Major league baseball is a strange sport. It has been performed superbly by players who were inebriated, wired on nicotine, amped on uppers, high on weed, blitzed on cocaine, and even tripping on acid. But not all by the same player as far as we know.
I don't think it's fair to blame the Pirate Parrot for what happened in '85, or for the steroid era. For one thing, Shelby Greer met Dave Parker and began selling to him in winter of 1979, six months before Kevin Koch (the OG Pirate Parrot) became the de facto middle man. All seven "dealers" who were tried and convicted were not hardened drug dealers so much as they were fans who were eager to please the players that they idolized. I highly recommend reading Aaron Skirboll's "The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven".
@@madd_maseI doubt the Ohio river was a major drug pipeline haha. Probably had more to do with where a major dealer lived or maybe a corrupt police department.
Thank you for pointing out all of the performance enhancers back-in-the-day, the "greenies" def helped keep those batting averages up in the same way steroids helped with power but we do not want to acknowledge this as a baseball community. Let everyone into the HOF who has the numbers and career to justify it.
During spring training in the early eighties in Bradenton where the Pirates trained they got supplied at the Moonraker nightclub. It was all over the place at that time. In 82 my first wife and I purchased a small amount there from they’re dealer through a guy I knew through beverage sales
Keep it up my guy. I love disfavored history i.e. history they want you to forget /they supress. It's called Truth. Topic idea: Mays banned from baseball in 1979 and Mantle in 1983 over their appearance contracts with casinos vis-a-vis the hypocrisy of MLB Manfred continued banishment of Pete Rose despite hoping in to bed with gambling in 2018. Subscribed.
The Pittsburgh mascot selling blow and the Philly Fanatic getting shit faced and crashing the fanatic van and ECW wrestling is why Pennsylvania used to be cool
@MGAF688 we used to have a guy here in Alberta Canada named Ralph Klein he used to drive around in a limousine get hammered and yell at homeless people
No lie, Played with Oil Can Dennis Boyd in a Men's league. He dropped crack on the mound on live tv in his career. He is a really nice man, totally changed his life. If you go. to East Providence RI you might find him still playing ball today.
Cocaine may have ruined a potential dynasty. In 1979 the Pirates finished with 97 wins and won the world series. In 1980 they had 82 wins, finished an embarrassing third, and also that Strong even traveled with the team as Pirates' third baseman Bill Matlock's guest throughout the subsequent years.
I don't really see the problem with players using coke, I mean obviously it's bad for them as individuals and even for their teams but there have been so many alcoholics in MLB history that have drunk themselves to a similar detriment. Both were legal and illegal at different points in the 20th century, and whether they're illegal or not at the time I just don't see a genuine point in it being so publicized. I kind of agree with the player's union there. The US is really inconsistent about how we view addiction, even to this day.
Tons of sex and eating and allegedly gambling addictions thatve hurt players careers too, and i wholeheartedly understand team limits on that sort of behavior during the season and offseason for training's sake, but the league hasnt always been good at preventing certain drugs and substances from being used. I hear people make the argument that one bad thing's legality means that other arguably 'less bad' things should be re-examined in a libertarian sense, and it gets pretty wacky, but ultimately apart from the addictive nature and the criminal aspect of dealing the drug, it's terrible publicity for the league. If you're trying to get people to come to games, coke busts and overdoses do worse for that cash cow than union bullshit or owner collusion, even though baseball was entertaining in the 80s.
@antonioreconquistador yeah that's honestly really well-said. Ideally it could all be handled within the infrastructure of team ownership and management but of course even the cases like this that were widely associated with one team are never confined to just one. And I wouldn't envy any commissioner that gets tasked with navigating out of that, you just can't win. And of course it's pretty in-line with the political ethos of the time so the way things panned out isn't that surprising. And that's the core of my mixed feelings - it's no more detrimental to a team's performance for a player to show up to spring training 50 pounds overweight and out of shape than it is to show up underweight and hooked on anything illegal. But like you say, it is objectively way worse for the image of MLB if the second one occurs, even though the psychological mechanics behind any addiction are pretty much the same. I don't lean predominantly to either side of the political spectrum but I guess I do prefer looser penalties for drugs and higher regulation for these reasons. It's not a morally admirable place to be but I'd prefer anything highly addictive to at least be legislated consistently. In theory even if it was all illegal, but obviously that doesn't solve much either.
