Cribbed from THIS article on SABR Bio by Phil Williams.
In baseball, as in life, triumph and tragedy go hand in hand. It could be argued that the tragic story of Arnold Hauser ranks alongside those of Lou Gehrig, Donnie Moore, Roy Halladay and Tyler Skaggs, among others. There is no argument whatsoever that his story is far less widely known.
Born in Chicago in 1888, Arnold Hauser made his pro debut with the Dubuque Dubs of the Three-I League at the age of 20, and it was there he made early waves for his fielding prowess. Dick Kinsella, the renowned scout who owned the Springfield Senators in that league, recommended Arnold to St Louis player-manager Roger Bresnahan, who promptly signed the tyro shortstop to the big-league club.
Despite the presence of well-regarded 2B Rudy Hulswitt and high profile off-season SS recruit Miller Huggins in the Cards’ middle infield, Hauser was inserted into the lineup for his MLB debut on April 23, 1910 and was made the team’s everyday shortstop early the following month. He was small in stature (5 feet 6 and just 145 pounds, earning him the sobriquet “Peewee”) and a relatively light hitter, with an average of just .205 for his rookie season, but he was a tough out and parlayed that into a .312 OBP. It was his acrobatic fielding, however, that made him a fan favourite and helped keep him in the lineup that year.
1911 began well both for Arnold and the Cards, who mixed it up with the more favoured NL teams, getting as high as 11 games above .500 at one point. What Arnold lacked in raw talent he made up for with game smarts, determination and good execution, with his bunting and hit-and-run skills of particular note, and he spent a good part of that season batting at 2 behind Huggins. But both player and team faded down the stretch, with Arnold posting a .241 / .286 / .311 slash with 3 homers and 46 RBI as the Cards limped into fifth place.
Despite losing his mother to suicide in mid-season, Arnold stepped it up another notch in 1912, hitting .259 / .319 / .324 while driving in 42. But Bresnahan’s grating managerial style had taken its toll on the players and, after the Cards finished near the bottom of the NL, he was dismissed.
It is at this point Arnold’s story veers into the darker side of the human condition.
In March Arnold injured his right knee, which had reportedly been weakened by an off-season injury, and missed three months’ game time. Then, just a few weeks after he had returned to the team, his young daughter died unexpectedly. In the end he managed to play in just 22 games that year before it was decided to operate on his knee, which had not healed as expected. Despite all that had gone on, Arnold still managed to post a .289 BA in 45 at-bats, quite remarkable under the circumstances.
From here, Arnold’s decline was steep and swift. He lost 25 pounds (reportedly to pneumonia) over the next few months and started showing signs of delusional behaviour. These worsened to the point that, in mid-1914, Arnold was placed in a sanatorium, where he convalesced for the next 12 months.
By June 1915 Arnold’s condition had improved sufficiently for him to be released, and after an unsuccessful tryout with his former team, he joined the Chicago Whales of the Federal League. But his play was not up to scratch and, after only being used sparingly, he was released at the end of the season.
Whether this had anything to do with his relapse into mental disrepair remains unclear. However by the following year, Arnold was back in supervised care at Elgin Hospital in his home state, where – apart from a couple of periodic releases – he remained as a patient until 1955.
Arnold Hauser died of a heart attack in 1966 and is buried in Chicago’s Mount Olivet Cemetery.
In his reincarnate form in the FL, Arnold was drafted in the 1901 Inaugural Draft by the Boston Americans (10th Round, 110th overall pick) and named at #36 in the Top Prospects list that preseason. He played 76 games for Boston that year, going .277 / .309 / .338 with one HR and 31 RBI, and was the walkoff hero for the Americans when he doubled in the winning run against Cleveland on June 21. He was traded in the offseason to Cincinnati but hasn’t managed to crack the FL team in 1902, instead being sent down to Cedar Rapids, where he has hit .300 whilst only being used sparingly.
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