In episode 2 of Dugout of History, Chrystal and Colleen dig into the Pittsburgh drug trials, the scandal that many people know because the Pirate Parrot mascot was implicated as a coke dealer, but that had far-reaching impacts across major league baseball, including shaping the sport’s drug policy into the Steroid Era.
For me (producer Jesse, writing the show notes), it’s a very interesting episode because I was a little kid at the time. I remembered Rod Scurry as a Yankee, for instance, and remember him dying young – though I definitely didn’t put it together as an 11-year-old that his death was drug-related. Lonnie Smith wound up having a very interesting second act with Atlanta, leading the National League in on-base percentage in 1989 and hitting three homers in the 1991 World Series before blundering on the basepaths in Game 7. Keith Hernandez, obviously, was and is Keith Hernandez.
So, I knew some of the details for this one, remembered others, and learned plenty for the first time. The story of the Pittsburgh drug trials also echoes through the way baseball has dealt with subsequent scandals, including in the sport’s powers that be making the same mistakes. Thank goodness that’s all history, though, and vice-related scandals involving superstars are… ah, dang it.
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Pittsburgh Drug Trials