Rollie Hemsley was the player for the Cleveland Indians that got sober with Dr. Bob 4/16/1939. The clarity of the recording is very good though it appears to be cut off at the end. He is 29 years sober in 1968. When the media discovered the notorious drunken catcher had sobered up in an organization called Alcoholics Anonymous - it was real news.
This was 7 years before the Traditions were published and 11 years before they were adopted. From his publicity later came the articles in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about AA and from there the famous 1941 Jack Alexander article in the Saturday Evening Post.
Valuable as an historic recording, this is also a story worth hearing in its own right.
(43 min) (14.9 MB) (id#431)