sentence of five to 15 years.

So lenient. Five to 15. That's pretty hard. Is it? For armed robbery? He didn't actually shoot somebody. Yeah. Five to 15. That's pretty hard. Is it? For armed robbery? He didn't actually shoot somebody. Yeah. I feel like.

He didn't actually shoot somebody, but he walked in with a goddamn rifle and robbed a shitload of money. And the thing that gets me is it wasn't like he walked into a gas station and it's got 50 bucks. They planned out when the... That's, to me, why it's worth five to 15 or maybe even more because they knew when the paychecks were there. This was a calculated, planned out thing, which I give three junkies credit for. Yeah, no doubt.

They could wait that long. Not just three junkies. Let's just go in there and get it now. Three junkies that have been junkies a while. Junkies that have been junkies a while. They're not too brilliant. No, they're not too patient either. They're not very patient.

They're like, I need that shit now. And they were like, wait till the morning. Wait till they have the cash and then we go. Patience, guys. We got time on our side. So 5 to 15 at Jackson State Penitentiary in southern Michigan. So not terrific here for Farrad. And it's a state pen.

That ain't easy to do. No, it's 5 to 15 in state pen with a bunch of Detroit criminals. Harden, son of a bitches. You betcha. This is hard time you're doing right here. He arrives at prison April 28th, 1970. Arrives at Jackson State Prison. He is not yet 22 years old.

He's a young guy. With a sentence of 5 to 15, like right now in the story, he's going to be out of his prime of athletic prowess. Like there's no reason that this story should be on right now. This is crazy. You're underestimating the influences of silver-haired, middle-aged white men. Wouldn't you think there wasn't a silver-haired, middle-aged white man with a

big key putting it in a lock for this guy? And how do they already know that he can play baseball? He hasn't done it yet. He still has not touched baseball, by the way. 21 years old and in prison for 5-15 for armed robbery. Who would say, what do you think the odds are in Vegas that you just

take this guy, never picked up a baseball and you say, that guy will be in the majors in under five years. In the major leagues in under five years. How the fuck does that happen? If you take that bet as a bookie, you know you're getting paid. That's just a sucker bet. That's just an sucker bet. Yeah, that's an idiot's bet. It's a complete idiot's bet.

It's Jacksonville winning the Super Bowl. You want to put your money on that? Knock yourself out. Blake Bortles, huh? No problem. Let's do this. You want to put your kid's college fund on Cleveland? Let's do it.

Come on, buddy. Jesus Christ. That's what I'm saying here. So he's in here. So yeah, the next few years are really an amazing tale of what the hell happens here. It's a fucking miracle. I would say so. How this could happen and there are sick kids dying of cancer and we have no cure for that is fucking beyond me.

Because a silver-haired middle-aged white man can't manipulate a cure for cancer out of a system. Whereas here, boy. The silver-haired middle-aged white man benefits from the medication to keep that fucking kid sick. You steal some bases, that's another story. That'll get you. Get out there and run for your fucking health, kid. If these kids could steal bases, their cancer would be cured, I have a feeling.

That's the thing. Your cancer would be cured if you could run, if you could steal a couple bases. This kid has opposite field power. How good are you at jumping and robbing home runs, kid? Let's see it. Let's see it. All right, fine. Give him the shot.

There you go, kid. Send him back onto the field. Give him the shot. The shot. The one. Not the series. No. The shot.

Not the chemo treatment. It's one shot. The shot. Give him the shot. They all carry one around in their pocket. Just capped up. Like an EpiPen. Just in case.

Just in case. You never know. I got a little cancer today. Your cells are just allergic to each other. That's all. No problem. We got you covered. There you go, kid.

Hey, I feel great. I can steal 10 more beds this year now. This is terrific. That's terrible. Unbelievable. Why am I laughing so hard at that? Because it's ridiculous. How do you not?

Because that's what our system is built like. It's fucking disgusting. So he's in prison, 21 years old, 1970. His first year in prison, huge long stays in solitary. He is an asshole in prison. He does not want to follow the rules. Not a good inmate? Not a good inmate. A kid at 11 that's robbing the grocery store is a bad inmate?

And a con man. Pimping hoes at 15? Yeah, I would assume this is a different lifestyle. He's probably not going to take too very kindly. Figure this would straighten him right up. Yeah, straighten him right up. No, shockingly enough, resisted a more regimented environment, as a matter of fact. Rejected his work assignments.

Refused to do work assignments. He's never worked a day in his goddamn life. What do you mean I got a schedule? Go fuck yourself. rejected his work assignments refused to do work he's never worked a day in his goddamn life i mean i got a schedule go fuck yourself huh i was gonna do heroin and then rob a grocery store what are you talking about schedule what what's wrong with you jesus christ saying exactly that huh what no work so i'm in here against my will man you're making me do shit how am i gonna make money off of that what are you talking about? He would challenge the guards. He would challenge, just for no reason, just do that.

No, just to be anti-authority. It was really, really hard for him to get into just the whole transition and the swing of prison. Because, you know, it's hard if you're not cooperative with the whole thing. Later on, though, he started to understand that you get time off for good behavior. Oh, I can get out early? So he started to go, huh? That's like that shot you were talking about. That's wow. Okay.

I'm allergic to time in prison. That sounds good. Yeah, we can get out early. So he said if I'm good, I get time off for good behavior. I think the other prisoners told him like, hey, asshole, what do you want to serve your 15? What the hell is wrong with you? Chill out and get out of here in fucking you know four years or five years or whatever the hell it is so he figures that out and then he learns how to operate inside the system including how to make a few bucks yeah how to manipulate the system he's a total con man

this guy he uh he figures out how to somehow get a kitchen job which are highly sought after positions in the prison so somehow he talks his way into somebody to do something for him and got a couple of favors and gets a kitchen job. And what he ends up doing is he ends up selling bread dough with the yeast in it to inmates to make the toilet, to make the toilet booze, the toilet beer they were making, actually a home brew. They called it gross. So that's what he's doing. Yeah. So he's- So gross.

But I mean, even in prison, he's not taking well to it. And then he figures out, not only, hmm, okay, time off for good behavior. I bet if I get a job in the- I need to work this system. I have not given this a chance. Yeah. I could rob and steal and do tons of shit here. I could pillage in here.

Just like I can't really pip. Maybe I can. Who knows? Who knows? He's grown to 6'2", 200 pounds at this point. Oh, Jesus. Which is a pretty big dude back then, too. That's not a small guy.

That's a lot of man. He's athletic, as we'll get into. So he probably could pimp a weaker inmate, I would assume. So maybe he would take to that. But he doesn't, which is good. Instead, he gets his first experience with baseball in prison. Really? First experience, finally, May 18, 1971.

This is his first experience in baseball. Guards versus inmates? Never did shit before. This is incredible. He started at left field for the Jackson State prison team. He learned in prison how to play baseball. How to play baseball. He said he could hit a ball a long way and he could run. He said

other than that, he didn't know what the hell he was doing. Baseball is one of these games, it's weird because football is a game where they'll find a guy in the 11th, 12th grade, never played football before, but he's 6'6 and he's 280 pounds. They throw some pads on him. In four months, he's getting taken to a Division

I school and three years later, he's in the NFL. He didn't play until he was 18. You can teach that block and skills like that. Baseball is not a sport like that. The hardest thing in any sport is hitting a home run with a bat on a ball. They're both round. You've got to find the sweet spot on the ball with the sweet spot on the bat. Dude's throwing it fast.

He's putting cuts on it, curves on it. And guess what? He's not fucking bouncing it first either. He's throwing it in. He's putting cuts on it, curves on it. And guess what? He's not fucking bouncing it first. He's throwing it in the air to you. So it has nasty movement. And by the way, he figured out the two basic rules of baseball. Hit a ball, hit it far, and run. And run fast. And that's it. That's as easy as it gets.

That will get you noticed. Yeah. Yeah, he said the strides he was making were just natural God-given ability shit. He said it was not a matter of, you know, oh, he's just super fast and turns out had super quick hands and can get around on a baseball. Not just hands, eyes. But yeah, usually though, hitting is one of those

things where you'll see a guy who could be a top-notch hitter. He hasn't picked up a bat for six months. He can't hit shit for the first couple weeks he's trying to hit a game because it's such a... It's not riding a bicycle. No. It's practice for years. It's like stand-up comedy. Yeah. You do it and you do it no matter how talented you are. You've got to master it.

You get better and better and better as you do it. It's the same type of thing. You have to master it. No matter how talented, you can't just throw someone out there and they're going to crush for 45 minutes. They just don't have that in them. So it's that sort of thing. The other thing is that baseball pitches evolve. Yeah, absolutely.

From then until five years later, the pitches are so different. It's different. The pitchers are throwing these different styles. Everything's different. He ends up here in prison winning 25 trophies for baseball. Wow. And earning the nickname Twinkle Toes. So that's not a nickname you want to have in prison, really.

That's not what I want. No, that's not a prison one. Hey, Twinkle Toes. He's like, hey, motherfucker, what did you say to me? That's fighting words. I constantly say I wouldn't last in prison, but it's because I have sweet pee tattooed on my chest. That wouldn't help either. That's not a good thing.

How'd you like to be called? Twinkle toes instead. Just as bad. Just as bad. Same plane. Probably worse, honestly. He also earns enough credits to get his high school diploma, which he's learning this is how you get out. He said, how do I get out of here early?

I said, get your diploma. Also do some other shit in addition to baseball and getting his diploma. He coached the psychiatric clinic's intramural football team. How fun must that have been? Wow. Send a few crazies out with pads on. I want to watch. Wow.

That must have been amazing. Guys at CTE would legitimately improve their condition. It might help. That's the thing. I would love to watch that. That would be awesome. And he's coaching them. He. It might help. That's the thing. It could help. I would love to watch that. That would be awesome. And he's coaching them.

He doesn't know shit. Never played football either. Doesn't know shit about football. Maybe he watched some Lions games. I'm not sure. But other than that, doesn't know a goddamn thing about football. Coaching them up. Get on out there, guy.

No, your helmet goes on the other direction. No, no, Freddie. Wipe your face. Get that drool off. The hole with the mask. That's for your face. Why is there a donut in your pocket? What are you doing? What is wrong with you? That's not going to last on the field. Get out of here. with the mask. That's for your face. Why is there a donut in your pocket? What are you doing?

What is wrong with you? That's not going to last on the field. Get out of here. What the fuck? Let's go. I would just, I'd love to watch it. Why'd you put your shoulder pads on your ass? What are you doing?

What are you doing? Why are those like a diaper? Fuck it. Those go on your arms. God, you suck. Jesus. The hole is not for your dick. That's for your head.

Forget, I quit. I come out. I'm going to stay in prison. I can't even take this anymore. I don't even care anymore. Why are your balls tied in the pads? Come on. Oh, God. I would love to watch that game. That would be

amazing. With him yelling at them, too. Come on. What the fuck? What the fuck are you doing? What? Huh? You say to me, that's what I'm going to do with everything he does. Oh, my God. I want to watch that game so bad.

While playing baseball in 1971, these are his stats according to him, which honestly, I don't dispute them because of what ends up happening out of this. This is probably what he would have to be for anyone to notice. He says in 1971, he hit 469. Whoa. 469. He says the next year in 72, he hit.569. Wow. Which is ridiculous. And every

two at-bats, he's hitting one. That's like an insane, crazy, dominant, top-level high school baseball player that's about to get drafted by a major league team. Now, while he's here, hitting.469 and.569, like we said, like a dominant high school player who's crushing it. While he's doing this, he also becomes acquainted with a guy who's going to help him out a lot.