I need to point out something: Fay Vincent did NOT ban PEDs in baseball in 1991. All he did was draft a memo stating that they SHOULD be banned, but rule changes are the result of the collective bargaining agreement between owners and players. The MLB commissioner does not have the unilateral power to change the rules of baseball. (Source: Fay Vincent) Truth is, steroids and other PEDs weren’t banned in MLB until 2005
@@weary1 Clearly, the narrator NEVER followed baseball. He just gathered random facts. Anyone who knows baseball understands how to pronounce Enos Cabell or Tim Pyznarski.
@@MGAF688 No one cares how they are pronounced. You are talking about players from 40 years ago. Which also means you are likely about to die for knowing how to really pronounce these names from that long ago.
That scandal occurred not far from the collapse of the competitiveness of the Pirates franchise. They really have been the worst team in MLB since then. Sadly, the franchise should be shut down or moved. I was a high school kid int the Pittsburgh area in the late 70’s when they and the Phillies were battling for the NL East title nearly every year.
Didn't think I'd ever hear that the Pirates were brought down by "the parrot and his nostrils" 🤣🤣🤣 This is my first video introduction to this channel and not my last. Hitting the "like" AND "subscribe" buttons now!!! 🤣🤣🤣
A little???😂😂😂😂 yeah they definitely were. Remember in the 80’s they would talk about players “weight training”.😂 There is a story about Babe Ruth taking pig hormones. He got really sick from it and missed games.
There ain't no drugs in baseball...and the Tooth Fairy flies around with Santa without the help of Santa's magic dust. Back in the early 80s a good friend of mine worked at a club/restaurant frequented by several members of the local pro baseball team. He told me then that one of the waiters was acting as middle-man for some of them, purchasing coke and getting a bit of the product along with a few bucks as a brokers fee for lack of a better term. As for the whole steroid mess, until Baseball restores those home-run records to their rightful owners none of us who were around will forget. Most fans I know don't even acknowledge Bonds, Sosa, or any of those cheating SOB's as the true record holders anyway. I'm willing to give that Judge kid the benefit of the doubt for now but even his 60 HR season has a bit of doubt connected with it. From what I hear Baseball has cut back testing at the MLB level that it's practically non-existent again. I guess those 2-1 snoozers with 14 strikeouts as guys try to hit a HR every time up are boring people...again. Baseball has bigger problems than drugs though.
every job nowadays that pays a decent amount of money/lifestyle and uses the body/physical and/or mental performance is overflowing with PEDs. Today more than ever. All the pro sports, actors, students, weather forecasters etc... etc...
The way to get people to stop doing drugs isn’t to ban them. It’s to give people incentives to use other things instead of cocaine for instance. If there is no incentive to take drugs, people won’t take them. It’s that simple
Whats wrong with good cocaine? Steroids were much more detrimental to the integrity of the game, and especially gambling. Pete Rose deserves his punishment. And all the steroid users they got their money but they don't get to get into Hall of Fame. They chose one that's what they get.
It’s wonderful that baseball gives guys like keith Hernandez and Ron Washington second chances . With the primary demographic MLB doesn’t necessarily cater to yet receives the majority of their revenue from being what it is ( WASPs ) , the interesting thing about our national past time is that even though it’s principal patrons can be incredibly conservative , it actually embodies our most progressive ideals when it comes to things like this as well as the somewhat extraordinary factors such as the pension funds , the influence of the 2 main unions ( players / umpires ) , and so on and so forth …
@@yankees29 The point was, he used a map with a team on it that didn't exist when this took place! I knew when the Rockies and Marlins joined the MLB. This happened during the early 80s, the Rockies started 1993. The trial was in 85. So the timeline is 80-85 and 1993. So I don't see how a decade is wrong!
In an alternate universe, the MLB STILL allowed the use of banned drugs; in turn, Commissioner Rob Manfred was arrested by the FBI and sentenced to the death penalty (which would take place at midnight on the day he was convicted). Joe Orsini would step in and take Manfred's place as MLB Commissioner, a position that he would eventually keep. Commissioner Orsini would then do the following, all of which would take effect immediately at the MLB Winter Meetings [reason in brackets]: Getting rid of the Pitch Clock [let the pitcher take as much time as he wants before throwing a pitch] Lifting Pete Rose's lifetime ban from baseball [Rose becomes present at the meetings and signs a contract to become Manager of the Cincinnati Reds; in turn, it also FINALLY puts Rose into the Hall of Fame] Change the size of the bases back to their former size [doesn't care about injuries] Bring ties into the game [if the game is tied after nine full innings, the game is declared a tie (both Pitchers that were on the mound by the time of the end of the game get a No Decision)] Have the Manager of each team play a game of F-Zero X between half-innings (starting with the middle of the 1st), where one run is awarded for every five CPU players he destroys (two if the other 29 fall off the track) (track is in the shape of the outline of the team's logo) [gives the fans some entertainment between innings]
Coke and amphetamines are more performance enhancing as it pertains to baseball than steroids in my opinion. Everyone thinks about 1998 and the bonds years as the peak of “peds” but nobody really talks about the speed and coke era.
