Jim Palmer Files Fraud Suit

[SoxJox]

A sad story.

Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer has filed a civil suit against a former friend in Superior Court in Orange County, Calif., alleging that he lost nearly $1 million in a fraudulent business scheme.

Palmer said the defendant, Warren Michael Holmes, had befriended Palmer’s autistic stepson, Spencer, and built such a bond with the family that he was named as Spencer’s guardian and the manager of his trust. Palmer said that Holmes had misrepresented himself as a prominent British hair stylist and that Palmer and his wife, Susan, had made business and personal loans totaling $985,000 to help Holmes start a line of beauty products.

The alleged sad twist (the stepson mentioned below apparently is autistic, and the defendant allegedly went to great pains to befriend him and provide tangible evidence to the Palmers of his commitment to the family friendship):

Jim Palmer said this case cuts deeply because his stepson, who is 27, had been used as a pawn. Although the Palmers are in good health, they have become increasingly aware of their mortality: Susan said she is genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s disease, which afflicted her mother, and Jim turned 78 in October.

“Whether (Holmes) hoodwinked us or not, there is no way in the world he could have without ingratiating himself into our family and giving us the feeling that if anything happened to me — because I’m 21 years older than Susan — and then Susan had some kind of memory issue or whatever, that he was going to take care of Spencer,” said Palmer,

 

[Bread of Yaz]

His hair always looks good tho

 

[SoxJox]

To be sure. And as someone who has none, I am jealous.

 

[canderson]

That's awful, I've really enjoyed Palmer as a color analyst (too young to have watched him pitch). I hope they get some money back.

 

[Omar's Wacky Neighbor]

Years back, we had the president of the PTA for a IEP/special needs public school clean out the PTA treasury, which was considerable.

Some people have no limit/shame.

 

[RG33]

He was introduced by mutual friends in Palm Beach, FL? I mean, there is a non-zero % chance that those mutual friends rhyme with Frump and Friuliani.

 

[joe dokes]

This is really awful. I can't imagine feeling like you "let" your kid get taken advantage of.

Palmer was one of those old-school pitchers who probably would have embraced analytics. (just as Earl Weaver did, even though they weren't called that yet) He was also a pretty nice guy, if one anecdote counts:

A close friend & his high-school pitcher son met Palmer on the street in Cooperstown on the Thursday of HoF weekend 25 years ago or so. After a quick "I saw you play a lot and my son pitches" intro, the friend reached for a camera and pen; Palmer said something like "why don't we just walk and chat for awhile first. Once you stop for that we'll get mobbed." So the 3 of them walked down the street talked baseball for 10 or 15 minutes with Palmer really giving the son time and attention talking baseball. They got the pic and autograph later and strolled away as he got noticed.

 

[Average Reds]

This is really awful. I can't imagine feeling like you "let" your kid get taken advantage of.

Palmer was one of those old-school pitchers who probably would have embraced analytics. (just as Earl Weaver did, even though they weren't called that yet) He was also a pretty nice guy, if one anecdote counts:

A close friend & his high-school pitcher son met Palmer on the street in Cooperstown on the Thursday of HoF weekend 25 years ago or so. After a quick "I saw you play a lot and my son pitches" intro, the friend reached for a camera and pen; Palmer said something like "why don't we just walk and chat for awhile first. Once you stop for that we'll get mobbed." So the 3 of them walked down the street talked baseball for 10 or 15 minutes with Palmer really giving the son time and attention talking baseball. They got the pic and autograph later and strolled away as he got noticed.

I’ve never met him, but I have friends in the DC/Baltimore area who used to run into him a lot. The man you describe is the man they describe.

That's awful, I've really enjoyed Palmer as a color analyst (too young to have watched him pitch). I hope they get some money back.

Holy good God, this makes me feel old.


You would have enjoyed watching him pitch. “Old-school” is a good description, but only in the sense that he was like an artist. He didn’t have overpowering stuff - maybe only just above-average - but, like Greg Maddox, he had fabulous control and was able to mix locations and speed. He also had a very deceptive delivery with a leg kick that was usually waist high but would vary on occasion to keep hitters guessing.

 

[grsharky7]

Never gave up a grand slam in his entire career.

 

[joe dokes]

Never gave up a grand slam in his entire career.

He once said, "There's always an open base."
I still use that phrase when defending the bases loaded walk in some circumstances.

 

[Mugsy's Jock]

I remember him just dominating against the Red Sox, but looking at his Baseball Ref page, they actually had relatively good success against him.

Pitched 429 innings against Boston, more than any other team.
2.98 ERA vs. Sox, compared with 2.86 over his career.
Allowed 43 HRs to Red Sox, substantially more than any other team.
Jim Rice was tied with Nettles for most HR against Palmer (9), and Pudge was next (7). Yaz, Boomer and Rico also top 10.
1.27 WHIP against Red Sox, compared with 1.18 over career. WHIP vs. Red Sox easily the worst against any other team aside from 7 late-career starts against the Mariners.

And then there's this surprising familiar old name mentioned in an old NYT interview:

Q. What hitter who was not a star player gave you the most trouble?
A. Doug Griffin. I pitched away and he loved the ball out over the plate. He was an outside-half hitter. That all changed when Nolan Ryan hit him in the helmet. He stopped diving.

The Dude had a .362/.426/.404 slash against Palmer.

 

[Al Zarilla]

He once said, "There's always an open base."
I still use that phrase when defending the bases loaded walk in some circumstances.

Giants color guy Mike Krukow uses that also, even if it’s first and second that are occupied. Always felt like Palmer beat the Red Sox every time out, was 22-16 with a 2.98 ERA ( I see an abbreviation of Mugsy’s post).

