Oil Can Boyd says he used cocaine frequently

[Auggie]

2-9-12 / espnboston.com

Former Red Sox pitcher Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd revealed in an interview Wednesday that he was under the influence of cocaine in "two-thirds" of the games he pitched and that teammates were aware of it.

Appearing on WBZ NewsRadio to promote his forthcoming autobiography "They Call Me Oil Can: My Life in Baseball," Boyd said of his cocaine use: "Oh yeah, at every ballpark. There wasn't one ballpark that I probably didn't stay up all night, until 4 or 5 in the morning, and the same thing is still in your system. It's not like you have time to go do it while in the game, which I had done that.

"Some of the best games I've ever, ever pitched in the major leagues, I stayed up all night; I'd say two-thirds of them. If I had went to bed, I would have won 150 ballgames in the time span that I played. I feel like my career was cut short for a lot of reasons, but I wasn't doing anything that hundreds of ballplayers weren't doing at the time, because that's how I learned it."

Boyd pitched in the majors from 1982-91, spending eight of those seasons with Boston (he also played for the Montreal Expos and Texas Rangers). He was 78-77 in his career with a 4.04 ERA.

STORY: http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/7558201/boston-red-sox-pitcher-oil-boyd-used-cocaine-frequently-career

Boyd's book scheduled release is June.

[bluedigger]

1. Shocked, shocked I say!

We'll see a lot more of this as that generation of players starts talking more.

[hughee99]

2. That was going to be exactly my post.

The Can on coke? Say it ain't so, Joe.

[Kingofalldems]

3. There was a Pirate pitcher who had a no-hitter

while on something---maybe LSD.
Anyone remember?

[hughee99]

4. Dock Ellis was on LSD for his no-no in 1970. n/t

[fishwax]

5. Dock Ellis -- here's a fun animated short film on youtube with him talking about the game

and how that whole situation came about:

[MrSlayer]

6. Excellent.

That was killer.

[chelsea0011]

7. Too funny