He becomes acquainted with a guy named Jimmy Corrala. Of course it's Jimmy. Jimmy Corrala over here. Now, Jimmy is a fucking gangster. Let's be realistic here. He's an inmate who's serving four to twenty years for extortion. Yep. That's a gangster. Yeah.

So he's a Detroit gangster, Jimmy Corral. Corral sees huge potential in baseball talent in this kid. Really? Speed is one of those things that doesn't matter. You can't teach it. You can't teach speed. And if you have world-class speed, that's just world-class speed. You can't teach it. You can't teach speed. And if you have world-class speed, that's just world-class speed.

You're just an athlete. It is what it is. So that's out there, and it's a thing that is highly sought after in every sport. They always say speed kills in sports. It's one of those deals. So he sees this and sees that he can actually hit a baseball, and the fact that he's barely played and he's already this good. So what Corralolla does is he makes a phone call to a friend of his that he's been around forever. It's a good friend of his named Jimmy Butsikaris.

It's another Jimmy. Jimmy Butsikaris. Yeah, it's a bunch of fucking Guinea gangsters. They're all named Jimmy. Sorry. Jimmy Butsikaris, he owns a bar in Detroit. It's a lot of these, you know, all these bar owners are like the center of all this. It's called a front.

Well, kind of. He makes a living off the bar. He runs the bar. People come in. But if you need somebody who wants them to hold something for him until somebody else comes in, it's kind of like on the wire with, never mind, Jesus, with Butchie and Omar and he holds Omar's money as a bank. Everybody else gets it.

That's fine. God damn it. Again, wire references never stop. It's never going to stop. I got to get through it. So it's a Butchie-type situation here. So he runs the Lindell Athletic Club. That's a bar.

And it's a bar frequented by Detroit sports celebrities. That's where, like, the players go for a drink after the game sort of thing. So, Boutsikaris, he knew everybody. He knew all the famous people came in. He knew all the gangsters and the shitheels that came in. He's just one of these guys. A good friend of his is a fellow named Billy Martin. Now, if you don't know who Billy Martin is,

he was a manager for several MLB teams, took several to World Series, won a couple World Series. He's the guy who George Steinbrenner, and he argued constantly, and he was fired, I want to say seven times by George Steinbrenner. And brought back and fired and brought back. He literally would get fired. One year he got fired, and then we went over it in an old Crime and Sports episode.

I think it was Chad Curtis maybe or one of those episodes. Mel Hall possibly. One of these. But he would basically get fired. There was a time he got fired before the season and rehired before the season was even over. It was like shit like that. One time he got fired, rehired in a month. They'd get mad at each other.

He'd fire them, and then they'd be like, well, he is a good manager. And Billy was a great manager. A fiery, hothead, alcoholic guy who likes to hang out in bars and especially likes to hang out at the Lindell Athletic Club with his best buddy, Jimmy Boutsikaris, who was Billy Martin's best man at his wedding. Holy shit. That's where we're at here.

That's how tight he is. Billy Martin has kind of a connected bar owner as his best man of his wedding. This is the type of cat Billy Martin is. Yeah. Very silver haired in this sense as we'll find out how. So in prison he's stealing bases in addition to all of his crazy hitting skills and everything else like that. By the way, the Twinkle Toes nickname had a last part to it, which I don't know if that's because he's black or what, but they called him

Twinkle Toes Bosco. Oh, boy. I don't know if that's because he's chocolate or what the fuck it is. But you got to toughen up Twinkle Toes and Bosco's a good way to do it.

I guess so. It's not bad here. So anyway. It's not even his name. Anywhere near it. Nowhere near it. It's so stupid. So Corolla talks to Boutsikaris.

Boutsikaris tells Billy Martin, hey, guy in prison here, a buddy of mine, to know he's talking about he says there's some kid up there you really should take a look at i don't know i mean he's real good i don't know whatever he's in prison so uh lafleur writes a letter they tell uh they tell uh lafleur write a letter to the tigers write a letter to billy martin introduce yourself yeah whatever uh he writes a letter to him, to Billy Martin. Billy Martin must have been impressed by the letter because May 23rd, 1973, Billy Martin himself, the manager of the Detroit Tigers. Personally shows up to the prison.

Get the fuck out of here. Makes a trip to Jackson State Prison to see Ron play in a prison baseball game. Unbelievable. That's crazy, first of all. The luck. That's a movie. For real. That's a movie where you're like, he's not going to go to a...

Come on. It's bullshit. Fuck Angels in the Outfield. This is amazing. It's like The Replacements. It's like, oh, they got the guy out of prison to play and that doesn't happen. Angels in the Outfield is much more believable than this shit. Absolutely.

This is crazy. And he's only on year three of a five to 15 year sentence. Five to 15 years. And he's got the guy coming to visit. I have a feeling if you're Billy Martin and you manage the Tigers, you might be able to silver hair some fucking guy out of prison if you want. Michigan officials might talk to you. You never know. Billy loves him.

He looks great. He's speed and power. Billy's like, holy shit, loves speed and power. Who doesn't love speed and power? Where did this kid come from? Yeah, because he had power at this point, too, because he was shitty pitching also. But he's making contact, and he runs like the wind. That's something we can work with right there.

Stuff you can't teach. Hit that ball on the ground and run it out. Even if you can't get a fly out of it, just fucking drill it through and we'll worry about that later. Back then they would teach a fast guy like that, swing down, hit it to the ground and run your ass off. You're going to get some base hits out of that. So June 16th, 1973, that is his 25th birthday, or as the Tigers at the time think, his

20th birthday. They think it's his 20th birthday. They think he's 20 years old. They're like, oh, look at this teenager out there running around. Look at him. And he's stocky like a man. Weird. Real strange for a teenager. Surprise. Look at the cock on this kid. Oof, my god.. Surprise. Look at the cock on this kid. My God. Impressive. Look at you.

My goodness. Look at all of that chest hair. My fuck. Man. So June 16th 1973 he is brought on a day furlough to Tiger Stadium. Wow. To try out. What the fuck. In front of Billy Martin. I've never

had this before. Before a game. This wasn't an off day. There was a game that day. He's got to drop a game plan and a lineup. But before I do that, I'm going to take a look at this con. And if it's anything like the dramatically depicted scene that I saw later on, he comes in and all the other guys are there. And the coaches are talking to Billy Martin like, what are you fucking trying on a convict?

This kid's got a blue uniform on with numbers on it. What the fuck is that? They're like, what are you bringing in a convict for, Billy? What the hell's wrong with you? And Billy Martin's like, nah, don't worry about it. Just watch. Hey, don't worry about it. I'll knock you out.

The kid in scrubs. Watch this. Watch this, kid. So they get him a uniform, throw him out in center field. They say, shag some fly balls and see what you can do. And he does that, and they put him at the plate, and he's got a great arm on him, too. Can't teach speed and arm strength. Those are two things you can't teach, and this kid is tracking balls, tracking them down.

He's not a great, skilled center fielder yet. Fielding is hard in baseball. That takes the most skill of anything, too. That's a bugger. Yeah, and he was a gold lover. That's what I mean. So things can happen, but he's out there. He has range.

He can get to balls, and when he gets to them, he has a cannon for an arm, and he can fire it back to the infield. So we're like, that's good. He also gets in the box and starts hitting, and he's crushing balls. He's having the best hitting day of his life, as a matter of fact, here. It's wild here. We have an in-their-own-words on this whole thing, on this try on this whole thing on this tryout in their own words quote i had a phenomenal tryout i hit the ball on the upper deck which i didn't do much when i got to the tigers i had all the tools so he's hitting

upper deck shots they're impressed that's unbelievable not to mention they think it's his 20th birthday yeah they're even more impressed that part blows my fucking mind they have no fucking idea. The weird thing, too, he's not from the Dominican. He's not from some small town in the Dominican with no running water. He's from fucking Detroit, which at least back then was still a city. He's got a birth certificate, for fuck's sake. That's what I'm saying.

How are you lying about this? The other part is like— They make cars where you're from. There's VIN numbers on them. At this point, they've had conversations with him. How does he tell his life story and leave out five years? How does he just delete that? He just completely deletes it.

Said, I was born in 53, got busted when I was just 17 or 16 years old, and I'm here now. That's it. Isn't it sad? Because it makes him much more sympathetic. They're like, he was just a kid. He didn't know anything. Not that he was a 21-year-old junkie who was fucking staking out a place to make a big score. They don't know about this.

He's probably going to be a little quiet, too, like a little shy. He doesn't want to tell his whole deal. No, he's a con man. He can pretend really well. He's a great con man, too. He's really good. So good that just a little over two weeks later, July 2nd, 1973, the Tigers sign him as an amateur

free agent. And he's going to go to the minors to play center field. Wild, right? Think about this. He's three years into a five to 15 year bid. They're not even worried about that. Billy Martin doesn't even bring that up as a

potential obstacle. He's like, if I want the kid out of prison, I'll get him out of prison. He'll be out. What are we talking about here? One silver hair to another silver hair and we'll make a connection. I'm picturing the face on those other two fucks that robbed D's with him sitting at some bar one day eating pretzels and drinking warm beer. Free peanuts going. And then they look up the TV and they go, what the fuck? Is that fucking Ron?

Is that Ron? Hey, he was with us. Somebody cuff him. Hey, everybody, how the fuck did that happen? Cuff him on the field, please. Why is he there? He's in the box. He's not even at the game watching.

He's in the fucking game. He's in the goddamn game. How did this happen? What happened? So he signs for the minimum of $15,000 a year. Yeah. He says he kept his personal life on the conservative side. He's doing in their own words on that, on the money.

He says in their own words, quote, as far as money goes, I'm just scuffling. I'm not buying a car or furniture or an expensive hi-fi. I'm not going to get anything real pretty right now. I'll wait a year or so until I get a little money saved. So I guess I'm putting my energies in the right places for a change. I used to think that flashy people and big parties and dope were exciting, but not now. I don't want to rip and roar around the streets anymore. I'm good now.

I am good now. He just said the most 70s thing ever, too. I don't want to be ripping and roaring around the streets now. I'm not putting that and I'm not putting a bunch of money into some hi-fi. Some hi-fi and big parties and dope. Hi-fi, you idiot. Get me some dope Essex sign. So, 1973 at age 25, they think 20, he makes his debut for the single A Clinton pilots in the Midwest League.

I can't get over that. It's ridiculous. That's why. They think he's 20. They think he's 20. So, yeah, he's playing in Iowa for the Clinton Pilots. So now he's in Iowa instead of the east side of Detroit. A little different deal.

His manager here is actually Jim Leland. Really? Who is hugely famous manager, World Series champion a couple times over. How does he get this? Manages the Pirates, manages this, all this. Well, he started out in single A in 1973, Iowa, managing Ron LaFleur. LaFleur comes into contact with these legendary managers constantly. Magic.

He's insanely lucky. In 32 games in 73, he hits.277, which is amazing for a kid who never played baseball before. Zero home runs, eight RBI, two stolen bases. Only 32 games. So they're just checking him out. It's funny. They asked the owner Bill Veek, or Bill Veck. Bill Veck is the guy who owned

a minor league team and hired that little person that we've all seen the picture of, of a guy about a foot and a half tall in the batter's box. I've never seen him. It's hilarious. He hired a guy. It's hilarious. He hired a guy who was two and a half feet tall to, just because he said he's got no strike zone. No strike zone. He's got no strike zone.

