Description
NUMBER 77 ON ANNE SMITHs LIST OF THE FIRST 100 AA Members ROLLIE HEMSLEY of Fredrick, MD SOBRIETY DATE April 16, 1939
Played For Cleveland Indians during 1930s
at 23rd Anniversary of Cosmopolitan Group Washington, DC April 26, 1968 9 Tracks 45 Minutes
AA number 77 on Ann Smiths list of Ohio AA members.
Baseball Player famous for his 1940 newspaper admission of being sober due to Alcoholics Anonymous
29 YEARS SOBER AT TIME OF TALK
Rollie tells his story of drunken episodes and disgusted team managers.
Getting fined suspended etc.
Talks about trying a cure for his Alcoholism about a year before being introduced to AA.
How at the beginning of the season yet another drunken episode got him sent back to the team headquarters in Cleveland. A very lonely train ride.
The circumstances by which he was introduced to AA.
Hospitalized under Dr Bobs care and visited by the other early AA members.
His early sobriety Recounts in detail how after a year of sobriety he finally told the inquisitive newspaper men that he was a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous
Talks about helping others and his life in sobriety.
Very plainspoken without a hint of grandiosity.
A very matter of fact description of several events and practices that ore now many years later very historically significant.
I had heard about him in my reading of AA history
what this recording taught me was that he achieved over 29 years of quality sobriety by being just another AA member.
At the beginning of this recording someone reads a brief history of the Cosmopolitan Group.
It was begun by Dr James Shays author of Big Book Story Jim’s STORY p. 483 3rd edition.
