Babe Dahlgren

Who was Babe Dahlgren?

Ellsworth Tenney "Babe" Dahlgren was a Major League Baseball infielder from 1935 to 1946 for the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Boston Braves, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Browns, Brooklyn Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, and Pittsburgh Pirates. Dahlgren replaced Lou Gehrig in the line up on May 2, 1939, ending Gehrig's 14-year, 2,130 consecutive game streak. Dahlgren had a homer and double‚ as the Yankees routed Detroit 22-2. He went on to hit 15 home runs and drive in 89 runs for the season for the Yankees.

In 1941, a rumor was circulated in Major League baseball that Dahlgren smoked marijuana. After discovering the existence of the rumor in 1943, Dahlgren became the first Major League Baseball player to take a drug test for a non-performance enhancing drug. He did so voluntarily to discredit the rumors circulating at the time. The tests were all negative, refuting the charges of marijuana use. Dahlgren continued to play at the major league level until 1946, in a playing career which spanned 18 years, including all or part of twelve seasons in the majors. Dahlgren spent decades trying to uncover the source of the rumor.

A hypothesis as to who the perpetrator of the rumor was has been recently brought forth by his grandson, Matt Dahlgren, in his self-published book, Rumor in Town.