So he would just walk every time. Strategy. It was ridiculous. So that's what ended up happening there. That's how you get a. No strike zone. He's got no strike zone, so he would just walk every time. Strategy. It was ridiculous, so that's what ended up happening there. That's how you get a point on the board. That's it right there. He's definitely going to get on base. So this guy's crazy. They asked him where Ron's going to play on his team, and he said, quote,

somewhere in our outfield. Judging from the performance of our outfielders last year, shouldn't be too difficult to find a spot for him. He's like, we suck. We eat dicks. He'll fit in. It's fine. We'll get him. Jim Leland said about Ron, quote, when I was told I was going to get him, frankly, I didn't know what to expect.

I presume you could have all sorts of problems with a kid on parole. Could he cross state lines with the ball club? Did I have to keep him out of bars and pool halls? What happened if a brawl broke out on the field and he piled on? As it turned out, I didn't have any problems with Ron at all. I guess the prison experience must have helped him rather than hurt him.

So everyone has nice things to say about him. That's an interesting quote, too. What do I do if there's a brawl on the field? Fucking send him out first. He'll clean the shit up. Don't worry. The guys will be like, oh shit, he just got out of the joint. They won't want to fight long. He just got out of the joint, this guy. Holy shit. He's got a spider web on his

elbow. And we've mentioned his cock before, too, which is also very scary. He just got out of the joint this guy. Holy shit. He's got a spider web on his elbow. And we've mentioned his cock before too which is also very scary. He is smacking fools. So before he can get up to the major leagues, Billy Martin is fired. Billy Martin is a hot flame. He comes in and he burns out. He burns hot and it's over. He burns hot and it's over. He's like a sparkler.

Exactly. He'd later manage in Texas and New York and Oakland and all these different places here. But he always believes that, you know, he always thanks Martin for his course, getting him out. Fuck else. You live your life. You better thank him every day. You don't even pray to God anymore. You pray to Billy. Pray to Billy. That's your God. He said he Billy recognized his intensity and his passion for the game.

He said in their own words, quote, this is about baseball and about first coming into baseball. It's an interesting thing here in their own words, quote, I was scared at the plate. I'll admit it. In prison, I saw curveballs only once in a great while, but in the minor leagues, I saw hundreds of them. Most of them weren't even good curveballs, but they sure fooled me. I'd be standing at the plate. The pitcher would throw the ball hard and inside, and I'd jump out of the way thinking it was a fastball and the umpire would call a strike. We mostly played night games at Clinton, and I had never played under the lights. They had other uses for the floodlights in Jackson. Jesus.

So, yeah, they had to use the lights to, like, look for escapees, so we really couldn't play under the lights. The floodlights were meant to keep on so that it fucking tortured us at night. Yeah, that's the other thing. So, 74 season. He plays 102 games in the minors for Evansville and Lakeland. Minor league stats, 102 games. He hit.331 in the minors.

Oh, my God. Smoking at the ripe age of 21, they think. He's just, God, what a natural. Unbelievable. Seven home runs, 41 RBIs, and 45 steals. Also seven triples. He's fast as shit. Fast as shit and making contact. Seven triples. Seven triples. Wow. It's. Also seven triples. He's fast as shit. Fast as shit and making contact.

Seven triples. Wow. It's a lot of triples. 391 on base percentage. That's incredible. The third, you get to the third base on one hit. That's hitting the ball inside the park and getting to third base. That's so fast. If you're a cricket fan, you can spend days looking this shit up and trying to figure it out like I did.

How's that, fuckheads? Yeah, that's right. I had to do it, so now you can do it. During this time, a broken hand happens to the Tigers' regular center fielder, Mickey Stanley, and the Tigers are screwed. They need an outfielder really bad, so guess what they do? They call up Ron to the big leagues. August 4, 1974, he makes his big league debut. Jesus.

Four years after he was sentenced to prison. Five to 15 years. And had never picked up a baseball. Never. This is what I mean. Four years later, he's standing on the on-deck circle going, I'm going to play in a big league game. This isn't grace, by the way. No.

This is not even grace. This is crazy. We haven't even reached there yet. Makes his MLB debut, major leagues against milwaukee he goes oh for four with three strikeouts um he said he was shitting his pants nervous you know as i can imagine uh on august 12th though he belts his first major league home run it's a two run shot to right field off kansas city uh nelson bryles was pitcher. His stats in the majors that year, he played 59 games, 260 average, 2 home runs, 13

RBI, 23 stolen bases and a 301 on base percentage. Not bad for 59 games. For never playing baseball before. And only being a 21-year-old babe in the woods, you know. Just a child. A lot of errors in the field

because it's hard to get fielding down. 11 errors and had a 935 fielding percentage, which is terrible in the outfield. But he's learning, so whatever. He's fast and he's getting to shit at least. 75 season. That season starts April 27, 1975. There's a huge article on the Tigers team all doing transcendental meditation. There's about a dozen tigers participating. This fucking

quack shit. Including the general manager and Ron. Yeah. He's participating too. Maharishi Mashiogi this shit. But, hey, you know what? This shit kind of worked for these guys. It works for a lot of people, but there's a lot of people that go, what the fuck is that? That's what Jerry Seinfeld swears by. Really?

He does it too? He says he's been doing it for 40 years. Wow. It keeps him chill and it keeps him balanced and that's how he has a billion dollars. It's just getting your time every day to just be by yourself. I'm sorry for that shit. I'm too aggravated. I'm too much anxiety going on in me. It wouldn't be relaxing for me. I would just be like that.

I get in the shower and in my room with my door fucking locked and I'm in the shower with soap in my eyes and I hear, Dad! And I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about, Dad? What if I was meditating, you dick? Yeah, that's not going to happen. Get out of here. My dick's out, for Christ's sake. Come on, dick's out. Ron is also doing the meditation, which seems like an odd

fit, but I guess he's trying to fit in. But it seems to work because by the All-Star break that year, middle of the season, he's hitting 289, 7 home runs, 28 ribbies and 25 steals. Jesus. He's having a hell of a year. Second half of the season, he's hitting 289, seven home runs, 28 ribbies, and 25 steals. Jesus. He's having a hell of a year. Second half of the season, though, he went in the shitter.

He hit 206 in the second half of the year. Too much time with himself. Yeah, absolutely. Ended up playing 136 games. By the way, keep attention to the game total because there's something later that's going to come up. He just can't help but lie. It's just one of those things here. 136 games.

He had 258 average, 8 homers, 37 ribbies, 6 triples, 28 steals, and a 302 on base percentage. That's good. The 28 steals sound good, but he was caught stealing 20 times. Okay. So he's fucking up. That's not great. 50-50. He did, however, lead all center fielders in assists.

Oh. That is throwing a runner out from the field, which in the outfield, that's pretty good if you can do that. That means you've got a cannon on you. Spring of 76, some bad shit starts happening for him here. Spring of 76, his brother Gerald is murdered. Oh, my God. Now he's got two dead brothers.

This is his younger brother, Gerald. Gerald was into gang activities, was dealing drugs, doing all sorts of shit, and got caught up in some street shit and got murdered. Happens on the wire, I hear. It happens all the time on the wire. Omar tried to take his shit, and he said no, and Omar don't scare.

Omar had his- Omar knifed him up. He had his- No, Omar's got a shotgun with pumpkin balls in it. That's what Omar- Pumpkin balls? Pumpkin balls. That's how Omar play.

Can't trace him. No ballistics. Coming right out, baby. All right. Come on. Watch this shit, goddammit. So that's rough right away. I mean, that's...

I don't even know what to say about that. That's got to be brutal for him at this point. But life is going well otherwise. He perseveres. Yeah. He comes out. He carries on. 1976, before the season, his real age comes out.

Oh, boy. He first tries to say. He told a story and got caught. And he first tries to say, oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, no, I'm actually two years older than that. Whoops-a-daisy. He tries to bullshit it, and then it comes out that, no, you're actually five years older than that. So for the 1976 baseball card, Topps changes it on his card.

Hilarious. So the year before, you're like, how'd this guy get five years older if you've got his cards back to back? And now Detroit's got to be pissed. They're like, we just invested this. But it doesn't matter because the way he plays, you're like, shit, I don't care how old. I don't care if he's 60 the way he's playing. He starts off the season by compiling a 30-game hitting streak, which is insane. That's like, I mean, if you look at the course of history, how many 30-game hitting streaks there are, it's usually really good hitters and there's not that many.

And they're usually the little guys. Yeah, or a single double hitter, not your power guys. Right, they're not crushing the ball. You get a Pete Rose or you get a Joe DiMaggio. Well, actually DiMaggio had some homers too. But yeah, anyway, so he's crushing. 30-game hitting streak is off the charts and that draws some attention, turns some heads. He is the May 9th, the week of May 9th player of the week in the AL.

Wow. He is the May 1976 American League player of the month. He's been to prison. He's been to prison, learned to play ball, and now he's the player of the month. Fuck. This is five years, six years later this is going on. You never would have thought. This year, also, too, people are noticing him.

Other players are noticing him. Gary Carter, who's a later all-star catcher, World Series champ with the Mets in 86, he says, quote, he slid into second base so many times with such authority, I'm surprised he didn't break his ankles. Jesus. He would just run so hard and hit that bag with the slide real hard, pop up. He slid into second base so many times with such authority, I'm surprised he didn't break his ankles. Jesus. So, like, he would just run so hard and hit that bag with the slide real hard, pop up, that kind of dude. He's also an idiot because at one point this season he gets— Because he robbed a fucking game.

Well, besides that, this is actually dumber than that. He got caught with the hidden ball trick. Now, if you don't know what the hidden ball trick, it's some shit you do in Wiffle Ball when you're 12. Rookie of the year? Yes. He's leading off first base. The rosin bag trick? Let's explain this a little bit.

Okay. Holy shit. You have the bases, obviously. I didn't even know this happened ever in the game. It's happened in real life here. This is embarrassing. That's how dumb they had to think he was to try it. Think about that.

They're not trying on someone who's, you know're gonna be like he's the one right he's we've been talking about this for five years and that's the dummy that's our bitch so let me try to explain what this is the hidden ball trick uh first base he's at first base which is the first base there past home plate uh he's off there you're allowed to steal a base he's leading off the base uh you know's leading off the base, standing away from the base while the pitcher's about to pitch. What the pitcher can do is they can either pitch. This is for you cricket people. I'll give you

a nugget. They can either pitch or they can throw over to first base, and when they throw over to first base, the guy runs back to the base. The first baseman sees if he can tag him, and he throws the ball back to the pitcher. And then you lead back off. That's how it works. But if you do a trick like in Little League or in, like, you know, wiffle ball where the pitcher throws the ball over to the first baseman,

first baseman tags the guy, he's on the base, so the first baseman cups the ball in his hand or in the glove but acts like he's throwing it back to the pitcher but he's got it still in his glove. The guy leads off and then he tags him. And the pitcher's got to pretend like he caught the ball. Exactly. There's a lot going on. You have to get a guy completely not paying attention and here's a guy also that he spent his life before baseball making people not keep their eye on the ball this

is fucking amazing tables are turned here you go follow this queen asshole so they end up throwing over they swipe back he pretends his first baseman did a pretty slick too ron never looks at the pitcher the ball to see if it's back he just has his head down starts leading off again dude reaches up tags hitting over that's it like as the only time i've ever seen that happen i can't believe it it's not the dumbest thing he ever does on the field too that's later uh but his stats this year are phenomenal. 135 games. Once again, make note.

He was 136 last year, 135 this year. 316 average. 316 average, which is great. Four homers, 39 RBI, eight triples, 58 steals. Jesus. That's getting into a high amount. That's some threatening territory to where you're like, you matter. You're a big tool in the game.

