[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

In the old days (as in the really old days - pre-1920s) when teams would travel south for spring training, a number of players would invariably come down with malaria. Now, in those days, before the link between malaria and mosquitoes was established or well understood, the south actually did have a problem with malaria, so some of those cases were no doubt genuine. But "malaria" was also a pretty good label to use when a player came down with a venereal disease - not something that was limited to the south, to be sure, but something that might happen when players were away from their wives and/or girlfriends for a couple of weeks in the early spring.

Babe Ruth's infamous "stomache ache," which cost him about a third of the 1925 season, was reported to the press as acute indigestion due to consuming "too many hot dogs and soda pops" during spring training. Rumors, however, suggested that the Babe had contracted a case of syphilis. Whatever the cause, the Yanks fell to seventh place that season.

We need an OOTP storyline for this. Like the "Chopping wood" one.