 

[SoxJox]

I had the great pleasure of watching him pitch many times in the 1965-1970 seasons. I've shared on the board several memories of my dad taking my brother and me up to either DC to see the Senators, or to Baltimore''s old Memorial Stadium to see the Orioles on weekends either team had doubleheaders. What great teams those were, with the likes of Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, Curt Blefary, Davey Johnson, Luis Aparicio, Paul Blair, Elrod Hendricks, Mark Bellanger, Don Buford. But pitching staffs that included Palmer, of course, but also Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar and Eddie Watt. We were spoiled watching these guys.

My best memory of him was him besting Sandy Koufax, 6-0, in Game 2 of the 1966 WS, which the Orioles won, sweeping the Dodgers in 4, with a staff that included Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Claude Olsteen.

 

[Marciano490]

He won that game against Koufax at like age 20, correct? I think, coincidentally, besting Koufax record for youngest to win a WS game.

 

[jon abbey]

I was definitely following MLB while Palmer was still around but besides a name and how good he was, he never really registered on me much, not like his peers Steve Carlton and Tom Seaver anyway. That's not a judgment in any way, people will remember that our access to see out of town players at that time was limited, if you were lucky maybe a quick highlight on the short sports segment on the local news, as ESPN was not even around yet.

I do have strong memories of how great Steve Stone was that one season in 1980 (when I was 13) and looking at that team's page now, it is crazy that Palmer was 4th just on his own team in innings pitched at 224 (Scott McGregor 252, Mike Flanagan 251.1, Stone 250.2), for comparison Logan Webb led all of MLB in 2023 with 216.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BAL/1980.shtml

 

[Greg Blosser]

Jim's best friend from his playing days, O's relief pitcher Dave Leonhard, owns a florist/greenhouse in Beverly right down the street from where I grew up. My mom is tight with Dave and his wife, and I worked at the greenhouse from junior high up to college. If the Orioles were in town, Jim was a constant presence there both during his playing and his broadcasting days - he'd hang around, help out with the work, anything. A really nice dude, very personable and smart, and always willing to talk baseball. He's also pretty much a total headcase - completely neurotic, totally insecure, and pretty bitter than he retired just before salaries went through the roof (hence the attempted comeback in '91). So him being taken to the cleaners by a grifter apparently isn't that surprising. It's still very sad, of course, on a number of levels.

Another bonus of Jim hanging around the florist is that sometimes he'd bring his friend Teddy Grossman, an absolutely batshit crazy Hollywood stuntman - a total character who had serious street cred to me because he was this guy:



ESTUARY VICTIM!

 

[runnels3]

Always felt like Palmer beat the Red Sox every time out, was 22-16 with a 2.98 ERA

I lucked out then. Saw him go toe to toe with Tiant for 12 innings until Ben Oglivie ended it with a walk-off into the screen.
Classic game, and Yaz was playing 3b.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1973/B09040BOS1973.htm

 

[snowmanny]

Hmmm…I went to this Palmer Tiant matchup and it was less satisfying.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS197508050.shtml

 

[runnels3]

I guess this one that same year was the ultimate in satisfaction.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1975/B09160BOS1975.htm

 

[Al Zarilla]

I guess this one that same year was the ultimate in satisfaction.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1975/B09160BOS1975.htm

Denny Doyle 3 for 4 and combined Yaz, Lynn and Rice 1 for 12. Bet you could never find another game with those stats.

 

[Spelunker]

"Jim Palmer's Briefs" was right there.

 

[Eric1984]

I'm old enough to remember him from his playing days (born in '70 so I go back to about '77) and my memory of him from that age is as someone who was in the All-Star game every year and was a big name but who I never saw pitch much. Part of it may have been injuries -- I remember him missing starts. And part of it was how hard it was to see out-of-town stars back then -- especially pitchers. This was just before the superstations, so locally we had my team, the Tigers. Also a handful of Expos games on CBC (we got the Windsor affiliate). The Tigers had only about 1/2 to 2/3 of their games on TV and of those, a lot were only on the home station -- WDIV-4, Detroit -- instead of the entire "Detroit Tiger Broadcast Network," which had our Lansing/Jackson affiliate. So the odds of seeing a Jim Palmer start, or any particular out-of-market pitcher, regardless of how often the Tigers and O's played each other in the old AL East, weren't that great. And the O's were only in the postseason once from the time I started watching baseball until Palmer retired (technically twice, I guess, but he was cooked by '83 and I don't think he had any postseason starts).

 

[CarolinaBeerGuy]

I don’t have much to add, but when I was around 10 years old I got Palmer’s autograph at the Crosby celebrity golf tournament when it used to be at Bermuda Run near Winston-Salem. A family friend was a memorabilia collector and he gave me a game photo of Jim Palmer to get signed. He personalized it to me and I’ve had it framed ever since. It’s on the wall in my “man cave”.

 

[mwonow]

Two quick anecdotes on Palmer...

I remember being in the Concordia (university in Montreal) student pub in 1983, probably up to no good, since I didn't attend Concordia. I was with a friend who wasn't a baseball fan, but the TV was on, and there was Palmer pitching against Carlton. I tried to paint the picture of how historic the matchup was, and failed, but we did stick around until both guys were out of the game, despite complaints after each half-inning.

Years later, Palmer is broadcasting. As I remember it, the pitcher gave up back-to-back-to-back homers, and someone else in the booth asked, "Jim, did that ever happen to you?" And Palmer laughed long and hard. To my ear, it sure sounded like "if two guys had backed to backed me, the third was catching the next pitch in his ear" was buried somewhere in the laughter.

 

[runnels3]

19 years old (ok, one week shy of 20) - pretty amazing, Willie Davis (3 errors) not withstanding.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1966/B10060LAN1966.htm

 

[RichardGarner]

"Jim Palmer's Briefs" was right there.

He is a legend.