Hit 376 on base percentage and most of all 126 runs, which is what the game's all about, and that leads the league. He led the league in runs. In scoring. In scoring. He got on base, and his teammates really got him in. Also, his pressure that he puts on people stealing bases. He'll take that extra base on you if you hit a ball to right field.

He's going a third from first, no doubt. 58 times. 58 times on the steals. He actually makes the All-Star team. What? He's a goddamn All-Star. He was in prison. Six years ago.

He never played baseball. Six years ago, never picked up a baseball, sentenced to five to 15 years. All-star. Not to mention a junkie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Also a junkie. Heroin addict. Complete junkie.

And now he is a major league baseball all-star. Holy fuck. Never to be. This is the craziest goddamn story. This is ridiculous. It's wild. So 1977, he comes back, plays 154 games that year. So we'll say that.

325 average, 16 home runs. He upped his power at a leadoff spot. 57 RBI, 10 triples, 39 steals. They're down because he's hitting more power and hitting doubles, too. 363 on base percentage, 212 hits, which is a shitload. 200 hits is a big deal. That's a lot. That's a shitload of hits.

He leads again, leads center fielders in assists. The league. Leads the league for center field. Leads the AL in assists. And for his efforts, he is named by the organization as, quote, Tiger of the Year. Jesus. He is now Tiger of the Year. He is the King of Detroit.

From being Junkie of Cell Block B, who needs to go to solitary because he doesn't follow directions king of detroit oh my god he is he is he's the king of detroit prior to kid rock and m&m this is ridiculous this is wild man this is an m&m story yeah this is like some hardcore unbelievable i could see him fucking you know up there freestyle battling people, rapping. Maybe he could rap. I don't know. He's never found that out. So 1978, he plays 155 games, 297 average, 12 homers, 62 RBI, three triples, 68 steals, which leads the major leagues. The whole league.

361 on base percentage, 198 hits. Unbelievable. 361 on base percentage, 198 hits. Unbelievable. Even more than that, his autobiography, Breakout, From Prison to the Big Leagues, hits bookstores. Yes. And people just lap this up like you would not believe. I am right now. It's a great story.

I can't get enough. It's an amazing success story, right? And at this point, he's reformed and turned around. So this book is fantastic. That's what I mean. He's an all-star. He's out there banging he's reformed and turned around. So this book is fantastic. That's what I mean. He's an all-star. He's out there banging whoever Brittany Murphy is of that day. It doesn't matter.

He's killing it. Banging whoever he wants. He's going down to that Lindell Athletic Club and he's lining them up on the bar. He doesn't give a shit. So this is what I mean. This is crazy. Now he's like a best-selling author. Yeah.

This is wild. People are loving him. It's insane. So insane that on September 26th, 1978, a movie based on his book comes out, airs on CBS National Television.

Movie of the week. Family movie of the week. One in a million. The Ron LaFleur story. They all have to have a story. You know who plays him? Who? Take a guess. Denzel. No, it's the 70s. It's 78.

A young Denzel. LeVar Burton. Get the fuck out of here. LeVar Burton. Reading Rainbow. LeVar Burton. Reading Rainbow trying to play ghetto is the funniest shit you've ever fucking seen. He just got sued on his podcast for using a catchphrase for Reading Rainbow.

Bullshit. He needs to just be talking about this shit the whole time. Oh my god. This is unbelievable. There's a scene of him like shooting hoops like out in the street like before he went to prison. He's gotta be a gangster. And he's like, listen here, Jack. Like he's like, you know what I mean? Like, you don't mess with me. Like they're trying to make him

super ghetto, but it's LeVar Burton. You're like, come on, Kunta Kinte. Get the fuck out of here. No, I'm not buying that shit from you. Put that one-piece sunglass back on, Star Trek boy. Sorry there, Toby. It's not happening, dickhead. No.

No. You're not ghetto. You're fucking LeVar Burton. That's hysterical. Sorry. Yeah. You're the least ghetto person you could think of. You read books to white children.

Yeah. Just do that. Just please. White families in the 80s trust you with their children. That's how pure you are. Racist people are like, let this black guy read to you for a couple hours. He's fine. That's how beloved you are.

That's how straight-laced and beloved you are. And instead, playing it. Also, too, Larry B. Scott, who is the black guy in Revenge of the Nerds. He's the black nerd. The black gay nerd. So flamboyant. So flamboyant. He plays Gerald, his little brother who was murdered by drug dealers. Oh, that's so sad.

He plays Gerald in this one scene where he comes for the tryout like I told you about. Gerald's in the stands watching him. He's going to hit it this time. He's going to do it. Makes it more believable that he got murdered. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. He was a soft twink.

He wasn't in this. This was no hate crime involved. Right. We're not saying that's a good thing. No. We're saying in 70s Detroit, maybe that's what caused it. It's much more believable. Somebody on the street was like, I think you get it.

But no. So Larry B. Scott's in here. Billy Martin is in this movie, acting. Really? Playing Billy Martin, obviously. That's hysterical. But come on, Ron. Let's go take you out to the field and see what you can do i'll talk to you after the game ron like i don't know he must have been sober for five minutes to shoot this i want to watch this movie so bad billy martin's tanked i'm much more interested in watching this right now

than any of the wire oh god i want to watch that so bad and i can't this is fucking riveting and it's not on youtube no clips i watch a riveting. And it's not on YouTube. There's only clips. I watch a shitload of clips. It's really hard to find because it's a TV movie from the 70s. It's not a big deal. It's got commercials for Downy

and fucking sun laundry detergent. Has a 6.7 out of 10 on IMDB. IMDB. Did I say BD? Jesus Christ. IMDB and 123 reviews. That's not bad. That's a few reviews, 6.7.

It does not enough reviews to rank on the tomato meter on Rotten Tomatoes. I tried, I tried, but couldn't get it. That's too bad. 78 back to baseball, 148 games played, 300 average, 9 home runs, 57 ribbies, 10 triples, 78 steals. So even up in that, 355 on base percentage. triple 78 steals so even up in that 355 on base percentage problem is uh he is starting to create some concerns for the tigers in their management okay uh he's using drugs again oh and it's pretty obvious i mean his story is hollywood-esque yeah it's he's got a story he's got it now yeah i'm a star now yeah now he can mingle in hollywood too now it's not just detroit like

lavar burton will be his pal right i mean like i'm friends with kunta motherfuckers serve me up whatever you got and i'll stick it in my arm i don't give a shit so he uh yeah he's doing crazy shit and uh it's they're like uh-oh this might be you know this is a problem this is a problem this might not be a guy that can handle this sort of thing remember last time he did this kind of stuff he wound up in fucking prison yeah do we know that? Right. Also began associating with people, well-known people

of, quote, questionable influence, some of whom he would even invite into the Tigers clubhouse. No, you don't do that. He'd bring an entourage into the Tigers clubhouse.

Jesus. Problem is, in 79, they fired their manager and hired Sparky Anderson, who's the silverest-haired man I've ever seen in my life. His hair is white.

But Sparky's a badass manager. He was the manager of the Big Red Machine that won three World Series and everything else. So Sparky can manage, and he managed for the Tigers for, what, 25 years? Did he really? My whole childhood he was the manager of the Tigers, and it started in 79 here. And Sparky ain't taking no shit from anybody.

He did not like what he saw whatsoever. So that was in the 79 season. Good season and all. Regardless, December 7th, 1979, they trade Ron away. Tyus Sparky doesn't want that shit in his clubhouse. And they're getting him out of his hometown. Where's he going? They're getting him out of his hometown to Montreal.

Yeesh. French Canada, guys. Enjoy. Enjoy, Ron. Here's a convict. You can't get any more different from Detroit than French Canada, so that's whatever. He's traded for Dan Schatzader, who actually played 15 seasons for nine different teams because he was a left-handed pitcher.

So if you're a left-handed pitcher, the one-year contract after one-year contract will give you a shot. Especially back then. There were very few left-handers back then. Now, still. That's why you'll see lefties pitching when they're 44. Because there's just no lefties. He's got a curveball.

You can bring him in for two pitches to throw to a lefty. He calls the Tigers cheap, does Ron, when they trade him. They said, they didn't want to give me money. They're cheap. That's why they traded me. Not that you were bringing in shitheads into the deal here. He says, in their own words on this whole thing quote alan trammell was there three years i was there five years i had good stats every year they paid trammell 2.8 million for seven

years but they didn't feel it was necessary to pay me any more money so he's saying he's got a point he's got a point except let's find out exactly what he was doing and what they knew about per DEA records. That's per Drug Enforcement Agency records on this whole thing. If there's a DEA record of what you're doing, there's a reason why the team might be trading him. They've got the feds watching him. Not watching him, but watching who he's hanging out with. Okay. That's the problem here.

He was palling around too much with local gangsters from the area. Of course. Specifically a man known, a guy named Francis Usher known as Big Frank Nitty. Jesus. He's a big, he's like a black gang member, a black like mafia guy basically we'll say because. Frank Nitty sounds terrifying. Well Frank Nitty was an old

mob guy in the 30s and 20s and 30s and they gave him this name because he came up around the Jackalone crime family here. The Jackalone brothers. Yeah, they were scary. They were very scary. He became a junior member. The brothers are Tony Jack

and Billy Jack. Oh boy. The Jackalone brothers. So they're Jack, like Jackalone. Tony Jack and Billy Jack, but neither of them. Anthony was named Tony Jack, but Vito's name was Billy Jack, not Vito Jack. So us Italians like our nicknames. We like them.

They make no sense sometimes. They call this guy, I mean, this guy's a murderer, drug dealer, you know. And that's who's in the clubhouse. A kingpin. He's in the clubhouse. With Alan Trammell, who's worth $2.8 million. With his buddies and girls and everything else. So this isn't good. They were observed by federal agents, Ron and Nitty here, or not really Nitty, Usher, Frank, by federal agents, hobnobbing with each other and additional other gangsters and everything else.

All local gangland people, basically. They'd be at high-end restaurants and nightclubs from 75 all through 79. That's not good at all. This started in his rookie year. He started doing this. In the heyday of sports betting, and you've got guys that kind of run bookie operations. Yeah, exactly. And they're involved with the players.

That's a bit scary. He's running more than that. He is suspected usher here. Frank is suspected of carrying out over a dozen executions in his day. So he's a murderer here. They call his little group All Black Murder Row, they call it. They were underwritten by the Detroit Italian Mafia, too, because the Giacalone brothers had their back.

So not only were they running their neighborhood when anybody had a problem with it. That's an enforcer's. All right, well, guess what? We'll call in the other. We'll call in all these jacks. And we'll call in all the jacks and Vito and Tony, and they're going to come in here and we'll have a little chat and we'll see what the fuck goes on. So that's what it is.

And they were allowed to sell drugs on the turf and kill and do whatever they wanted because they had the permission of the mafia. Right. So it was crazy. One source who is inside the Tiger organization said the Tigers hired a private investigator to tail Ron when he left the ballpark all throughout the 79 season and to make his record of his internet interactions with undesirables on off hours, quote undesirables. And what they found is LaFleur meeting with Usher, with Frank all the time, semi-regular basis. They reported it back to the team. semi-regular basis they reported it back to the team um also these dea files said they started hanging out like we said in 1975 when uh you know how they got to know each other usher was friends

with a jack alone crew member named jimmy corral uh-oh jimmy corral he did it so it all comes full circle jimmy corral said that's my guy you, blah, blah. So this is how it's all finger fucking. It's crazy, man. So that was the guy. He introduced him to everybody in his life. Introduced him to the whole thing here. From Martin on down. Yep.

