Oil Can Boyd Used Cocaine During Games

Oil Can Boyd won 60 games while wearing the uniform of the Boston Red Sox. He apparently consumed mountains of cocaine and rarely slept while doing so. The veteran of 10 major league seasons admitted as much in a radio interview from Fort Myers today with WBZ NewsRadio 1030.

Bruce Hurst don't have nothin' on me

"There wasn't one ballpark that I probably...didn't stay up all night, [until] 4-5 in the morning," Boyd stated while indicating the drugs would be in his system from the night before while pitching. He'd even used during games occasionally. The now 52-year old went on to say that he'd been engaged "in a demonic activity. [It was] a very very cold scary world I was living in when I was younger."


I'm a patsy for baseball tell-all books, interviews, etc. Behind the scenes shenanigans get me every time. Which is why this story has two things going for it: it gives me a chance to write the words Oil-Can-Boyd in succession for the first time in my career, and it also burns a quick flashback of 1987, the first year I can remember watching the sport. Anything that can cause those two things to instantaneously occur is okay by me. 


Boyd, who picked up the nickname in Mississippi due to his penchant for downing beers (or Oil Cans), is releasing an autobiography titled They Call Me Oil Can later this year, in which he will no doubt recount just how many cans of oil earns one such a title.


As for the admission, he was a very matter-of-fact about the whole situation. He's not looking for sympathy, and he's certainly not bragging about it, this is a man merely telling it like it was. In light of the recent Josh Hamilton situation, it's pretty clear where I come down on most of these things. Don't judge lest ye be judged and all that jazz.


I will say this though, it seems as if Mr. Boyd was pitching for the wrong team back in '86.

Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images