Jake Powell

On this date in 1948, while in police custody for passing bad checks, Jake Powell shot and killed himself in a Washington DC police station.

Mr. Powell was not a perfect man. Far from it.

On July 29, 1938, in a pregame radio interview, Chicago White Sox broadcaster Bob Elson asked Powell what he did in the offseason. He replied (falsely) that he was a police officer in Dayton, Ohio. When asked what Powell did to stay in shape, Powell responded that he "cracked nigg**s over the head with his nightstick." Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis did not approve and suspended Powell for ten games for the comments.

What the ?!

Next time you hear somebody pining for the "good old days".......