So he's in Montreal for 1980. Okay. 1980 season, 139 games, 257 average, four home runs, 39 RBI, 11 triples, and a league leading 97 stolen bases. That is smoking. They got nice weather up there in the summer. average, four home runs, 39 RBI, 11 triples, and a league-leading 97 stolen bases. That is smoking. They got nice weather up there in the summer. Fuck, 90, they play indoors over there. That was Olympic Stadium.

The Dome, whatever it was, a bag of shit I think it was. It was turf and shitty and they had that. Is that what we're talking about? Yeah, they had that weird plexiglass behind the plate where there was people sitting, so you'd see constantly a guy would foul a ball back and people would jump in the plexiglass because it was in the wall where the Marlins have their fish tank. Super weird.

So anyway, 97 steals is like rarefied air in history. There's a few periods in time in the early 80s or one of them where guys were stealing 100 bases. And that just doesn't happen for years and years. Back then it was Vince Coleman and Ricky Henderson them where guys were stealing 100 bases. And then it just doesn't happen for years and years. Back then it was Vince Coleman and Ricky Henderson and those guys were stealing 120. He looks like shit now. He looked old always. I bet he still ripped, though. I bet he still has a six-pack.

I guarantee you he still has a six-pack. I bet his thighs are still yanked up, too. Those things were amazing. Yeah, he said that. That was really— It really did sound terrible, didn't it? That sounded really— You said you were very attracted to Ricky Henderson's thighs. Yeah, he was amazing. But he said that. I was really. It really did sound terrible. That sounded really. Sounded like I'm willing to talk.

You said you were very attracted to Ricky Henderson's thoughts. Ricky Henderson's legs were fucking impressive. They were amazing. Yeah, they were. You could see veins through his pants. Through his pants. He was ridiculous. But his face was a fucking monstrosity.

He's starting to look like Otis Nixon now. It's scary. Yeah, yeah. He's a short, black Randy Johnson in the face. That's what he is. The man's a goblin. The man's fucking hideous. I'm telling you.

So all this, this great year in Montreal we just described, Ron describes it as, quote, that was the greatest year of my career, he says. October 28th, 1980, he's granted free agency because that's his contract is up. That five-year rookie contract is up. November 26th, 1980, signs as a free agent by the Chicago White Sox. free agency because that's his contract is up that five-year rookie contract is up november 26 1980 signs as a free agent by the chicago white socks oh his free agent contract will pay him 1.2 million a year wow for the first couple years and then it goes like 700 000 i think but that's a come up that's sick for the early 80s for a guy who was in prison for armed robbery literally 10 years ago

yeah it's ridiculous eight years ago yeah you got sentenced, it's eight years ago. Yeah, you got sentenced then. 1981, he has a son. He has a son. Uh-oh. Guess what he names him, Jimmy. You betcha. Ronald LaFleur Junior. You know he's going to have a junior.

I'm like, no, no, no. I have amazing stock. Of course I'm going to name him Junior. And I'm sitting here going, no, please. The kid has a chance. He's got a chance. Not now. Don't ruin him. Don't ruin a chance. He's got a chance. Not now. Don't ruin him.

Don't ruin him. God damn. It's all fucked up now. We'll hear from him later on, too. Not in a criminal way, but in another funny kind of way. All right. 81 season, 82 games. He plays in 246 average, zero homers, 24 RBI.

82 games? 82 games. Half the season? Half the season. Four triples, 36 deals, 304 average. They don't like him there. Tony La Russa is their manager. Tony La Russa, as we know, legendary guy.

Hard ass. Handful of rings from the Cardinals and A's in the 80s and all this shit. And again, this is what I mean. He's so lucky to come in contact with every Hall of Fame manager that was around back then. But he hates him. Yeah. La Russa hates his guts. His coaching staff doesn't like him.

They say he has a bad attitude. He was in prison. Surprise. At this point, he's 33 years old, too, so he's getting older. A speed guy who's getting older and using more and more drugs, too. Of course. More and more drugs. He hurts.

He wakes up with a fucking lower back pain. Plus, he likes drugs on top of it. But he fucking hurts. It's not going to take him much. You know what I mean? 82 season, 91 games, 287 average, four homers, 25 RBI, four triples, 28 steals.

Not too great. He's been accused all year, the whole 82 season, of being out of shape. He missed workouts. He'd always be sleeping in the clubhouse. He's sleeping it off. He's coming down from shit. Not just that, he's getting old. And he is much older than 33 at this point in terms of like- Oh, in terms of years?

The way he's lived. He's stealing when he's 11. This man is 44 at minimum. He's stealing when he's 11 on heroin by 15. You have lived way longer than your years. And by the way, too, in the 60s, you grew up so fast. Yeah, yeah, you could. A picture of somebody that's 15 in the 60s, they look like they're 28.

It's crazy. Look at a picture of a baseball team from 1928. They all look like they're 75 years old. You're like, how are these old men playing? How does Wagner hit that baseball card? He looks old. He looks 50. You look at these guys and you're like, God, how old is that guy?

24. Holy shit. What the fuck is he doing? That's a hard 24. You're 44 years. God, man. Just in the sun the whole, just staring at it. I get they didn't play night games back then, but for the love of God. So for a guy that grew up in the 60s, it has to grow up fast because that's just the way

the genetics go. And then he fucking takes drugs and plays baseball and goes to prison. This man is an old man. He's an old man. 33 is tough. This is a nightmare. And he does one of the stupidest things in history here. We all remember Jose Canseco having a ball hit him in the head and then bounce over the fence.

Not the first outfielder to have a ball hit him square in the head. In the 1982 season against the Boston Red Sox, he has a ball hit him square on top of the head while he's trying to catch it in the outfield. That is not good. He doesn't even skim it with his glove just misses right in the head wow we have an in their own words on that which i like i really want to hear an explanation of this in their own words quote i partied the night before i was out until 5 a.m and then i had a day game it was a real sunny day and g Gary Allenson hit a ball into left center field.

I flipped my glasses down. They went into my eyes, and I lost sight of the ball. People don't remember I hit the game-winning double that day. They only remember the funny stuff. Well, that's because that was so stupid. And your quote is, I partied the night before. The easy thing is, I lost it in the sun. Just not. That's it.

I was out until 5 a.m., and, you know, that's what happens. Should have seen these holes I was with. Ah, these whores were everywhere my cock was in so many broads oh all the gang satan gangsters all around me i had so many chemicals running through my veins still just say i lost it in the sun that's it so july 20th 1982 uh he is found he oversleeps before a game in milwaukee in the clubhouse and so he is suspended by theleeps before a game in Milwaukee in the clubhouse and so he is suspended by the White Sox for three games without pay for that dumb shitness there's an article

here about whether he's going to work out in Chicago it's a Chicago Tribune article I'm going to guess no they're like what's he going to do well they're like he was really good who knows he's only two years removed from having a good season we have his ex manager here who's a guy named Dick Williams, who's a longtime manager, managed the Padres, but he happened to manage Montreal.

And he said he was a coach for Montreal. And he said, quote, he's an outstanding offensive ball player, but you have to weigh how much his physical abilities will be offset by his temperament. He is disruptive to a ball club. Jesus. So, yeah, he's obviously disruptive to a ball club. That's a bad Yelp review. That's not a good Yelp review for a ball player. Jesus. So, yeah, he's obviously disruptive to a ball club. That's a bad Yelp review. That's not a good Yelp review for a ball player.

September 30th, 1982. Yeah. Police are tipped off that Ron has drugs in his apartment. Uh-oh. And they come to investigate. Yeah. So they come in on his bedroom dresser. They find 17 pills, which are later determined to be amphetamines and quaaludes.

Shit. So he's partying. And a loaded.25 caliber pistol that is unregistered. Yeah. You're also a felon. Yeah. You're also a felon, asshole. Yeah, that's the other thing.

Not great. What the fuck? Yeah, he's charged with possession of a controlled substance and two counts of possession of an unregistered firearm. As a convict. As a convict, but I think maybe he has rights reinstated by then because if you're the Tigers, you can push that shit through. I think maybe that happened because they don't mention that.

He posts a bond of $3,000 for this and released. He's released. No court date is set. The White Sox say they have no comment on this whole thing. Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner, who also owned the Bulls, is a total asshole. He says he's withholding comment. Chicago legend, though. He owns everything there, or owns the teams, anyway.

He is a, the last time he had been used was on September 3rd as a pinch runner. He hasn't started since August 28th. So he hasn't, they haven't been using him anyway. As if things aren't going bad enough for him, in January of 83, his 49, this isn't Ron Jr., this is his next son, his 49-day-old son dies from sudden infant death syndrome Ron Jr. This is his next son. His 49 day old son dies from sudden infant death syndrome. Ouch. Which is brutal. That's fucked up. That is the scariest thing ever. When I had

both of my kids, I used to go in there I don't know, 14 times an hour to make sure they were breathing. Just to see their going up and down. I'm like, okay. Scared me to death. I wish I would have never read about that shit. That's what it is. The scariest thing ever. I don't want to hear about wish i would have never read about that shit that's what it is the scariest thing i don't want to hear about it i don't want to know that that shit

happens no reason for it there's no warning of it it's just you're just gonna fuck me up forever they have alarms now our second my second kid they had an alarm that they you put under the mat under the sheet where if they stop moving for too long it goes off and you can try to whatever but for my daughter none of that shit. And it was just like, she breathing, she breathing, she breathing. It was the worst nightmare. Nightmare. And she's like a year and a half.

I was like, okay, good. She's not going to die now. I slept just so many nights on the carpet next to my daughter's crib. I'm telling you. Just because I was so scared. And my son the same way. It's terrifying. It is.

So January 18th, 83, just a few days after that, it's announced that Ron's going to have to stand trial for the drug and gun charge. He tried to get it thrown out, saying that they were somebody else's. And a judge here, Zielinski, which sounds like he's from Chicago, rejected his argument by his silver-haired, middle-aged white man attorney, Stephen W. Zucker, who sounds like a silver-haired, middle-aged white man, that the pills could have belonged to any of the other people in the apartment at the time of his arrest. Why are they on his dresser, though?

Yeah. You keep shit on other people's dressers, usually? No. That's my only thing. My shit's on my dresser. Yeah. March 1983, shit's getting a little weird. Authorities say they will reinvestigate the Sid's death of his son.

Oh, shit. After some facts come to light about Ronald Jr. nearly drowning that last May. So they think there's possibly some sort of maybe not Sid. Maybe it could be foul play. Something here. Nothing else ever comes from that, by the way. They just reinvestigate. I guess they just

conclude Sid's. April 2nd, 1983, released by the White Sox right in the beginning of spring training. That is the last time he will play in the beginning of spring training that is the last time he will play in the major leagues uh career stats 1099 games 288 average 59 homers 353 rbi 57 triples 455 steals which is not a bad total yeah can't shake a stick at that and uh 342 on base percentage not bad here's an in their own words summing up his whole career here in their own words quote i came up as a 26-year-old rookie,

so I really learned the game while I was on the Major League roster. I also played in 155 games a year, so I didn't take many days off. He played no seasons of 155 games. He never played that. If I wasn't maimed, I was going out on that field. Today's ballplayers don't know what that's about. Not once did he play that many games. No, I'm proud of my accomplishments.

If you put it in perspective, I did more in the game during the period of time I played than some guys who played all their lives. That's true. You've played one season of 154 games. You've never played 155 games. Not once. But he says, players now don't know shit about that. Neither do you, sir.

