One-On-One With Walter Case, Jr.

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Published: November 20, 2008 11:21 am EST

In a Trot Magazine feature article, writer Bob Carson goes one-on-one with Walter Case, Jr., who is set to get his life and career back on track.

Walter Case: Back On Track?
Exclusive feature from Bob Carson

The defendant stood nervously, awaiting sentencing. Walter Case, Jr. had pleaded guilty to felonious assault for punching his wife and then stabbing her in the back with a steak knife. With a version of refrain that judges hear far too often, Case spoke to the bench. It was a terse, bewildered statement.

“I really screwed my life up,” he said. “I let alcohol take over. I wish I could take it back.”

The judge dispensed his ruling; Case was given a five-year sentence -- a sentence that now, with six months lopped off for good behaviour, has been served. The legal procedure was routine for Judge John Enlow. With Walter Case now released, the procedure will anything but routine for harness racing.

It’s not just racing. Society as a whole doesn’t seem to have a blueprint when it comes to addressing our fallen stars. Some are pitched out and marginalized while others get reprieves and countless second chances. Each situation is different, and each sport struggles to weigh legal rights, integrity, appearances, economics, compassion, retributions and a host of competing factors when dealing with performers that have stepped out of bounds.

Cheating and unethical conduct related to the outcome of the games seems to be more egregious to the sporting world than personal misconduct. Athletes like Pete Rose, Eight Players on the 1918 Chicago White Sox, Marion Jones, Ben Johnson and Floyd Landis all were branded with a scarlet letter and permanently dismissed because they did not play fair.

But athletes that are addicts and alcoholics are usually given more latitude, it seems, and after suspensions and treatments they return. Often, they return again and again. Consider Steve Howe -- a sporting figure almost identical in age and with a similar career trajectory as Walter Case.

Steve Howe was a phenomenally talented young pitcher; seven times he was ruled off the field for drug and alcohol violations -- seven times he was given reprieves. During the 1992 season, he became the first baseball player to be banned for life because of drugs. An arbitrator reinstated him after the season. He kept pitching and getting chances until his gifts disappeared. In 2006, while Walter Case counted the days off his prison calendar, Steve Howe died when his car skidded off a mountain road at 5:00 a.m. The quotes from his teammates were predictable.

"It makes you numb when you hear about a situation like this,” one said. “He had a roller-coaster ride.”

“You always get second chances -- third and fourth sometimes,” commented another. “And people really believed in him and that he'd eventually kick the problem. Unfortunately, it didn't happen for Steve.”

But Case is not Steve Howe. And Case craves desperately to get back into a sulky. Whether this will happen, or should happen, is sure to be hotly debated. Complicating the issue is the factional nature of harness racing – different racetracks in different states and even different countries with different laws rules and jurisdictions may all weigh in with different decisions.

Belmont Prison in rural Ohio has 2,500 stories peering from behind barbed wire. Each is a tragedy. There is always an echo in a prison – a silent ‘why?’ For those that fell from high places, the echo is a little louder. Are arrogance, grandiosity, or entitlement factors that force stars to lapse into immoral and illegal territory? Or are these blessed athletes simply subject to the distressing but commonplace diseases of alcoholism and addiction? Is taking them back a disservice or a favor?

These are difficult decisions.

And my discussion with Walter Case, which took place just a few weeks after his release, may be of some value before you make yours.


Did you ever believe your career was done?

To be honest, I thought my career was done as far as driving a horse. I told my family that, and they said no, but I thought people had pretty much had it with me and would never give me another chance. There are people out that do not want to see me out there – I know that. I didn’t think any state would give me another chance.

What about Canada?

I would be open to Canada, sure, I have only driven up there a few times in stakes races and stuff, usually in and out, but it was great.

Is there difference between on-track problems and off-track problems?

I have been suspended before for drugs, gotten lots of chances but people have always told me that if the offence was fixing a race, people are not so kind. My career would have been done. Careers end there. It seems like this society is more forgiving for things that happen off the track, and this was bad.

Do you feel the backstretch environment is a problem, that maybe you should stay away?

No, the problems I have follow you. I could be a construction worker and it would have been the same thing. The environment has nothing to do with alcoholism. Until I recognized I had some serious problems and got on top of it, and I have, it wouldn’t have mattered where I worked.

Are there any terms attached to your release?

Probation doesn’t require me to go to meetings – but I want to go to meetings. I need all the help I can get. I need to talk to people about the addiction because that’s where it starts for me. If I pick up a drink I’m right back where I was before.

If things go well could you ever see sharing your story with other substance abusers?

Absolutely, that would be a big part of my recovery, sharing with other people with problems what I went through. To demonstrate to people where the addiction can lead you. I lost everything, including my freedom; I would love to talk to young kids with problems and show where it can lead if you don’t get help.

Have you followed the sport over the past five years?

I got Horseman & Fair World, Hoof Beats and Trot Magazine every month. That was my only way.

So you know about Tim Tetrick breaking your records.

How could you not? He is very deserving; he worked hard and did not shy away from anyone. You gotta give the kid credit. At twenty-six and with that disease in his hips he’s really had to battle, plus I hear he is a hell of a nice guy so he is a great role model for the sport. I’m happy for him, he deserves the record more than me.

If things don’t work out driving could you be content remaining around horses in other capacities -- like training?

Maybe someday, but right now I still have that burning desire to compete. I have been watching races on the computer and I still feel it inside me, that sensation to get out there.

Were there any positive things that you took out of those five years in prison? People? Programs?

As for friends in prison, I stayed very much to myself. The most positive thing was the drinking part. To tell you the truth I did not know how I was going to quit. I had looked for help before, but when you are confined for all that time, you’re not going to be able to drink, and that urge has gone away. I have never gone this long in my life without a drink. I got out feeling healthy.

What are your plans?

This has all happened so fast. It’s a dream come true. I never realized I could be back up so quickly. I’ll take it a day at a time.


The decision for harness racing is hard.

Horrible mistakes. Terrible decisions. Ugly wreckage. Wasted talent. Is addiction a disease like cancer where people cheer remission and recovery? Or is it a choice that precludes sympathy and demands accountability? Heavy questions. Your answers to these questions may depend on your personal life experiences.

A recent poster boy for recovery and redemption is Josh Hamilton who has, after many relapses, rebounded from destitution and pathetic drug dependency to all-star status in baseball. Hamilton was another golden boy given countless chances. He had been suspended by baseball indefinitely for violating the terms of his treatment program. His wife had left him. He had an infant daughter he'd barely laid eyes on. He'd rejected and disappointed friends who had reached out to help him.

In September 2005, he turned up on his grandmother's doorstep. He'd lost 50 pounds from his once-chiseled frame. He had nowhere else to turn. She took him in. He talked the talk and began to look better. His condition seemed to be improving. A couple of weeks later, she looked into his eyes, and he was high again. How many times could Josh Hamilton get it wrong? His grandmother confronted him yet again, and this time it took. In 2005 (after who knows how many second chances) Josh Hamilton found religion and got it right.

For years Hamilton was the talk of baseball for his problems -- bad ones. Today people talk about him for all the right reasons. It happens.

Josh Hamilton made it back. Steve Howe never did.

Walter Case – who knows? Only time will tell.

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