The MLB's CRAZY "COKE" Era

the 1980s was a wild time for baseball a drug fueled era now the other story in baseball the darker Story the drug trial of Pittsburgh and there has been a new development defined by big plays and Scandal while nothing ignites the crowd like a towering 450t home run the Euphoria of such moments is swiftly dampened by the revelations of drug use human growth hormone baseball is the national pastime and what you are saying is that the national Pastime it's Juiced hm National Pastime is Juiced it's Juiced yeah it is the judge told the jury younger Baseball fans may now see their Idols with feet of clay and blood was running out of my nose from snorting so much cocaine the night before I probably six FBI agents came to the house and um arrested me for Distributing cocaine to Major League baseball players send a message to the Youth of this country especially about the dangers of Co can what we did more times than I can count was go into a bathroom stall together shoot up steroids guilty verdict included One Drug sale inside the Pittsburgh Pirates Clubhouse and other cocaine sales to Dave Parker enus Cabell and Lonnie Smith who also made a drug buy for his former St Louis teammate Keith Hernandez the players have disgraced themselves and their profession and that may well be the final verdict for the public James pulk NBC news Pittsburgh [Music] few stains Mar the beauty of a sport quite like doping countless iconic careers have been tarnished if not completely obliterated by the presence of drug use among all sports baseball stands out for its ongoing struggle with doping cocaine was everywhere in the 1980s in all walks of life the drug was infiltrating every corner of the country and baseball was no exception the book titled Juiced wild times rampant roids Smash Hits and how baseball got big created a media frenzy when it was released cono claimed that he was The Mastermind behind introducing steroids to baseball in the 1980s before incriminating several of his teammates in his claims that included Mark Maguire as well as PUD Rodriguez and Jason Jambi the former Slugger was part of the A's World Series winning roster in 1989 who enjoyed several Elite Seasons smashing home runs in Oakland he made his debut in the majors in 1985 the very beginning of the drug rated ERA in baseball in the 1980s baseball has faced two significant drug-related periods throughout its history Cano's involvement in the 1980s marked the first while the second occurred from 1994 to 2004 cono and Maguire known as the bash Brothers for their Sublime hitting records as teammates are considered Pioneers for the introduction of steroids into baseball they hit 410 home runs as teammates with the Oakland A's winning that 1989 World Series in the process but before steroids came into play the cocaine era of the early 1980s stands as one of the ugliest in baseball history with many players reputations ruined careers marred and the Integrity of the game as a collective questioned across the country during the 1980s many players had either been arrested suspended or banned from baseball for their connection to cocaine will mckenley was a pitcher with the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970s helping them to win their Infamous back-to-back World Series titles in 197 5 and 1976 but in 1981 he admitted to using cocaine regularly during his time as a player a year later Allan Wiggins was arrested in San Diego for possession of cocaine he was the Padre's leadoff hitter during the prime years of Tony Gwyn but had a runin with the drug that landed him on a rehabilitation program early in his career Wiggins would later relapse and find himself suspended from the padr for an entire year in 1985 in October of 1983 one of the worst cases to date came to light when Montreal expo's outfielder Tim Reigns went to rehab after admitting he was both using cocaine during baseball games and was severely addicted to it he was one of the best outfielders in baseball in his prime years with the expose but his cocaine addiction was so bad that he has since admitted a lot of the times when he was on the field he could barely even see the baseball one of the best base dealers in the 1980s Reigns led the game and stolen bases four years in a row but the way in which he always slid front first into the bag was always somewhat unique it was revealed that the reason for his unusual sliding technique was that he carried a vial of cocaine in his back pocket for nearly every game he confessed to experiencing hallucinations while in the Batters box including dodging pitches that were nowhere near him Reigns went into rehab at the age of 23 following the 1982 season following what he believed was an estimated $40,000 spent on cocaine and 9 months of baseball his addiction was severe to the point where he would snort cocaine in the clubhouse bathrooms between Innings consume the drug in his car and take it before and after games it's somewhat of a strange great Cloud over a Hall of Fame career and an addiction that almost cost him entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame too fans celebrated when he eventually got the call up in 2017 over 15 years after playing his final season in the majors in 1983 St Louis outfielder Lonnie Smith gave himself up for reab a man who would feature two years later in the Pittsburgh trials Dodgers outfielder Ken lro and Dodgers reliever Steve how were both in and out of the same rehab center in Arizona three Kansas City Royal players came forward with a guilty plea on a conspiracy to buy cocaine Willie Wilson Willie Akens and later teammate Jerry Martin were sentenced to 3 months in jail after pleading guilty to the charges Wilson was