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Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd won 78 games in a 10-year major league career. If not for cocaine, Boyd says he could have won 150.
Speaking at a Red Sox fantasy camp in Fort Myers, Fla., Boyd told Jon Miller of Boston's WBZ that he had cocaine in his system "two-thirds" of the time he took the mound during the second half of his career, which spanned from 1982-91.
"Some of the best games I've ever pitched in the major leagues I stayed up all night -- I'd say two-thirds of them," Boyd said. "(But) if I had went to bed, I would have won 150 ballgames in the time span that I played."
Boyd says he was never drug–tested.
"I never had a drug test as long as I played baseball,'' Boyd told Miller. "I was told that, yeah, if you don't stop doing this we're going to put you into rehab, and I told them ... I'm going to do what I have to do, I have to win ballgames. We'll talk about that in the offseason. Right now I have to win ballgames.''
Boyd, 52, said he "learned how to indulge in cocaine -- and an abundance of cocaine," about a year before his most successful season with Boston in 1986. Today, he calls it a "demonic activity" in response to a "very cold, scary world I was living in as a young kid."
Boyd's nickname, "Oil Can," comes from his beer-drinking days in his youth in Meridian, Miss., where beer was known as "oil." When it came to cocaine, Boyd says he used it home and away, and it kept him awake. He also said he used cocaine during games.
"There wasn't one ballpark that I probably didn't stay up all night, until 4 or 5 in the morning," he said, noting that the effects remain "in your system" for hours. "It's not like you have time to go do it while in the game -- which I have did that."
Boyd said he wasn't alone. Although he did not name names in the interview, he does have a tell-all book, They Call Me Oil Can: My Life in Baseball, scheduled for release in June.
He said some, but not all of his teammates were aware of his drug abuse and were supportive.
"All of them didn't rally around me," he said. "All of them knew (of my habit) and the ones that cared came to me. The Dwight Evanses and Bill Buckners and Don Baylors ... it was the veteran ballplayers. Some guys lived it; they knew what you were doing, and the only way they knew was they had to have tried it, too.''
Boyd wasn't able to enjoy the pinnacle of his career when he went 16-10 and helped the 1986 Red Sox to the World Series against the Mets. He was left off the All-Star team, then passed over by manager John McNamara when it was his turn to pitch Game 7 of the World Series.
"I was disappointed not to pitch Game 7," he said. "I was very disturbed by it and will be the rest of my life.
"I was a person you could count on. .... What I was doing off the field didn't make me a bad person. It made me a dysfunctional person. I was treated like I was a bad person."
In subsequent seasons, a series of health and personal issues facilitated the demise of his career. Ultimately, Boyd believes he was blackballed for being an outspoken black player and didn't get as many chances to redeem himself as Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden or Steve Howe.
"The reason I caught the deep end to it is because I'm black," he said. "The bottom line is the game carries a lot of bigotry, and that was an easy way for them to do it If I wasn't outspoken and a so-called 'proud black man,' maybe I would have gotten the empathy and sympathy like other ballplayers got. … I can name 50 people that got third and fourth chances all because they weren't outspoken black individuals.''
Boyd, who said he is hoping to land the part of Satchel Paige in an upcoming movie, says considerable potential -- particularly that of young black ballplayers -- is being lost today on the streets. "Kids have to be educated," he said. "There's gotta be some love. People got to care."
Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd won 78 games in a 10-year major league career. If not for cocaine, Boyd says he could have won 150.
Speaking at a Red Sox fantasy camp in Fort Myers, Fla., Boyd told Jon Miller of Boston's WBZ that he had cocaine in his system "two-thirds" of the time he took the mound during the second half of his career, which spanned from 1982-91.
"Some of the best games I've ever pitched in the major leagues I stayed up all night -- I'd say two-thirds of them," Boyd said. "(But) if I had went to bed, I would have won 150 ballgames in the time span that I played."
Boyd says he was never drug–tested.
"I never had a drug test as long as I played baseball,'' Boyd told Miller. "I was told that, yeah, if you don't stop doing this we're going to put you into rehab, and I told them ... I'm going to do what I have to do, I have to win ballgames. We'll talk about that in the offseason. Right now I have to win ballgames.''
Boyd, 52, said he "learned how to indulge in cocaine -- and an abundance of cocaine," about a year before his most successful season with Boston in 1986. Today, he calls it a "demonic activity" in response to a "very cold, scary world I was living in as a young kid."
Boyd's nickname, "Oil Can," comes from his beer-drinking days in his youth in Meridian, Miss., where beer was known as "oil." When it came to cocaine, Boyd says he used it home and away, and it kept him awake. He also said he used cocaine during games.
"There wasn't one ballpark that I probably didn't stay up all night, until 4 or 5 in the morning," he said, noting that the effects remain "in your system" for hours. "It's not like you have time to go do it while in the game -- which I have did that."
Boyd said he wasn't alone. Although he did not name names in the interview, he does have a tell-all book, They Call Me Oil Can: My Life in Baseball, scheduled for release in June.
He said some, but not all of his teammates were aware of his drug abuse and were supportive.
"All of them didn't rally around me," he said. "All of them knew (of my habit) and the ones that cared came to me. The Dwight Evanses and Bill Buckners and Don Baylors ... it was the veteran ballplayers. Some guys lived it; they knew what you were doing, and the only way they knew was they had to have tried it, too.''
Boyd wasn't able to enjoy the pinnacle of his career when he went 16-10 and helped the 1986 Red Sox to the World Series against the Mets. He was left off the All-Star team, then passed over by manager John McNamara when it was his turn to pitch Game 7 of the World Series.
"I was disappointed not to pitch Game 7," he said. "I was very disturbed by it and will be the rest of my life.
"I was a person you could count on. .... What I was doing off the field didn't make me a bad person. It made me a dysfunctional person. I was treated like I was a bad person."
In subsequent seasons, a series of health and personal issues facilitated the demise of his career. Ultimately, Boyd believes he was blackballed for being an outspoken black player and didn't get as many chances to redeem himself as Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden or Steve Howe.
"The reason I caught the deep end to it is because I'm black," he said. "The bottom line is the game carries a lot of bigotry, and that was an easy way for them to do it If I wasn't outspoken and a so-called 'proud black man,' maybe I would have gotten the empathy and sympathy like other ballplayers got. … I can name 50 people that got third and fourth chances all because they weren't outspoken black individuals.''
Boyd, who said he is hoping to land the part of Satchel Paige in an upcoming movie, says considerable potential -- particularly that of young black ballplayers -- is being lost today on the streets. "Kids have to be educated," he said. "There's gotta be some love. People got to care."
