Bernie Carbo and his performance non-enhancing drugs. Carbo was a heck of a hitter (career .387 OBP and OPS+ of 126), and doubly so to do the things he did while stoned, but if you ever wondered why he underachieved in the big leagues, well, wonder no more. Good to see he’s gotten his life straightened out since finding the Lord, though.
4 thoughts on “Stoned”
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I loved Bernie Carbo. He was a great hitter, but he also had a gun in right field.
Amazing that he could play under the influence. Also amazing that it was Bill Lee who helped him into rehab.
Carbo reportedly said, “”I probably smoked two joints, drank about three or four beers, got to the ballpark, took some [amphetamines], took a pain pill, drank a cup of coffee, chewed some tobacco, had a cigarette, and got up to the plate and hit.”
Game 6 was a night game. Carbo had the beers and smoked the joints before he came to Fenway. So, very conservatively, he stoped drinking and smoking by 3 PM. He entered the game as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 8th inning. So, again conservatively it is 10 PM.
A cup of coffee, chewing tobacco and a cigarette sometime after 3 PM are of marginal impact. Marijuana and alcohol are depressants, the amphetamines are stimulants, which would tend to counteract the effect of the beer and the joints. Who knows what the “painkillers” were; they could have been tylenol or excedrin, or something stronger.
In any case, I highly doubt that he was “stoned” when he batted. It was a terrific at bat that does not need hyping.
Magrooder, I always thought he looked stoned the way he was running the bases after that home run, so I wasn’t too surprised by this article.
Crank, the thing that stood out most to me in the article was how he casually noted the widespread amphetimines use when he broke in with the Reds. And yet somehow the old-school sportswrites continue to think the game was pure then and dirty now.