an All-Star a two-time Silver Slugger and the AL League's batting champion while Akens had been one of the stars of the 1980 World Series all all three served in prison while receiving a year-long suspension from commissioner B [ __ ] former Royals pitcher Vita blue received a similar sentence in suspension as did Steve how blue and his former teammates were purchasing cocaine from a man named Dennis young young openly talked about attending Royals games and partying afterward with blue Wilson and Akens a man named Mark liel was hosting parties at his house and blue was brought along one day with a friend liel was recently divorced in a huge baseball fan and his home quickly became the host site for cocaine infused parties with Royal's Talent the man permitted visitors to use cocaine for free at his home but any cocaine taken off the property had to be paid for liel's relationship with vita blue escalated to the point where blue would call him from Royal stadium blue would leave tickets for liel at will call and request that he bring cocaine for himself Wilson and Akin it got so while that liel was going on the road with the team and his party group of pro baseball players was expanding he claimed that he snorted cocaine with Boston Red Sox pitchers Dennis akerley Mike Torres and Chuck Rainey then Ron laflor with the white socks and members of the Oakland A's and Minnesota Twins eventually liel's house was wiretapped and he was caught red-handed federal agents stormed his property and he was arrested on the spot for trafficking cocaine according to reports liel was buying over 4 ounces of cocaine a month and sending most of it to the Royals players the cases continued to pop up with the likes of pirates reliever Rod Scurry admitting to using cocaine during games before entering rehab Scurry was among those called to the stand in the Pittsburgh cocaine trials sadly he passed away from a cocaine induced heart attack in 1992 he was 36 years old in September of 1985 Lonnie Smith was the first major league baseball player to testify in the drug Trials of Curtis strong a trial was in place to put an end to the trafficking of cocaine in Major League Baseball featuring strong as the Le trafficker and six other Pittsburgh men strong had forged relationships with multiple major league players becoming a beloved figure within the Phillies organization easily connecting with the team's roster of talent dick Davis who joined the Phillies from Milwaukee in 1981 played a pivotal role in introducing strong to the rest of the squad Mr Ross stood to give his opening statement during this case you may hear some things about Major League Baseball that will distress you and upset you Russ said there's one thing to keep in mind throughout Major League Baseball is not un trial here the defendant Curtis strong is the defense of Curtis strong however fought back against Mr Ross statement with one of their own we will show you ladies and gentlemen that Major League Baseball is on trial we will show you that not only is Major League Baseball on trial but we will show you that the poor man is on trial we will show you that the rich and the powerful get away with anything the courtroom was packed with media reporters and Spectators eagerly anticipating the proceedings as if it were game seven of the World Series at Fenway Park this case had attracted more attention than any other of its kind and with some of baseball's top brass taking the stand it was no wonder the media clamored for coverage Lonnie Smith who had been to rehab in 1983 was the first to take the stand he admitted to being a regular customer of Curtis strongs receiving his cocaine dosage and girly magazines often in the mail he told the court that he had become addicted during the 1982 Championship season with the St Louis Cardinals he was introduced to strong strong through dick Davis and became so addicted to cocaine that his body was telling him he needed it in his testimony Smith referenced one particular instance in 1983 in which he had stayed up all night doing cocaine and the following morning was too jittery and uncontrollable to play it was then that he called manager Whitey Herzog and explained that he had a very serious addiction as a result Lonnie Smith was placed into a rehabilitation program he openly acknowledged being heavily addicted to cocaine defense attorney Renfro referenced an interview the FBI had conducted with with Shelby Greer one of the Pittsburgh 7even in which he claimed Dave Parker had told him that Philadelphia Philly's Legend Mike Schmidt was a cocaine user as a player Lonnie Smith had been a teammate of schmidtz in the late 1970s and early 80s but the defense attorney continued to push forward on Lonnie Smith forcing him to answer questions about a 1980 amphetamine Scandal involving Pete Rose and Greg lazinski among others as well as naming other Phillies players who had been using cocaine Smith was adamant that he was completely unaware of any players that had bought drugs in order to sell for profit but he did admit that he personally had purchased drugs for pitcher hin andhar and Keith Hernandez andar was in the middle of a steaming season in 1985 throwing the best fast ball of his career and he and Lonnie Smith had an arrangement in which they would share the responsibility of buying the coke for one another one of Remo's major gripes following the first day of the trial was aimed at MLB commissioner Peter Uber off whose involvement in both the events during and after the trials would become a major piece of the story however following that first day rro fired at uo in a media interview for his negligence in the handling of fen's cocaine usage he suggested that the commissioner was