Absolutely. Now, May 9th, 83, Ron comes out and announces that he has not received any of his payment due to him that year from the White Sox of his $735,000 salary that they have yet to pay him from that year. When he was released after the drug and weapons charge, they said that that's their reason for withholding payment from him because he breached his contract. You got a drug and weapon charge, you idiot. July 83, he is acquitted of drug and weapons charges. He's got a lawyer now. Pay me, motherfuckers. He's got a lawyer now. They got to pay now.

So a lawyer can get out of finding some pills on your dresser. You know what I mean? A judge ruled that since his wife and two other people also lived in the apartment, it was impossible to prove the drugs were Ron's, which is fair. They got to pay him. Ron said that he felt like a million pounds had been taken off his back. He said he's going to try to take the White Sox to court for the remainder of his contract. Or 700,000 pounds.

Or 700,000. Going to take the White Sox to court for the remainder of his contract. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf said, quote, just because he was found not guilty of a criminal charge does not mean he has not breached his contract. Oh, shit. Fuck you. He is not playing. Yeah. Ron's agent, Steven Zucker, who's, there we go, him from before,

said that Ron is not only interested in coming back to baseball, there are several teams interested in him. I don't know where the fuck they went, because that never happened again. Probably because on August 18th, 1985, this doesn't help. There's another thing that comes August 18th, 1985, this doesn't help. There's another thing that comes up that's worse, but this doesn't help. He's at the Belden Corn Beef Center restaurant at 2315 North Clark Street about 3.30 in the morning when he is arrested with him and a woman named Emily Zafar, who's 23 years old, for theft of services.

He's arrested after... They dine and dash? Zafar, who's 23 years old, for theft of services. He's arrested after they refused to pay a $13.18 bill for their meals. Wow. So he's arrested for that. For 14 bucks. Just dumb. I mean, Jesus Christ. You go into a place and it's a nice restaurant.

Like, you know, don't do that. What if you went to another restaurant? What if he opened the door and he smelled something and it was the shawarma man. And he said, How is it you've come to arrive here? Why are you here? What's, why are you, you come so far. You go so far

and now you're here. Why are you no pay for sandwich? You no pay? I make me, you pay me. Signs say close. That's why. That's why, because people no pay. You have money, you say you have Sign say close. That's why. That's why because people no pay. You have money. You say you have money. Then you no give to them. That's what happened.

This is not prison kitchen. No. Sign say close. You go. I no make for you. You get out. Go. No prison.

You not sell my yeast to prison. Go. Out. And then he poof and he's gone. The restaurant closes down and it's nothing again. It's like, what happened here? It's a blank storefront. August 21st, 1985.

This is probably what kept people away from him here. A huge article about cocaine and baseball. We've discussed this before. This was the guy in Kansas City who was taking Willie Mays Aikens and all the Royals guys and having big free cocaine parties at his house and all that. He also hung out with Ron LaFleur. Wow. He hung out with Ron LaFleur. He hung out with Vita Blue. also hung out with Ron LaFleur. Wow. He hung out with Ron LaFleur. He hung out with Vita Blue.

He hung out with all these guys. Willie Mays Akins is on the list. And they all come down because of this shit. Yep, and he's on the list too. LaFleur, like I said, the guy who was selling it to everybody, giving it to everybody, he said that about Vita Blue, quote, Vita was telling me other guys on the team were snorting. So he just had them all over, hang out. Yeah, he even said at one of his parties at Blue's apartment,

a teenage bat boy was allowed to use cocaine. What? That's the type of deal we're doing. He would purchase it at about 80 bucks a gram, and it was all free to the players, basically. He was just a big fan. Yeah, it's nuts. He's telling everybody it's all over baseball.

You know, the baseball is trying to get a cover on it here. They're saying, we know there's a drug problem, but we don't know the extent of it. There's no evidence whatsoever that it's a runaway problem. In fact, there's some evidence that it's waning. That's what they say. It's free cocaine. It's free cocaine. This shit is not going away.

Absolutely here. So they're basically just saying all this. They talk about Tim Raines, who was publicly identified as a cocaine user. This is a funny one here. So they're basically just saying all this. They talk about Tim Raines, who was publicly identified as a cocaine user. This is a funny one here. Raines says, quote, Now that I look back, I was probably the only one that did undergo the treatment, but I wasn't the only one that needed to. And then they talk about Raines. This is a famous story. If you don't know baseball, you might not know it. He says, quote, I had little gram bottles I kept in my pocket. Actually, a lot of times I would put them in the little, I would put it in my batting glove and then in my pocket.

I was trying to find ways of not getting caught. Usually when I carried it in my pocket, I'd slide head first. So he didn't break it in his back pocket. That's hilarious. He was protecting his cocaine. He had a bad season in 81. Rain says he struck out more. His vision was lessen.

He'd be too jumpy. So Coke didn't help him like it helps football players apparently. Ron, on the other hand, has an in their own words explaining the whole thing. In their own words. He's got an explanation. Always. In their own words. I can make this go away. In their own words, quote, I didn't think I had a substance abuse

problem, but I'm quite sure I did. You never think you have a substance abuse problem, especially if you have money to pay for it. It was a great lesson because I lost a career. I felt so dejected because I could have played more years. I was only 35. It was a hurting time, a really bad time for me. I didn't have a problem.

I could afford it. I could afford it. That doesn't mean you don't have a problem. No, I think it's the old Sam Kinison joke. Back in the 80s, talking about the Betty Ford Clinic cost $13,000. If you have $13,000, you don't have a fucking coke problem. It's not a problem anymore. You can afford it.

You can afford it. He says since he's been released from the team and everything, it was a wake-up call for him. He's been clean ever since. Yeah. He's good now. Yeah. He is good now. So good.

Everything is fine. So fine that at 86, he gets a job as a baggage handler for Eastern Airlines. Oh, fuck. There is so much wrong with this. From shitty, defunct Eastern Airlines to this lying dickface handling my luggage. I'm not. No, this is all fucking wrong. I'm not giving this guy my luggage.

How did they do a background check? You're a fucking felon. Yeah. Give him all your possessions. That's fine. The most important thing for your trip is going to be under the plane, maybe. Yeah, absolutely. 80-80, he's looking to get back into baseball, and he finds a different way.

Other than playing, he sees an ad for an umpire school, so he decides to attend. He attends, and this is the premier umpire school. It's the Joe Brinkman Umpire School. Joe Brinkman's a major league umpire who started it. They have 52. Each year, the major leagues have 52 umpires. 28 in the American League, 24 in the National League. I don't know why there's a difference, but whatever.

Each league has four relief umpires, the whole deal. They get paid about between $52,000 and $117,000 back then. That's great cash. For six months of work. That's not too shabby. That's pretty good. So he's like, shit, maybe I should do this. I can make some money, get back into the

game. Basically, enrollment is open to anyone with a high school diploma and has good eyesight and $1,700 basically, because that's what it costs to do it. It's ran by Joe Brinkman and Harry Wenslet of the National League and it's five weeks every

winter, roughly 150 students per thing. So they're just trying to do these, and they put them into the minors after that as umpires. Ron failed to achieve the necessary grade needed to earn a minor league umpiring assignment, so he gave up on umpiring. He washed out of umpiring. Fuck it, I can't even umpire. You don't even have to be fast to umpire, but he couldn't do it. So he gets out of that.

1989, he joins the Senior Professional Baseball Organization. Yeah, he plays for the St. Petersburg Pelicans and the Bradenton Explorers. At what age? 39 or some shit? He is at this point, he's 41. 41. And he's in the Senior League. Senior League, yeah.

It was a winter baseball league in Florida, players 35 and over. Okay. You could be a catcher if you were 32. Okay. You could be younger. Because those knees are fucked. Yeah, it's like that's fine. Those are so old.

You've been washed out earlier. So the league began playing in 89. This is this year. It had a lot of people in it, too. It had Ferguson Jenkins, Raleigh Fingers, Vita Blue, Dave Kingman. Earl Weaver was one of the managers, Dick Williams, the guy that didn't like him and said he was terrible for the clubhouse.

Pretty interesting here. Their oldest player was age 54, which is crazy. Ed Radcow. That's wild. Throughout the season, all these teams averaged less than 1,000 people in attendance per game. Shit didn't go well. Nobody gives a shit. Let's go watch old men play baseball.

That's boring. I mean, Raleigh Fingers is really cool. I'd watch him play. That's the thing. I'd like to go. Get outside of that. I'd be like, man, he looks terrible. I just want to see him for that fucking mustache.

I saw him at a Giants game in spring training here. They had all these. Oh, he's everywhere. They parade him everywhere to sign fucking autographs. Oh, shit. And I don't want an autograph. I just want to see that fucking mustache. Yeah, let me see his stache.

Yeah. Teams in this league, St. Petersburg Peloton, Bradenton Explorers, Orlando Juice. Yeah. Winter Haven Super Sox, West Palm Beach Tropics, Fort Myers Sun Sox, and the Gold Coast Suns. We always like reading off. Oh, and the St. Lucy Legends. I like that one. Yeah.

We like reading off the, you know, shit league teams. Shit team names. Yeah. He hits.328 in 44 44 games 11 with st petersburg 33 with bradenton uh 1990 he plays for the florida tropics yeah plays in 18 games hits two home runs and uh drives in nine runs and had the second highest batting average going at that time with a 403 average when the league folded you're telling me that old people can't pitch so good apparently not he can crush a 38 year old's pitch batting skills last longer than pitching 0-3 average when the league folded. You're telling me that old people can't pitch so good? Apparently not.

He can crush a 38-year-old's pitch? Batting skills last longer than pitching skills. 38. Those guys were like 45, the ones we were talking about. Oh, that's right. They were 39, huh? Yeah. That was the minimum.

35 is the minimum. Yeah, 35. Some of the guys are 38, whatever. But the league folds. There's a 55-year-old in that fucking league. Yeah. League folds after 18 games is what we're getting at here. So January 99. Of the second season. Okay. So it went a season and 19 games after 18 games is what we're getting at here. So January of the second season.

So it went a season and 19 games or 18 games. Brutal. January of 1999, Ron takes a job as a coach for the Cook County Cheetahs. Oh, heard of them. I have their hat. They're the best. An independent minor league team that played in the Frontier League. They play the Cook County Cheetahs in Crestwood, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago.

There's a big fluff piece about Ron coaching. By the way, the funniest thing is they're talking about, they always like, when you haven't seen a guy, they try to introduce him in an article in a fucking interesting way. This is the way they introduced him. Quote, there are streaks of gray evident under the floor's cheetah's cap. He is a little heavier than when he was when he was in his playing days, but he's trim enough to claim he could still steal a base because of his ability to break down a pitcher. In other words, he's old and fat, as we just said.

But, you know, could have said something much more interesting. Like this fucking guy used to be in prison. Can you believe that? Can you believe that shit? Jesus Christ. He says that he is focusing on getting the next great stolen base king all the way to the show. That's what he's focusing on. This is an independent league.

It's not affiliated with anybody. These kids are going nowhere for the most part. We have an in their own words on this here. In their own words, quote, the oldest kid here is 27. So these are guys we can get in and really instruct. That's been taken out of some major league affiliates. They pay so much money these are guys we can get in and really instruct. That's been taken out of some major league affiliates. They pay so much money that they don't really have time to instruct guys. So that makes sense. He's going to get in there. He's going to try to get

them to the next level. Also someone he's going to try to get to the next level is his son, 18 year old Ron LaFleur Jr., who lives in Florida. And they say in this article that he is expected to be taken in the first five rounds of the draft that year. I looked up everything. He is not taken in the first five rounds, and I saw no evidence of him playing any baseball anywhere ever, this kid, professionally. He might have, but it's not out there. The owner of the team said, I have a contract all drawn up for him. We would love to have Ron LaFleur Jr.

