Babe Dahlgren

Ellsworth Tenney "Babe" Dahlgren (June 15, 1912 – September 4, 1996) 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.

Late in the 1940 season, Dahlgren mishandled a throw from Frank Crosetti in a critical game against the Cleveland Indians. The Yankees lost that game, and with it any realistic chance at a fifth straight pennant. Manager Joe McCarthy believed that Dahlgren's error was what ultimately cost the Yankees the pennant. He suggested that Dahlgren was smoking marijuana, and that it dulled his reflexes enough to keep him from handling the throw cleanly. 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.