Fall from grace: Baseball's "Big Daddy" Strikes Out Big
As America watches with anticipation a decisive Game 7 of the American League Championship Series to see whether it will be the perenially successful New York Yankees or curse-ridden Boston Red Sox who make it to this years World Series, some perspective on how fragile success can be comes with the publishing in US Newspapers including the Detroit News and USA Today of former baseball superstar Cecil Fielder, known to fans as 'Big Daddy'.
Cecil Fielder used to have it all - fame and fortune and a happy family. But now it is all gone.
"Gambling caused Cecil Fielder's empire to collapse," said Al Arostegui, the Realtor who sold the Fielders their 50-room palace in Melbourne, Fla., in 1995 for $3.7 million.
"This isn't a story of a hero who went bad, but a hero who got sick. For Cecil, gambling is a disease; it's like a cancer of some sort that ate away his wealth."
Cecil Fielder's life was destroyed by gambling. What is even more surprising is that it is one of the rare occasions when you can see a person's life being lost to gambling in only a few hours.
The origins of the Fall of the House of Fielder are spelled out in a file in New Jersey Superior Court, titled Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino versus Cecil G. Fielder. It's about one 40-hour period in which Fielder's gambling compulsion apparently broke all bounds, with a casino extending him credit every step of the way.
On a February day in 1999, Cecil Fielder walked into the Trump Plaza casino in Atlantic City just before noon, and filled out an application for credit.
Under "Income/Assets," he included: "Salary — $5 million."
Under "Other Casinos," he listed a $100,000 line of credit at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas.
Trump extended Fielder a $25,000 line of credit. That money, plus whatever cash he had started with, lasted a day and a half.
Fielder requested, and was given, another $25,000 line of credit.
That was gone in two hours and 40 minutes.
The casino lent him $27,500 more.
That lasted less than 20 minutes.
The casino extended Fielder's credit by another $50,000.
The minute-by-minute records stop there, but the file contains a total. By the time the binge was over, Fielder owed the Trump casino $580,000.
Cecil Fielder still owes the casino, and a range of other creditors money. He is going through a messy divorce with his wife. He has lost his home, his wealth, his family and with the publishing of these articles a lot of pride.
Gambling can have consequences for anyone, no matter who you are. If you gamble, gamble responisbly, because if you don't you are risking more than just money.
GG
