{"id":328,"date":"2018-08-30T21:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T02:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/?page_id=328"},"modified":"2023-06-02T11:05:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T16:05:59","slug":"jim-maloney-pt-2-his-biggest-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/?p=328","title":{"rendered":"Jim Maloney pt.2: His Biggest Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Maloney<\/span> was one of baseball’s best pitchers during the 1960s: no-hitters, All-Star \"Maloneygames, a World Series. He won more than 20 games in a season twice, with a blazing fastball leading the way. The Fresno, California native seemed to have it all: baseball fame, a handsome salary, a nice house, and a wonderful family. [Part 1 of our interview is here.]<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Life after baseball was not nearly so kind to Jim Maloney. He struggled to adjust to civilian life, and the more he struggled, the more he drank — until he became a full-blown alcoholic and his life fell apart.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

But with the help of friends, Jim made his most-important decision. It saved his life, and now his days are full and rich — and alcohol-free.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This is his story.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Getting back to civilian life in Fresno was a difficult adjustment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had a really rough time getting back into the real world. Adjusting to the real world. It was just all downhill for me. I got into alcohol, and I just couldn\u2019t stop drinking; I was an alcoholic.<\/p>\n

What happened? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I had a nice home and a wonderful wife and family, three kids — my son was just born. I started drinking, and I didn\u2019t like what was going on. I was going to take over my dad\u2019s automobile business, and I didn\u2019t like the business. So I wanted to get back into baseball, after being out for a few years.<\/p>\n

Then you contacted the Giants.<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b>Fresno had a Class C team \u2013 a Giants minor-league team. I got invited to an Old-Timers game in Candlestick, and I went up there. We were all milling around on the field, and I see [Giants owner] Bob Lurie, so I introduced myself. I said, \u2018I live in Fresno, and I\u2019ve been out of baseball for 7-8 years. I\u2019m looking to get back into the game. I\u2019m willing to start at the bottom and work my way up.\u2019<\/p>\n

So he says, \u2018that\u2019s good. I\u2019ll have [GM] Spec Richardson get hold of you.\u2019<\/p>\n

I went home, and a couple days later, Spec calls and he says, \u2018we\u2019re going to change our program around. We\u2019re going to start having some more coaches with our minor-league teams.\u2019 And he said, \u2018we\u2019d like to have you be a pitching coach in Fresno.\u2019 A guy named Wayne Cato was the manager. \u2018Would you be interested?\u2019 And I said, \u2018I certainly would.\u2019<\/p>\n

So I signed on with the Giants.<\/p>\n

BACK IN THE GAME<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Right away, they sent me to Instructional League for their high-end younger players, to work with the pitchers. I hadn\u2019t been a pitching coach, or know what all the rules were, but I went over there, and they said, \u2018we\u2019ll teach you what\u2019s going on.\u2019 A guy named Jack Mull was the manager. Hank Sauer was working with the hitters, and I was the pitching coach. So that went through, and I got ready for the thing in Fresno.<\/p>\n

But you were only pitching coach at Fresno for one season.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had started drinking by that time, and I was drinking more. The first year being a pitching coach, they had a guy named Bob Fontaine, head of the farm system, and he called me up and said, ‘hey, they fired Wayne Cato, and we\u2019re looking for a manager.\u2019 And I said, \u2018if you can\u2019t find a manager, I\u2019ll put my hat in the ring. I\u2019d like to give it a shot.\u2019<\/p>\n

He called me back the next day and said, \u2018you\u2019re the manager of the Fresno club.\u2019\"Maloney<\/p>\n

So I started managing that Fresno club, and my assistant was Bill Lachemann. I\u2019d come down there to the ballpark, and I\u2019d be half in the bag, and go out there and try to teach these kids how to get to the next level. I was in no shape to teach anybody<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d go out there and try to run the ballclub from third base \u2013 gosh, it was terrible.<\/p>\n

One night I got so sick during the game, I just threw up in the third-base coaching box. And there\u2019s people in the stands — in the old Fresno ballpark, they were close to the field \u2013 and it was terrible.<\/p>\n

And it only got worse after that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I stumbled around for three or four more years, and then I got fired. They brought me to Scottsdale and fired me, because I was a drunk. They didn\u2019t tell me that, but I knew.<\/p>\n

So I stumbled around, and my wife asked me to leave the house, and I ended up living with this guy I hunted and fished with.<\/p>\n

I was sleeping in a sleeping bag, in a room with no furniture — that\u2019s where Jim Maloney ended up.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

GETTING HELP<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But you eventually came out the other side of that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I got a phone call from [former Reds pitcher] Jim Merritt. He was down in LA. He said, \u2018I hear you are having a rough time.\u2019 I guess word gets around. And I was sitting there\"MErritt\" drinking some vodka at the time he called.<\/p>\n

And he said, \u2018you know what? I haven\u2019t had a drink in six years.\u2019 And I didn\u2019t believe him, because Merritt really <\/em>had a serious<\/em> problem when he was playing. I mean a serious, serious<\/em> problem.<\/p>\n