condoning this sort of behavior by dishing out no more than a slap on the wrist during the trial of Curtis strong Lonnie Smith and six other baseball players testified including dick Davis Gary Matthews Dicky NES Keith Hernandez and hen andhar revealing their cocaine use during their Major League careers the immunity granted to these players led to startling Revelations Keith Hernandez claimed that over 40% of players were using cocaine in the late 1970s and early 1980s admitting to buying cocaine from Curtis strong multiple times Dale Bara son of Yogi Bara confessed to using cocaine since 1979 and seeking help privately for his addiction John Milner a veratile player who had stints with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Montreal expos in the 1980s concluded the trial with shocking revelations Milner confessed to purchasing cocaine from strong during baseball games he claimed to have paid $200 to strong in the clubhouse during opening Innings on multiple occasions often in casual exchanges during his pinch hitting duties Milner admitted to using cocaine with teammate Dave Parker another central figure in the Pittsburgh drug trials after games but perhaps the most damning moment of Milner's time on the stand was the moment he named a player who he only mentioned as Willie in a discussion about red juice a liquid amphetamine Milner claimed he would get it from Willie's Locker stunned by the comment rro asked who he was referencing Willie who Willie Mays this was Willie Mays whose presence in the game of baseball makes him one of the greatest to ever take the field Maize went to 24 straight All-Star games won a World Series two MVPs and 12 gold Glovers as a legendary outfielder he is by all accounts baseball royalty and yet here he was being named in a drug trial in Pittsburgh in 1985 naturally Maize was frustrated that his name came up in the trials and denied any involvement I don't think I'm involved in any of the issues in the case in Pittsburgh he said I'm against all that very much so this is a trial of a different meaning these guys are into hard hard drugs why am I going to be on trial for what he says he thinks he saw in my locker it's a shame a man can be crucified for one statement Milner claimed that Willie May's Locker was the source of the red juice while the two played together with the New York Mets in 1973 it was his first experience with the liquid drug and he went out to say that the red juice was often placed in his locker later in his career while playing with the pirates that claim was supported by an earlier comment from Dale Bara that while playing in Pittsburgh Willie starle and Bill madlock were handing out the prescribed drugs to their teammates in the early 1980s both starle and madlock denied the claim but several players had mentioned their involvement in the case the amphetamine segment of the strong trial was a major piece of the case Dale Bara the son of the legendary Yogi Bara was the first to raise it but both Milner and Dave Parker also had their say Milner claimed that he was unaware who was leaving amphetamines for him but that he had often found them in his locker Dave Parker then told the jury that he and his teammates were warned by manager Chuck Tanner and the captains of the Pirates to avoid both Curtis strong strong and Shelby Greer one of the alleged cocaine dealers alongside strong strong both had access to the team Clubhouse and their place of rest before and after games which proved problematic for anybody in close contact with the cocaine dealers the Commissioner's Office had issued a statement letting MLB teams know that they were investigating drug use in the majors that statement sparked the alleged warning from Tanner and Company attempting to intercept the inevitable before it happened when Milner testified he named six other Major Leaguers that he had taken cocaine with those included Tim Reigns as well as Roland office and their time as team Ates with the Montreal Expos Tim rain's name was expected to be heard during the testimonies Roland offices was not the Pittsburg cocaine trials implicated several Pirates players and Ted the reputation of teams across the league even the Pirates mascot portrayed by Kevin Kos was allegedly involved in cocaine use during games and accused of facilitating transactions between players and dealers Kos was fired after cocaine was discovered in his mascot costume lasting 2 weeks the tri became one of the most was publicized in the United States Curtis strong and six others including Shelby Greer were convicted of Distributing cocaine Str strong received a 12-year prison sentence serving four years before being released judge Diamond emphasized that Strong's punishment was for drug distribution regardless of his clientele stating that he would be penalized similarly regardless of the buyer after 9 hours of The Liberation the jury found strong guilty on 11 of the 14 counts he faced alongside strong a second man named Dale schiffman was also sentenced to 12 years in prison he had just as much of an influence on the Pirates players getting their hands on cocaine shiffman had once dreamed of playing baseball himself when that dream fell away he instead found himself a job as a photographer for the team it was a dream come true shiffman hadn't intended on selling cocaine but when the players approached him asking if he was able to get any his desperate plea to be one of the guys took over and he quickly found himself in over his head before long he was supplying cocaine to players for multiple teams across the league not worried about the consequences enjoying his lifestyle he hung out at the ballparks and socialized with professional baseball players providing