I think he's going to be offered a little more money than we can afford, though. He's going to get drafted, they're saying. This idiot, Ron LaFleur Sr., says he's going to advise his son on everything. Oh, fuck. Yep, from contracts to the game itself. In fact, he plans to be his son's representative. Of course. He's going to be his agent.

He says in their own words, quote, what does he need an agent for? If he makes it to the majors, then we'll get an agent. I know what the needs are in baseball, and I know what they're looking for in terms of evaluating talent. The organization will give so much money regardless, but I want to know what their expectations are of my son, and I just want them to be fair with him. He will never run as fast as I can, but everything

else is better. He's naturally built and rates a 4 or 5 out of 5 in 5 skills. He'll do better than I did if he makes it. What a pompous ass. He's got to throw and make it about him. He'll never be as good as me. As fast as me. Everything else is much better. September 27th,

1999, he goes to Detroit to celebrate the closing of Tiger Stadium. That's when it closed before the new stadium. Before the game, he is notified of an open warrant for his arrest. Oh, shit. On charges of unpaid child support. The police agreed to let him participate in the on-field activities. And then when he comes off the field, they slap the cuffs on him and haul his ass off for owing over $50,000 in back child support.

That's not great. He is ordered to pay $3,000 or be jailed for 45 days. He's later released. The sheriff here says, quote, he evidently paid it or made some arrangements for payment. So that's that. His adopted son and nephew, Gerald LaFleur, who is Gerald's son,

said his father, who is Ron, paid $300 a month in Florida for at least a year. Ron said he also made lump sum payments after various court orders. And he's basically saying it's bullshit. But the judge ruled that he still owed about

$52,000 to $56,000 for their daughter, LaRonda LaFleur. Wow. Why would you put a la in a la? God damn it. Don't name your kid LaRonda LaFleur, who is 23 at this time. Poor girl. Ron testifies his only source of income is a $20,000 major league pension, so that's

all he gets, $20,000 a year. He said that he has a wife and two other children to support, and he has problems with both his hip and his knee, which he won't have for long. His lawyer says that he recognizes that he's in arrears, but with that amount, he says that amount is questionable. It's so funny because his ex with the kids said, quote, it's some crock again. This man makes money signing autographs. He'll pay the money and he'll be gone again. That's what they said. They're like, they're bullshit.

The family, the daughter, everybody's, they quote, called the ruling, quote, disgusting. His ex said, quote, I've been chasing him ever since he left Michigan. All I ask is take care of your kids. I mean, yeah, that's the rule. That's what you're supposed to do. They broke up Thanksgiving of 77. She's been chasing him since then, basically. This is crazy.

His daughter said that she wants to finish college, and her mother has been sending her to college and sent her to a private school by herself. She has a bunch of shit to pay off. And she said, I feel a father should be willing to take care of his kids if he's willing to have him. to take care of his kids if he's willing to have him. She also tells a story that six years before this, she was working in a Woolworth's when he walked in and didn't recognize her, didn't recognize his own daughter. She said, quote, he didn't know who I was. I tapped him on the shoulder and told him my name. His eyes bugged open.

He was surprised. Wow. So, yeah, that's my God. She also says she has a child, his grandchild that he's never seen. Unbelievable. Can you imagine that? That's fucking bananas. September 2000.

I had to dig for this shit. Patreon dot com slash crime and sports because this was one of these. I found this shit on like a traffic report. Really crazy. September of 2000. Matthew D. Gladden is traveling north in the southbound lanes of the U.S. 19. Uh-oh.

That's north in the southbound lane. On a freeway. He's hauling ass the wrong direction. Just south of East Bay Drive, he strikes a southbound vehicle driven by Ron LaFleur. What? And his wife. So, yeah, Ron LaFleur and his wife driving the one car. Other cars are involved.

Three other people are injured. Ron is hurt. So is his wife. And the driver, Gladden, is killed. Oh, boy. So he are involved. Three other people are injured. Ron is hurt. So is his wife and the driver, Gladden, is killed. He's involved in that. He's seen a lot of tragedy here. 2003. Spring of 2003, he's hired as a manager for the Saskatoon

Legends up in Saskatchewan of the fledgling Canadian Baseball League. A league this league folded halfway through its inaugural season. So that's another out of there. Everything dies with him. It just Oh, boy. A league this league folded halfway through its inaugural season. Shit. So that's another out of there. Everything dies with him. It just dies, man. 2005, he is visiting Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame game.

To go see what it's like. Yeah, go check it out. And he tries to secure a spot in the program schedule but was politely refused. Yeah. And, yeah, he just kind of walked away dejected. Hung his head. Hung his head, walked away. Can't even play at Cooperstown.

No. The Peanuts. The Charlie Brown music with his head hanging down. Good grief. That's not as bad as it gets, though. Okay. May 7th, 2007, Ron is signing autographs at the Gibraltar Trade Center in Mount Clemens. Yeah.

signing autographs at the Gibraltar Trade Center in Mount Clemens. He is signing autographs for $4 each with former Detroit Tiger pitcher Mickey Lulich when police enter the facility and take him into custody in the middle of an autograph signing.

He's arrested while signing autographs. Apparently his ex saw that he was going to be there and called the cops and told them, hey, if you owe shitloads of child support, maybe don't advertise wherever he was going to be there and called the cops and told them, hey, if you owe shitloads of child support, maybe don't advertise wherever you're going to be. That's a tough one. That you're making money.

I'll be here making money if you want to come cuff me and drag me away. Money that I'm not going to pay taxes for probably, too, so you can check into that also while you're at it. Or give to my fucking daughter. Yeah. He's 58 years old at this point. He's taken in by deputies to the Macomb County Sheriff's Department. He owes about $48,000

in child support right now. LaFleur's bond was set at $17,009 for some reason. Wasn't clear whether they lost money because he got taken away. Did he not get paid for this now? The general manager running the card show

wouldn't comment on this. He will comment, though. Ron will about this whole thing. He says in their own words, quote, talk to people. I'm a good guy. I really am. I've had problems, but I haven't robbed anyone or killed anyone. What?

I feel like I've been blackballed. That's not fair. You give your life to baseball, and when you need help, baseball doesn't give back. I need help. No shit. I doesn't give back. I need help. No shit. I didn't rob anybody. I haven't. You, sir.

You went to prison for it, you fucking idiot. Pardon me, sir. Do you remember that little stint you had in some place called prison? Where a gangster. Unbelievable. Where a gangster hooked you up with another gangster who put you in contact with a drunken manager who put you on a path to fame, riches, cocaine, and complete fuckery. Great. How about that other thing when you were 11 when you fucking took a popsicle stick and gum and stole $1,500?

You robbed. Brother's dead. Could have helped his fucking brother who got killed by drug dealers. Teams have been fucked out of money. You pimped girls when you were 15. You were stealing from them. Stealing from them. His poor daughter has a kid that he's never even seen and doesn't even recognize her.

I feel bad for all these people. Jimmy, I do. I really do. But not nearly as bad as I feel for Ron LaFleur. This is a weird, it says S, capital letters, S-U-P-V. Is that like supervisor? Supervisor. At T-W-C.

Is that the Weather Channel? I don't know. It's in Los Angeles. Greater Los Angeles area. It's in staffing and recruiting. I don't know if that's the Weather Channel. Or if it's a fucking janitor service. Maybe.

Let's just assume he's a recruiting meteorologist. Let's just say that. But I feel bad for him because he's the only other Ron LaFleur there is besides his kid. I hope it's his kid at least, maybe. 2008, they're talking about him. He spends most of his waking hours. It's an article sitting with his wife, Emily. How he keeps finding wives, I don't understand.

The only other LaFleur I've ever heard of, I think, was in Anchorman, and he was the bad anchor guy. Was he LaFleur? I don't know. You'd imagine half the guys on every hockey team would be last name on the floor. You know what I mean? His wife Emily, they hang out in their St. Petersburg townhouse and they quote this is great. Great line. It just says now spends most of his waking hours sitting with his wife

Emily inside their St. Petersburg, Florida townhouse quote wondering how it all turned out this way. How is it I've come to arrive here? All day long, that's all he asks himself. How is it? Yeah. He says the couple lives check to check.

That's amazing. It's insane. They live paycheck to paycheck on Ron's monthly pension payments. Welcome to the club, fuckers. Yeah, no shit, right? Fuck, I wish I could live paycheck to paycheck. I live fucking day to day, so I love that. Wasn't he making two grand a month, or was it 20 grand a month?

20 grand a year. A year. Plus his card shows, I mean. But the problem is here, and this I can sympathize with, not the hip replacement, but the lack of health insurance. He says he's needed a hip replacement for years, but the cost is too high. He says, quote, I no longer have health insurance. Got too expensive for me to handle.

Yeah. 2009, he has a hip replacement. What? He has a hip replacement funded in part by Major League Baseball Alumni Association, which has 90% of their funding at the time from a huge gift from George Steinbrenner. Oh, thanks, George. You can hate George all you want, but if there's a player who's fucked up, George is going to slip that motherfucker half a million dollars and tell him don't worry about it.

He's going to take care of Darryl Strawberry's tax problem. He's going to take care of all that shit. He is silver-haired as they come for players. Wesley Snipes is wishing he played baseball. He really is. He'd be out of jail by now. But in this I think he's out. I meant out of jail quickly. But this here

a nice thing to do, I would say, for a guy who needs a hip replacement. Summer 2011 LeFleur is living in St. Petersburg. He loses his right leg below the knee. Oh, no. It looks bad, man. To arterial vascular disease. Apparently, he smoked like three packs a day since he was 11 years old.

Of course. So that's not great. Heroin is the least of his worries. He said he started having problems walking on his right leg, it started swelling up and his toes started turning dark color. He said he had trouble getting his shoe on. Oh, no. So he would soak his foot in warm water and he started just wearing sandals all the time. He said, I was an athlete for so long, you build up a tolerance for pain, so you just let it go.

He wore sandals and made us look at that shit? Yeah, his dark toes and swollen feet. If you have shit feet, put some fucking shoes on them. Clothes, toes. I don't want to look at them. It's about to get worse, Jimmy. Oh, Jesus. He said that when his toe turned black, he started picking at it.

Oh, God, Jesus. And a piece of toe came off in his hand. Oh, my God. When he saw that, he said, oh, my God. It took that to make you go, oh, my God. A piece of your body in your hand. Oh, man, this is a problem. Oh, my God. It took that to make you go, oh, my God, a piece of your body in your hand? Oh, man, this is a problem. Oh, my God.

I don't mean to laugh at this, but Jesus Christ. That's amazing. That's when he decided he better see a doctor. Yeah. Then. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, he said he went to the same hip guy that he went to in 2009.

Guy told him he needs to get to the hospital right away. I guess no blood was getting to his foot. And he said that's when they started amputating. First, they cut off his baby toe and then moved up to the next toe. They were trying to see if they could save the foot. Finally, they amputated his knee below his leg, below his knee in the third surgery. He lost more than 100 pounds at that point, down to 158 pounds. His wife came to see him every day. Bad stuff, man. Did she stay with him?

She did. She hung out with him. She did. She stayed. This is a good one. Funny how women just usually walk away. Women and men. Jesus.

