Rhem’s achievements as the fireballing Cardinals ace (20-7) in their 1926 championship year are obscured by a bizarre episode arising from his weakness for drink. In 1930, with St. Louis and Brooklyn in a stretch-run battle for first place, Rhem vanished. Reappearing two days later, he said he had been kidnapped, evidently by Dodger partisans, sequestered in a hotel room, and forced to drink an incapacitating amount of liquor. Rhem survived the incident, lasted six more years in the NL, and was disappointingly ineffective in World Series appearances.