This article is a personal one for me. I am a recovering addict from cocaine use for about 7 years now. I am definitely not proud of it. I almost died a couple times over the past few years because of it. I’m not an athlete by any means but I remember playing recreational softball high on speed or coke and it felt amazing, but definitely not safe and I knew it.

Professional athletes have succeeded from drug use, some have fell off the map so to speak, and sadly some of these athletes succumb to the disease of addiction either while playing or after they retire.

TIMELINE OF DRUGS IN SPORTS/INTRODUCTION:
The very first story of drugs in sports was the Ancient Greeks use of performance enhancing drugs 776 BC – 393 BC. Opium to me doesn’t seem like it would enhance performance, however the Greeks competed for cash prizes as well as olive wreaths in original Olympics while “high” on opium. What we would call cheating was perfectly acceptable to them back then. Greek athletes also drank wine potions, used hallucinogens and ate animal hearts or testicles in search of potency (anything derived from animals is a form of testosterone boosting) which I will speak of shortly regarding one of the most famous baseball players of all time.

100 AD: Roman Gladiators Use Stimulants and Hallucinogens to Prevent Fatigue and Injury. The chariot racers would also “dope” their horses. They would feed their horses substances such as hydromel (an alcoholic beverage made from honey) to make them run faster and gladiators ingest hallucinogens and stimulants such as strychnine to fight off fatigue and injury and to improve the intensity of their fights.

We skip many centuries to the late 1800s, Cyclists from France as well as French lacrosse players “dope” using cocoa leaves (cocaine) and wine, Vin Mariani, a widely used mixture of coca leaf extract and wine, this was called ‘the wine for athletes.’ It was used by French cyclists and… by a champion lacrosse team. Coca and cocaine were popular because they are stimulants and these drugs ward off fatigue and hunger brought on by prolonged exertion.
This wine was not only popular amongst athletes, Popes and Presidents used this cocaine infused drink. Pope Leo XIII, and Pope Pius X two of the most prominent Popes, as well as Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States reportedly turned to Vin Mariani as he “used” to complete his memoirs, seeking its invigorating effects as he wrote. One other notable figure of this time loved this wine was Thomas Edison 💡.

Other notable dates to the timeline of scandalous drug use in sports:

1904-1920 – Performance Enhancing Drugs Used in the Modern Olympic Games
1940-1945 – Nazis Test Steroids on Prisoners and Hitler. Soldiers Use Amphetamines during WWII
1950s – Athletes Begin Taking Amphetamines Used by Soldiers in WWII
1958 – FDA Approves First Anabolic Steroid for Sale in US.
Feb. 1968 – First Drug Testing at Olympic Games
1972 – First Full-Scale Drug Testing of Olympic Athletes for Narcotics and Stimulants
1976 – Steroid Testing Conducted for the First Time at the Montreal Olympics
1983 – Surprise Drug Testing at Pan Am Games Leads Many Athletes to Withdraw from Competition
Sep. 27, 1988 – Ben Johnson Stripped of Gold Medal after Positive Drug Test
Oct. 5, 1990 – Congress Passes Anabolic Steroids Control Act
June 7, 1991 – Major League Baseball Bans Steroids
Sep.-Oct. 1994 – Chinese Swimmers Fail Drug Tests Three Times More Than Any Other Nation

1998 – Mark McGwire Admits to Using a Steroid Precursor
Nov. 10, 1999 – World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Is Established.
Sep. 3, 2003 – BALCO Is Raided by Federal Investigators
Jan. 24, 2007 – NFL Announces Stricter Anti-Doping Policies
Sep. 24, 2007 – DEA Announces Largest Steroid Bust in US History
Nov. 1, 2007 – German Athletes and Their Children Suffer Health Problems 40 Years after Doping
Jan. 31, 2009 – US Swimmer Michael Phelps Caught Smoking Marijuana and Suspended for Three Months
2013: The Biogenesis scandal reveals doping in MLB

Part 1 – THE GOOD: There are lots of “good stories” of drugs in sports, this is definitely not me endorsing or glamorizing any drug use of any kind. Ironically enough, since these stories are more entertaining and uplifting that’s why “THE GOOD” should be looked at first.
There are obvious some good/positives about drugs in general and in sports. Pain killers for one make pain bearable for athletes to play through pain, that could be looked at as negative as well.
I remember seeing Dodgers baseball player Kirk Gibson hit that historic fist pumping homerun in the 1988 World Series and it has been well documented he was in tremendous pain in that game alone.