I don't know. Guys tend to stick around more if the chick's hot. I don't know. Probably not if she's got half a leg, I don't think. There's a girl on Tinder that lost her fucking arm in a moped accident. They probably have some weird fetish for it. That's not because they're being nice people they probably had some weird stump fetish she's like the number one applied to fucking exactly too i don't know people have weird shit going on they're like she

could stump me here really creepy stump creepy shit dude yeah well let's if you have an amputee i'm sorry about that it's i'm sure you're hers is you have enough problems but he's got a problem here uh so he's his wife says she almost lost him twice. He said he was happy because he's like, you know, at least he's alive. He gets himself back up to 195 pounds. He said, you never think it's going to happen to you? He says in their own words, quote, sometimes I want to jump up and take off, but I can't do that anymore. I've got to worry about my balance all the time.

I've got to watch where I walk. I can't look off because i've got no feeling in my leg i've got to be careful where i step he wears a prosthetic to walk so at least he's got that he's not wheelchair i can't play the hokey pokey anymore no god no can't turn himself around can't do shit he can spin himself around if he puts one leg on. It's so good. 2013 in July, he was a guest of honor at the Clinton-Lumberjacks game. It's the same team, just a different name now that he played his first minor league for. They're in the Midwest League. They wore their Clinton Pilot 73 throwback jerseys for when he played there because it's honoring him and Jim Leland, who was only 28 at the time and the manager.

2014, he's living in Florida. He returns to Michigan. They have something called Tiger Fridays. It's a West Michigan Whitecaps baseball. He threw out the first pitch and signed autographs. Luckily, he didn't get arrested while he was doing it. That's good. So there's that.

How many times during those games that they honored him did somebody say, come on, leg it out? Come on, hustle. Dig it out. Dig it. Leg it out. Jesus. You deserved a nut kick for that one.

He's had enough legs up is all I'm saying. This is karma. Leg up on a couple of things. So Saturday, February 18th, 2017, this year, he's at the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame. They're inducting Pete Rose

and a few other guys into that. He is confirmed for the free autograph session with Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Al Kaline. They're probably paying him. Al Kaline, Tony Olivia, Louis Tion,

Denny McClain, who we've covered. He's another one of our buddies. I think we probably mentioned this event. Probably're probably paying him. Al Kaline, Tony Olivia, Louis Tion, Denny McClain, who we've covered. He's another one of our buddies. I think we probably mentioned this event. Probably. Actually, no. We did this before this happened. Wow.

That's amazing. We did it last year before that happened. This event hadn't even happened yet. Nope. He was like episode 30. Update about Denny McClain, by the way. Update. Denny McClain on February 18, 2017.

He's out there selling autographs. Signed autographs. Free autographs. With this guy. All these people, including Ron LaFleur and the ladies from the Rockford Peaches. How about that? From League of Their Own. I'd be so excited to go meet the Rockford Peach ladies and Pete Rose, actually, and

Louis Tiant and Denny McLean because he's a fucking mess. He's a piece of shit. So let's just have an in their own words on the whole sordid tale, shall we? In their own words, quote, I had no support from anybody. I don't know if they were afraid because I was an ex-inmate, but no one ever went out of their way to really help me. And I needed somebody. I really did. I really

needed some help and some guidance considering where I came from, and I didn't get it. Just think if I had played baseball as a kid instead of running the streets. Just think if I had improved my baseball skills instead of going to prison. How good could I have been? Who knows? If I had gotten that guidance that I needed, if I had improved my baseball skills instead of going to prison. How good could I have been? Who knows? If I had gotten that guidance that I needed,

if I had known what was going on in society, I could have had some Hall of Fame stats. That's a guy saying he blames dad. That's a guy saying, yeah, I fucked up. Where was my fucking dad? Well, also baseball, he's saying. Because he said, I don't know if they were afraid because I was an ex-inmate. Nobody wanted to help him.

But they got you out of a 5 to 15 year jail sentence. You got as much help as you got a million fucking dollar contract. I mean, I get that they were also, you were on drugs and everybody was looking the other way so they can get paid because of you. Yeah, silver hair, middle aged white man. That shit happens. Everybody made money and it sucks. It's also called common fucking sense. And that's called

the business of sports as we found in 82 episodes now or 81 episodes now. That is it it man uh if you cannot get enough ron lafleur oh boy you just can't get enough you can get his his excellent book breakout from prison to the big leagues yeah a first edition hardcover they have first edition hardcovers on amazon.com uh from 474 used how about four dollars and 74 cents used the brand new ones like 120 bucks actually for the first74 used. The brand new one's like $120, actually. Really? For the first edition.

Yeah, like a brand new unused. Any of them signed? Cheap. Well, let's get into this here. SportsMemorabilia.com. 8x10 signed pick is $23.99. They have a ton of them, different ones. They have a 1980 Topps card with his real date of birth, $26.99.

They have a Ron LaFleur signed baseball for $44.99. And on eBay, if you want to get one cheaper, they have an 8x10 signed pick, which is only $4.95, plus $3.99 shipping. I'd like to get that one for myself. And also on amianoying.com. What? He's on amianoying.com.

You never saw that site? No. There's a site called amianoying.com, and it's basically celebrities, and it says annoying, not annoying, don't care. Yeah. And then it gives you their rating of how many people think they're annoying. It's pretty funny, because they have Gandhi on there, too.

And just faces on it? And shit like that. He's on there. He has a 66.7% annoying rating. Wow. I voted not, because he's entertaining as fuck. Yeah. And this was the last thing I found in doing this research.

And I'm like, I'm not at all annoyed by this guy. 66%. Thoroughly entertained. That means three people voted. That's exactly what I thought. And I think I was the one no vote probably. And the other two were like, fucking annoying. And it was like his ex.

And it was Billy Martin. It was his ex and LaShonda or LaRonda LaFleur or whatever her name is, the daughter. And so at this point, he is kicking around, going to autograph shows, as we've seen. Well, probably not kicking. That's why I said kicking around, obviously. He's kicking around with his prosthetic leg and going to autograph shows and trying not to lose any more limbs. And that's Ron LaFleur, guys. That's a crazy-ass story if you've ever had one.

That is unbelievable. It's a crazy ass story if you've ever had one story that is unbelievable it's a wild story uh if you enjoyed that story i'm fucking blown away that that was an actual real life story that's a real story that's for real and i'm believable it's weird because it took us 81 episodes to do it like i had heard of this guy i knew what he did but i didn't really look into it enough to find out it was this crazy insane it's crazy well if you like that crazy story do us a big favor and get on iTunes and give us five stars. Do that. Tell us your following instructions, following directions.

We really, really don't care. Tell us you can't believe it. You can't even believe it if that is not enough for you. If you love that story so much, that was a deep one, too, on research. That was a bear. What you can do to show your appreciation, you can go to patreon.com slash crime in sports, and you can make a donation there. We have some cool rewards.

Also, you can go to PayPal using our email address, address crime in sports at gmail.com, and you can drop us a one-time donation there if you really, really want to. But if not, just tell your friends about the show. Do whatever you want. Jimmy has some fine, fine people who are so wonderful to us and did do the Patreon and the PayPal. And here are our friends here that have been so great to us this week. Hit us, Jimmy. Thank you guys so much.

It was an amazing week. From Candace Smutpunks to Ashley Steffrips or Steffibs or Stevens. I think it's Stevens because the B and the N are too close together for that not to be a fucking typo. Stevens or Steffibs. It could be Steffabs. Who knows? Who knows? We'll try. And Dan who donates pretty frequently and doesn't want his name used except for Dan.

Thank you, Dan, very, very much. Goddamn Dan. Claire Johns or Claire Jeans. I'm not sure which. Donna Getzen. Ricky Tingle. Nikki. Nikki. Ricky Tingle. I like that name. That's a good name, right? It's like a NASCAR driver. Yeah, it is. Ricky Tingle. Ricky Tingle. I like that name. That's a good name, right? It's like a NASCAR driver. Yeah, it is.

That's great. Ricky Tingle. Ricky Tingle here. Whatever fucking sponsors. Skull. Skull. Skull's the one. Clearly Skull is on his car.

Absolutely. Maybe a little bit of that one. We love you, Ricky Tingle. Thanks, Ricky. Thank you so much. Seriously. Althea Fung. Nikki Sarnecki.

Sarnecki. Sarnecki. Either one. Sure. Meg Shattuck. Devin Scott. Rebecca Elner. Stephen Dean or Denae. Dean. Zarnacki. Either one. Meg Shattuck, Devin Scott, Rebecca Elner, Stephen Dean or Denae Dean, Leah Fidler, Sarah Poehling, Marissa and Mary.

They both gave first names. Thank you both. Corinne Price, Alicia Ramey or Ramey. I'm not sure which. Jessica fucking hell. Here it is. Yeah. She wrote that she wanted to hear us ruin her last name.

Here it goes. Here you go. Jessica Corporick or Corporich. Corporick. We will never let you down. And she wrote that she wanted to hear us ruin her last name. Here it goes, Jess. Here you go. Jessica Korporek or Korporech? Korporek. We will never let you down. That's one thing. Korporek.

I like it. I don't know. Zach Oberg, Ennis Puppy Lundy. Thank you very much. Amber Tomko, Carrington Maudrey Cooper. Maudrey or Maudrey? Carrington Maudrey Cooper. I'm doing it fast.

Robin Girulf-Selatley. Robin Girulf-Setley. Thank you. Nice. Sound less drunk that time. Amanda Turner. Phil Varmuza. Phil Varmuza.

Philly V. Philly V. That's right. That's right. A man right there. Nathan Keller. He hangs out at that bar with- He's got it with D's.

Yeah. He hangs out. Yeah. Absolutely. Jeremy Pendleton. Alice Lacey with John Deese. He hangs out. Absolutely. Jeremy Pendleton, Alice Lacey, Sarah Neely, Andrew Weigand, Lauren King, Joel, and Sharon D. Jones. You guys, that list is so long. We can't thank you enough, guys, honestly. And it hurts my hand to write it, and every pain feels amazing because you guys are fantastic. Thank you for everything, guys. Thank you so much for doing what you do and supporting this show.

You keep us going. The money we make comes from you guys. That's it. So thank you guys so much. You're keeping us alive. You're keeping us going. You're keeping it worth it for it's a viable thing to do. No doubt.

Thank you so much. You can follow us on social media at Crime and Sports on Instagram and Twitter, Facebook.com slash Crime and Sports and the aforementioned crimeandsports at gmail.com. What would these fine people need to do if they wanted to get a hold of someone like you, Jimmy? Like me? Like you. Wisman sucks. W-H-I-S-M-A-N sucks on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Get involved. Comment. Just be involved. I love having you guys chatting with me. I love having you guys surprise me in the middle of the day with some stupid snap that means nothing. And it means everything to me. So thank you guys so much. Thank you, guys.

You can follow me at JimmyPIsFunny, or you can try to spell my last name. Good luck. If you do get it and spell it, you can friend me and I'll accept it because you spelled my last name. You deserve it. You deserve it. Go ahead and do that. Otherwise, guys, that was a wild tale. Holy shit.

I can't believe it. We're not going anywhere. You know that. So I got to say it, as I always do, live from the Crime and Sports studios, we will see you next week. Bye. Bye. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Crime and Sports early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.

If you don't know when Crystal Pepsi was discontinued, what was in Al Capone's vault, or which famous meteorologist is Lenny Kravitz's second cousin, then you haven't spent enough time on Wikipedia. But that's okay. I am here for you. I'm Darcy Carden, and I'm inviting you to listen to my new podcast, WikiHole, from SmartLess Media. Discover the craziest rabbit holes on Wikipedia with me and my funny friends as we bring the cyber frontier directly to your tympanic membrane. Thank you. to link to link, careening through trivia, oddities, and unexpected connections until we collectively shout, how the hell did we get here? Follow WikiHole on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to WikiHole ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.