# Help me find old baseball player, leg wrecked by experimental treatment. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 5, 2016, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-old-baseball-player-leg-wrecked-by-experimental-treatment/770725 "2016-11-05T18:09:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-old-baseball-player-leg-wrecked-by-experimental-treatment/770725/1 "2016-11-05T18:09:06Z")
There was a story I heard a long time ago, I was trying to remember, but I can’t figure out the magic google spell to find it. Some details may be totally mis-remembered, but I’ll say the ones I think I remember in case it helps. I think he was a Detroit Tiger I think it was 30-40s I think he was a really big dude I think he was having a big rookie season, until leg injury. I know he had some weird new treatment that they left hooked up too long and destroyed his leg. ETA. Maybe should have been game room, I’m never sure with Sports questions with exact simple answers. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-old-baseball-player-leg-wrecked-by-experimental-treatment/770725/2 "2016-11-05T18:18:34Z")
Since our sports experts hang out in the Game Room, let’s move this over there. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-old-baseball-player-leg-wrecked-by-experimental-treatment/770725/3 "2016-11-06T01:05:58Z")
Dale Alexander. A very promising talent, career ruined via diathermy treatments I believe. Yes, that’s correct, see [Dale Alexander - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Alexander). Your recollections are very accurate. Great start to his career, .330 hitter, late twenties-early thirties, starting off with the Tigers. He twisted a knee and they decided to use heat to treat it, only he developed bad burns and gangrene (!). Kind of limited his mobility… ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-old-baseball-player-leg-wrecked-by-experimental-treatment/770725/4 "2016-11-06T01:14:09Z")
That’s him, thank you very much. Most of my memory was good but I was clearly confused on it happening during his rookie year, And I was thinking a little bigger than 6 ft 3. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-old-baseball-player-leg-wrecked-by-experimental-treatment/770725/5 "2016-11-06T01:19:35Z")
You’re welcome! As I said, I thought your memory was quite impressive. Of course 6’3" probably came across as bigger then than it would now–certainly among baseball players. As a 13-year-old or something I found him while flipping through the Baseball Encyclopedia (in those pre-Internet days)…I’d never heard of the guy, and remember being surprised at a) how good he was and b) how abruptly his career had come to an end. It was some time before I learned the details. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-old-baseball-player-leg-wrecked-by-experimental-treatment/770725/6 "2016-11-06T02:04:49Z")
Joe DiMaggio missed several weeks his first year with the Yankees because the trainer, who thought he used better methods than over trainers, left DiMaggio’s foot in a diathermy machine too long. > **[Joe DiMaggio](https://books.google.com/books?id=I4rcHGvp1NYC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=joe%2Bdimaggio%2Bdiathermy&source=bl&ots=lPf-zAx46a&sig=xQjO5-QwQEtUOnOn_Qd49gtIqCg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjil_6zhJPQAhWB3YMKHfHLBEMQ6AEIQzAF#v=onepage&q=joe%20dimaggio%20diathermy&f=false)** > > Joe DiMaggio was, at every turn, one man we could look at who made us feel good. In the hard-knuckled thirties, he was the immigrant boy who made it big—and spurred the New York Yankees to a new era of dynasty. He was Broadway Joe, the icon of... 6’3" was pretty big for a player in the 1930s. In the late 1990s when the Yankees won 4 championships in 5 years, one player from Stengel’s 5 in a row teams noted Derek Jeter at 6’3" was taller than any Yankee 1949-1953 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-old-baseball-player-leg-wrecked-by-experimental-treatment/770725/7 "2016-11-06T16:45:41Z")
And here I was thinking Clayton “Jonesy” Jones… 🙂