them with their drug fix on the side he thought nothing of it until the FBI got involved very quickly the players caught up in the Scandal pointed a finger at schiffman in an interview he did after serving 2 years of his 12-year sentence and getting out shiffman recalled one player calling him he said I don't know what you know or don't know but me and several of the other baseball players went in in front of the grand jury and I'm telling you flat out we gave you up you might want to leave town I said it's the FBI it's Federal where are we going to go while Curtis strong was convicted on 11 counts of selling cocaine Dale schiffman was indicted on 111 counts pleading guilty to 20 they both got 12 years perhaps worst of all though it was the pirate parrot Kevin Kosh who gave shiffman up the two were best friends having formed a close Bond at the ballpark in Pittsburgh one approach to give his best friend up Kos felt he had nowhere left to turn while wearing a wire Kosh was instructed to take part in a controlled cocaine purchase from shiffman it was the evidence the authorities wanted to secure his arrest and they got it Kos would later struggle tremendously with the guilt of giving up his best friend and would only have the weight lifted off his shoulders when shiffman got out of prison after 2 years of his sentence they reconnected and shiffman forgave him having found God while jailed one of shiffman's only gripes with his sentence was the lack of a sentence or penalty for the players implicated in the case he commented on the fact that he was sent off to prison and the players were slapped on the wrist and told to go and play baseball in fact after testifying Keith Hernandez returned to New York to play for the Mets and was given a standing ovation in his first game back a legend in New York but who had his run in with cocaine in the game of baseball was very quickly swept under the rug in mid-may of 1985 two weeks before the grand jury in Pittsburgh handed down its indictments of strong and mchu and five others commissioner uo announced mandatory drug testing in the minor league and for Major League owners Executives field managers and umpires strangely he was unable to inflict that same mandate on the League's players because of their collective bargaining agreement uo believed that the drug problem stemm from a strong connection between baseball and Latin America and so wanted to extend mandatory drug testing to the winter leagues in the region in an interview with the New York Times he suggested that there were places where players play and people look the other way the commissioner was seemingly unwilling to punish players involved in the trials I don't want to attack baseball players I don't see my main role as commissioner to punish people Keith Hernandez recalled a visit from Uber off to the Mets Clubhouse in late September 1985 he was told directly by the commissioner not to worry about a suspension and just to focus on playing baseball in 1986 commissioner Uber off conducted one-on-one interviews with all 23 players involved initially seen as routine confirmations of Prior discussions however the sudden announcement of suspensions and penalties for 21 players on February 28th 1986 shocked many including Hernandez who was livid uo divided the players into three groups with group one including Hernandez andar Bara Parker and Smith receiving a one-year suspension without pay unless they donated 10% of their salary to anti-drug initiatives Hernandez criticized the timing of the decision questioning Uber Ro's commitment to baseball's Integrity despite Uber Ro's pledge to eradicate drugs from baseball the cocaine Trials of the 1980s were only the beginning the 1986 Mets are one of the most famous stories in baseball clearly ignorant to any of the Fallout from the trials of 1985 Ron Darling has said an interviews that Mets players were drinking and taking Edam Mees in the clubhouse and during games darling said they had it down to a science with precision timing they do that thing where you poke a hole in the can so the beer would flow shotgun style they time it so that they were due to hit third or fourth that inning and in their minds that Russia beer would kind of jump start the amphetamines and get back to how they were feeling early on in the game pumped jacked and good to go perhaps the cocaine was limited eventually but cocaine would become steroids in the 1990s and the damning of the sport would begin all over again Integrity on trial baseball has since fallen into multiple other dark eras with the use of performance enhancing drugs and steroids nowadays whether you do or don't believe the presence of peeds remains it's all kept extremely quiet baseball has found scrutiny numerous times with the Stars repeatedly questioned baseball is now considered to be largely free of any major ped or drug-related Scandal but history always repeats itself and Fernando tatis Jr has only just returned from an 80 game suspension for Peds so is baseball truly cleansed of sin or are the sins just better concealed compared to the cocaine infused 1980s

Channel: DarkSideBaseball

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Keywords: baseball, mlb, major league baseball, keith hernandez, seinfeld, keith hernandez interview, mlb teams, mlb scandal, houston astros, shohei ohtani, sign stealing, mlb steroid era, pittsburgh drug trials, Jose Canseco, jose canseco, jose canseco mlb, Tim Raines, montreal expos, mlb player spotlights, kansas city royals, willie mays, dale shiffman, pirates, willie mays aikens, peter ueberroth, dave parker, pittsburgh pirates

Id: ssmkyz8D71M

Length: 21min 30sec (1290 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2024