Alcoholism and Baseball: Bob Welch's Book Lives!

11/12/2015

There is no consolation for losing a friend way too young, but at least Bob Welch’s book on his alcoholism has a new life – in electronic form.

Bob died suddenly in June of 2014 at the age of 57. I wrote a tribute to him, how he went through rehab in 1980, at the age of 23, after nearly wrecking his pitching career. He stayed sober and wound up winning the Cy Young Award, but his real victory was sobriety. He set an example for others, particularly young people who think they are immune to being alcoholics at such an early age.

Bob gives examples -- frightening, graphic, and illuminating -- of the acts and cover-ups of the alcoholic.

His son Riley was the driving force behind the re-publication of Bob’s book. He wanted his dad to be remembered, for all the right reasons.

I have written a new prologue and epilogue to cover the main points of Bob’s life after pitching. (There are also some links to stories about Bob, as well as a couple about alcoholism.) Bob always reminded people – and himself – that alcoholics need to be vigilant, day by day.

I’m not an alcoholic, but I surely learned from Bob and my other friends that you don’t have to drink, at this moment.

Of all the books I have written, this one has done the most good. Alas, the earlier versions of Bob’s book are out of print, but I hope anybody interested in “the problem” – particularly in the young -- will consider clicking off an e-copy of Bob’s book, via Open Road Integrated Media:

http://www.amazon.com/Five-OClock-Comes-Early-Alcoholism-ebook/dp/B016XE7P18

Thank you,
George Vecsey

Alan Rubin link

11/12/2015 01:03:41 pm

George--another book tip. Keep them coming.

Bob Welch's story, and those of others who want to help through their person experiences, should always be available and promoted.

George Vecsey

11/12/2015 03:02:51 pm

Alan, thanks. When the book came out, I got some letters from people saying they were sober because of Bob's story. Somebody in my business said he learned a lot about his family history. It's very rewarding. Plus, I went through the family-week program Bob had gone through, and it definitely affected me. Hard to top that in some other book...but will keep typing. GV

mike from whitestone

11/13/2015 10:21:10 pm

GV, thanks for putting this book back on my radar. A nice reminder and easy identification for me, through sports and the humbling but gratifying message of the gift of sobriety.
RIP Bob.
Thanks Bill W.
Thanks GV once again.

One Day at a time.
Blessed, just for today.

George Vecsey

11/14/2015 08:09:44 am

Mike: thanks for the reminder. Be well, GV

Greg Schmidt

1/12/2016 10:03:11 am

George, Thank you for this book. I first got a copy in 1983 and Bob was kind enough to sign it for me in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium when I was just a kid in college. He encouraged me in my baseball career and your book helped me tremendously to avoid that road and understand people who suffer with the disease of alcoholism and many of the challenges. Having two roomates who I believe suffered from alcoholism when I pitched professionally, the book helped me try to help one of my teammates. the alcohol flowed freely and heavily in most of those clubhouses of teams I played for. Now as a pastor, I have welcomed many who are batteling this disease and introducing them to AA and celebrate recovery programs.
Thank you GV for taking on this project years ago and keeping it available to others today. Thank you Bob Welch for using your life to help others.
Greg

Michael Green

3/16/2016 09:53:01 pm

I'm a lifelong Dodger fan (WHY Vin didn't ask for me to succeed him, I'll never know), and Bob Welch came to the team when I was 13. I've always remembered one of his early starts, when Pete Rose was riding him and Rick Monday shouted something at Rose across the field, and Rose had to be restrained. I read the book you two wrote when it came out. I wasn't old enough to drink, but it was a lesson, and I remembered it.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

Alcoholism and Baseball: Bob Welch's Book Lives!

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