Playing in pain isn’t positive, but the outcomes can be pretty amazing. This is just one instance of “the good” in my opinion. I will continue to hopefully entertain or bring to light some pieces of history that you the reader will find entertaining/interesting, or at least that is my hope.

People talk a lot of who “juiced” and who didn’t in sports, baseball in particular. When we think of steroids in baseball we assume players from the 1980s-present day, and almost anyone you speak to will say American Icon, baseball legend whatever way you want to describe Babe Ruth, nobody thinks he used anything other than hot dogs and beer 😂 these naysayers are actually wrong .
Babe Ruth did dabble in hormone injections from sheep and bull testicles and hearts. Not exactly newsworthy or something the media would write about obviously, however facts are facts, hormones from the testicles are testosterone, and testosterone is the main component of anabolic steroids. (Anabolic steroids are manufactured forms of testosterone.) This is the overview directly from clevelandclinic.org.
Jim “Pud” Galvin was the first player in baseball to “juice” in 1889 he did the same thing as Ruth he took extract from testicles of animals.

Dock Ellis; a Major League pitcher in 1970 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Doc was told he could travel home to Los Angeles prior to the upcoming series in San Diego, which would be a normal occurrence if the team was playing in California and he had time. Ellis was at a party the night before his scheduled start in San Diego, He was partying and dropping acid (LSD). Doc had argued with a girl that he was scheduled to pitch, he has lost track of time (which LSD tends to do that) she said you better go you need to get to San Diego for your start.

Friday June 12,1970. Dock Ellis did in fact have a game. Ellis did the unthinkable that day, he got to the stadium and popped some more LSD. He then subsequently pitched a No Hitter against the Padres while high on acid.

Doc never played on LSD ever again he claimed. Ellis did say he played the rest of his career everyday high on Amphetamines, known in the baseball world in the 1960s & 70s as ‘greenies’ along with hundreds of other MLB players greenies were used daily by some of the best players in the major leagues.
Ironically, after Ellis’ playing days, he would go on to be a drug and alcohol counsellor, and he even helped Pascual Perez of the Yankees who has a severe cocaine problem. He also counseled addicts and inmates before he died in 2008.

MLB Hall of Famer Tim Raines had a cocaine addiction which he opens up about in his book:  Rock Solid: My Life in Baseball’s Fast Lane, again this is not me glamourizing drug use of any kind, this is a just fun little tidbit of info some may find amusing/interesting. Tim Raines perfected his head first slide not to gain an advantage of any kind like some would think. Raines chose to slide head first because he carried a vial of cocaine in his back pocket, fearing the vial would break Raines became famous for sliding head first, Raines is quoted to ‘clarify’ any mix up of the story as:
“It’s undisputed truth that I would sneak a snort in the clubhouse bathroom between innings, but the part about making sure I slid headfirst into bases so as not to break the vial of coke is somewhat exaggerated. Anybody who remembers my style of play knows that I went into bases headfirst long after I stopped carrying coke around with me.”
Boston Red Sox pitcher Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd admitted to smoking crack every game of the 1986 season. Boyd recalls one particular game in Oakland:
“I had it under the bib of my cap, inside the crease inside of the cap. When I was warming up in the ballgame third, fourth inning it fell off my head.”

‘Honorable mentions’ players who have used either cocaine, greenies or steroids and are in the Hall of Fame or most likely will be inducted this year.
Dave Parker, Mike Schmidt, Luis Tiant, Willie Mayes, Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Willie Stargell, Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez.

Lets not forget players who used should be in the Hall of Fame and are being snubbed Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens to name two (this could be an article in the making.)

I hope you enjoyed Part 1 “The Good”
*spoiler alert* Part 2 “The Bad” is not just baseball related stories.

Photo Credit; Redbird Rants, AV Club, The Current, Thermo Fisher Scientific

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