His nickname was O.C., for Occasional Cocktail? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Right. I used to say I was never going to be like that<\/em>. You say those things, and then you end up actually worse<\/em>. That\u2019s where alcohol will take you, if you want to go that route.<\/p>\n

But he did help you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said, \u2018do you want to get some help? I can have this guy call you who works for the Dodgers, and let him talk to you. He\u2019s the medical director for Unocal.\u2019 [Union Oil Company of California; now part of Chevron.]<\/em><\/p>\n

So I said OK, and I no sooner hung up than this guy called and said,<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m John Newton, and I work the Unocal Employee Assistance Program in their medical department. I\u2019m a recovering alcoholic. Jim Merritt just called me, and he said that you need some help. We just sent [former Dodger] Kenny Landreaux to this place over in Arizona to get help, and he\u2019s doing real fine. You can do the same thing.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

And I\u2019m thinking to myself, \u2018what\u2019s this all about? Do I really<\/em> want to get involved in this<\/em>?\u2019<\/p>\n

So he said, \u2018hey, here\u2019s a guy who wants to talk to you. He\u2019s sitting here, right in my office.\u2019<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m thinking, \u2018who in the world could this<\/em> be?\u2019<\/p>\n

The guy gets on the phone, and he says, \u2018hey, you dumbass! What are you trying to do, kill yourself?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

And I\u2019m thinking, \u2018who in the world is this<\/em>?\u2019<\/p>\n

\"NEwcombe\"
Don Newcombe<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And it was [former MLB pitcher] Don Newcombe. Don lockered next to me when I first<\/p>\n

came to the big leagues, in spring training. He was at the end of his career, and Cincinnati picked him up.<\/p>\n

He couldn\u2019t get on an airplane without getting drunk in those days.<\/p>\n

Newcombe says, \u2018you can get some help. I haven\u2019t had a drink in ten years, and I work for the Dodgers \u2013 I work in their chemical-dependency program. It\u2019s the only way to go.\u2019<\/p>\n

So I said OK, and Newton came back on the phone and said, \u2018I\u2019m going to call this place in Arizona, and they\u2019ll get hold of you. Just do what they say to do, and we\u2019ll be in touch.\u2019 I said OK, and he hung up. And I thought, \u2018ah, what\u2019s this deal?\u2019<\/p>\n

You found out quickly what \u2018the deal\u2019 was.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The phone rings, and it\u2019s this gal from a place called The Meadows. It\u2019s a rehab center in Arizona, north of Phoenix. And she says, \u201cwe have a bed for you, and we want you to come over here. We want you on a plane this afternoon<\/em>, and we\u2019ll have a guy pick you up at the Phoenix airport and drive you out here.\u2019<\/p>\n

A MOMENT OF CLARITY<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So, being an alcoholic \u2013 and at that time I didn\u2019t know, but later on I became an alcohol-and-drug counselor, and did that for many years \u2013 the major symptom of alcoholism is denial.<\/em> And to show you how much denial I was in about my drinking, like the good alcoholic I was — well, I still am — but at that time, you know what I said?<\/p>\n

No. What?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Let me have a week to think about it.\u2019<\/p>\n

And she said, \u2018I don\u2019t know who you are, but somebody pulled some strings and got you a bed over here. We\u2019re completely full, and there\u2019s a waiting list.\u2019<\/p>\n

And so at that time, I had a moment of clarity.<\/p>\n

I made a lot of good decisions in my life — the right pitches against Mays and McCovey and those guys, and got them out \u2013 but the best choice I ever made in my life was to get on that plane and go to The Meadows.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was February 5, 1985, and I haven\u2019t had a drink since. Thirty-three years.<\/p>\n

That probably saved your life, it sounds like.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely! Alcoholism is a terminal disease.<\/p>\n

How did things go in Arizona?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I got over there, I was in Stage 3 of alcoholism. I was 42 days in that treatment program. And I came back to Fresno, and I didn\u2019t know what I was going to do.<\/p>\n

I tried selling cars for a while. The guys would come to work, and I could smell them. They were on alcohol, or they were talking about doing cocaine — which I never did, but a drug is a drug. I was trying to stay sober and go to AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] meetings, so I quit [selling cars].<\/p>\n

A NEW FOCUS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But then your life changed direction again?<\/strong><\/p>\n

God has mysterious ways of showing up in your life. I took my car down to get a car wash, and I knew the owner. There had already been some stuff about me in the Fresno Bee<\/em> \u2013 that I had gone away to get rehab, and that kind of stuff \u2013 and he comes over and he says, \u2018how are you doing?\u2019 and I said, \u2018I\u2019m doing OK. One day at a time.\u2019 He said, \u2018I know. I\u2019m a recovering alcoholic. You\u2019d make a good drug-and-alcohol counselor.\u2019<\/p>\n

