Hack could not have picked a worse time for a meltdown. Wrigley and team president Veeck sat in the Polo Grounds stands for a Cubs' doubleheader against the Giants August 24. After a called third strike in the sixth inning of the second game, Hack argued the call with umpire Beans Reardon. The umpire threw him out of the game. Except Hack refused to leave, and assumed his place in the outfield where he pantomimed insults to Reardon. Finally, his own teammates had to drag him from the field, like a screaming, kicking little boy.

As if that weren't bad enough, that night Hack went on a terrible drinking binge. In the morning, Hornsby threatened to suspend him for ten days, and told him to catch a train back to Chicago.

Wilson, sad, disheveled and profusely apologetic, stood before the entire team and admitted he had let them down. He was smart enough to praise Hornsby for not overreacting to his misdeeds. Then he promised to behave himself. It must have been a surreal sight, a hungover Hack begging for redemption.

It worked, at least temporarily. Hornsby gave him a reprieve. Yet the Cubs' seed of discontent with Hack had sprouted wide open. On August 29, back at Wrigley Field against Reds pitcher Syl Johnson, Hack hit his last home run as a Cub -- he now had 13 home runs, his total a year ago in August alone.

On September 4, Barton, now the regular center fielder, had to take time off to attend a funeral. Rather than use Hack in center field, Hornsby chose instead to use pitcher Bud Teachout. He kept the slugger in the bullpen to warm up relief pitchers, but did eventually use him as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning. He fouled out.

As far as Hornsby was concerned, Hack was beyond salvation. He made this point to reporters: "Hack knows he is through as a Cub so it would hardly be fair to either himself or the team to play him."

That night Malone, who had lost a game the day before, and Hack, who was in a grim mood, got drunk again. The next day they woke up like angry bears. Waiting at the train station to return to Chicago, both players encountered Harold Johnson of the Chicago American and Wayne K. Otto of the Herald-Examiner.

One account claims that Johnson taunted Malone by saying, "I've just had a chat with Mordecai Brown. Did you ever hear of him, Pat? He was a great pitcher in his time." Other accounts say that Hack got into a quarrel with the writers before Malone happened along.

In any event, it seems well-established that Malone decked Johnson with a right fist to the head. At this point, Otto yelled, "You can't get away with that, Malone," and jumped in. Malone also pummeled him. Eyewitnesses, including Cubs, rushed to pull them apart. Hack did nothing to pull Malone off of the writers, and was suspected of encouraging the pitcher in the beating. Later, Malone said the writers deserved the thrashing because they'd been "on me" in their columns.

When the team reached Chicago, Veeck fined Malone $500 and ordered him to pay the doctors' bills of the writers. He then suspended Hack without pay for the remainder of the schedule. The pretext was that Hack failed to stop Malone.

Perhaps Hack had started the bickering, but it was odd that he got the brunt of the punishment when Malone did the punching. Either the Cubs were already so fed up with Hack that this was the result, or there was more to the story than has been revealed.

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