I said, \u2018man, I haven\u2019t had any schooling on that.\u2019<\/p>\n

He said, ‘I\u2019m the president of our board of the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Council of Fresno. We\u2019ll send you to school. Just go down there and talk to the Executive Director, Debbie Duncan.\u2019<\/p>\n

So I went down there, and Debbie said, \u2018we\u2019ll offer you a job. Do you want to work eight hours, or part-time at four hours?\u2019 I thought about it and said, \u2018you know what? I don\u2019t think I could handle<\/em> eight hours.\u2019 That\u2019s how bad I was. \u2018Let me try part-time.\u2019<\/p>\n

You got back into coaching, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At that time, my son was a freshman in high school, and I knew the head coach there \u2013 we went to school together at Cal \u2013 and he wanted me to coach the freshman team, so that worked out fine. In the mornings I did my counseling and stuff, and in the afternoons I worked with the kids.<\/p>\n

But as it went along, I went to a full-time job. They sent me to the University of Utah for drug-and-alcohol counseling, and I had family-intervention training; so I learned an awful lot, and then I became the director of this place [the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Council of Fresno]<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then at 52 years old, I was going to retire, and one of my board members was pastor of one of the largest churches in Fresno, and I was going to that church. He said, \u2018I need a guy on campus. I want you to come on out there.\u2019<\/p>\n

I said, \u2018I\u2019m involved with the Major League Alumni,\u2019 and he said, \u2018I don\u2019t care what<\/em> you\u2019re involved with; I\u2019ll get my money\u2019s worth out of you.\u2019<\/p>\n

So I said, \u2018I\u2019ll try it for a year.\u2019 I ended up working there for 10 years. It was very rewarding. We helped a lot of people.<\/p>\n

Then when I was 62, I retired.<\/p>\n

Was that work as rewarding as pitching?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would say so.<\/p>\n

I knew that if I kept going the way I was, I would find myself six feet under the ground.<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The big thing that was rewarding was I knew that if I kept going the way I was, I would find myself six feet under the ground. You start in things and see people in recovery who have gone through stuff like you have, and it inspires you to look into this. I learned an awful lot in that treatment program. I came back to Fresno and I went to 90 [AA] meetings in 90 days.<\/p>\n

I still go to AA meetings today; I go to two meetings a week. It\u2019s not so much that I\u2019m going to drink, but a big thing about AA is helping the next guy coming through the door. That\u2019s what that is.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a support thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely! A wonderful program. I had no clue what it was like when I started, but you learn about it in the treatment program.\u00a0 They get you plugged into AA to start with, and you have your therapy groups \u2013 a couple of them a day \u2013 and you learn about different things.<\/p>\n

The baffling, powerful thing about thing about alcoholism and drug addiction is, some people just don\u2019t make it. They just don\u2019t make it.<\/p>\n

But you had the strength to get through it. And some good support.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I did.<\/p>\n

What happened was, I really went over to The Meadows to save my marriage; my wife had asked me for a divorce. So I figured if I went over there and got straightened around, and came back to Fresno, I could patch my marriage back up, where it would be fine. I had been married for 21 or 22 years. And so I went over there basically to save my marriage.<\/p>\n

[Rehab] did not<\/strong> save my marriage; it saved my life<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what it did \u2013 it did not<\/em> save my marriage; it saved my life<\/em>. And I will forever be grateful that I made that decision.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a ride that has just been unbelievable \u2013 how alcoholism destroys a family, it\u2019s just unbelievable how someone who is an alcoholic can \u2013 coworkers, anybody that\u2019s around, alcohol would just \u2026<\/p>\n

There are people who can drink alcohol and don\u2019t have a problem; more power to them.<\/p>\n

But it isn\u2019t Jim Maloney, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n

LIFE IS GOOD<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve had quite a journey. You\u2019ve been up; you\u2019ve been down. But you persevered. How is life for Jim Maloney now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ever since I had my last drink, it\u2019s been going uphill. I have more fun, and I do more things.<\/p>\n

I married Lyn, my high-school sweetheart. When I signed to play pro ball, I moved on, and she moved on. She married another person and lived in LA; never had any contact with her. I went to my 40th<\/sup> high school reunion, and she was there, and we danced a couple dances, and we went together for two years, and got married in 2000. All of our families get along together, and we do a lot of stuff.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re still able to travel a little bit, and our health is fine today. We don\u2019t know about tomorrow, but we\u2019re very grateful for that.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ve been able to do all this stuff without having a glass of alcohol. I used to think, \u2019where\u2019s all the fun going to be?\u2019 if I wasn\u2019t going to be able to drink. That\u2019s so way out there, it\u2019s pathetic. The last five years I drank, I wasn\u2019t having any fun, even though I thought I was.<\/p>\n

You didn\u2019t know what fun was, until you got on the other side of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exactly.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Jim Maloney for sharing his story. Part 1 of our interview is here<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim Maloney was one of baseball’s best pitchers during the 1960s: no-hitters, All-Star games, a World Series. He won more than 20 games in a season twice, with a blazing fastball leading the way. The […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-interviews"},"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4437,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/4437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}