Major league baseball is a strange sport. It has been performed superbly by players who were inebriated, wired on nicotine, amped on uppers, high on weed, blitzed on cocaine, and even tripping on acid. But not all by the same player as far as we know.
The ‘86 Mets really learned a lot from this trial. 😂
Hahaha
This makes Keith Hernandez part on Seinfeld that much funnier.
Not really.
I know that the cocaine scandal was sadly detrimental to the Royals, with the suspensions of Jerry Martin, Willie Aikens and Vida Blue.
I don't think it's fair to blame the Pirate Parrot for what happened in '85, or for the steroid era. For one thing, Shelby Greer met Dave Parker and began selling to him in winter of 1979, six months before Kevin Koch (the OG Pirate Parrot) became the de facto middle man. All seven "dealers" who were tried and convicted were not hardened drug dealers so much as they were fans who were eager to please the players that they idolized. I highly recommend reading Aaron Skirboll's "The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven".
Oof. That Keith Hernandez perp walk thumbnail cuts deep. My hero.
He wrote a book. I read it. Practically no mention whatsoever of this whole affair. Like it never happened.
Keith "la cocaina" Hernandez?
So ridiculous. Guys do some cocaine and fbi gets involved. Come on
It's to bad, but when you spit on Kramer and Newman karma is gonna catch up to you. 😂🤣😂🤣
Played in college with his nephew. He had great stories about uncle Keith
Pittsburgh as a hub for cocaine distribution at that time was referred to in Goodfellas
Yup anywhere with a big port really were having a field day with the stuff
@@madd_maseI doubt the Ohio river was a major drug pipeline haha. Probably had more to do with where a major dealer lived or maybe a corrupt police department.
Thank you for pointing out all of the performance enhancers back-in-the-day, the "greenies" def helped keep those batting averages up in the same way steroids helped with power but we do not want to acknowledge this as a baseball community. Let everyone into the HOF who has the numbers and career to justify it.
During spring training in the early eighties in Bradenton where the Pirates trained they got supplied at the Moonraker nightclub. It was all over the place at that time. In 82 my first wife and I purchased a small amount there from they’re dealer through a guy I knew through beverage sales
I remember buying it right on the street corner in Manhattan in the early 90’s.
RIP Rod Scurry (1956-1992)
RIP John Milner (1949-2000)
RIP Ken Caminiti (1963-2004)
Add Rod Beck
The second time, I've heard about this. The first is a Lonnie Smith Secret Base video a few years back
Keep it up my guy. I love disfavored history i.e. history they want you to forget /they supress. It's called Truth. Topic idea: Mays banned from baseball in 1979 and Mantle in 1983 over their appearance contracts with casinos vis-a-vis the hypocrisy of MLB Manfred continued banishment of Pete Rose despite hoping in to bed with gambling in 2018. Subscribed.
The Cardinals traded Hernandez because he was so involved in drugs. His nickname in St. Louis was “Reefer man”.
I don’t think ppl care about drugs nearly as much as ppl think.
The Pittsburgh mascot selling blow and the Philly Fanatic getting shit faced and crashing the fanatic van and ECW wrestling is why Pennsylvania used to be cool
😂🤣🤣
Now you have John Fetterman!
@MGAF688 we used to have a guy here in Alberta Canada named Ralph Klein he used to drive around in a limousine get hammered and yell at homeless people
No lie, Played with Oil Can Dennis Boyd in a Men's league. He dropped crack on the mound on live tv in his career. He is a really nice man, totally changed his life. If you go. to East Providence RI you might find him still playing ball today.
Cocaine may have ruined a potential dynasty. In 1979 the Pirates finished with 97 wins and won the world series. In 1980 they had 82 wins, finished an embarrassing third, and also that Strong even traveled with the team as Pirates' third baseman Bill Matlock's guest throughout the subsequent years.
1:00 in and a mistake. Al Oliver didn’t play for the 79 Bucs
“Let’s sniff our way through this story” lmao
You'll lose a nostril, my friend!!! 🤣🤣🤣
Great video, seeing a plain dealer newspaper and Adding about Beacon Journalist Terry, I assume you are from Northeast Ohio?
I don't really see the problem with players using coke, I mean obviously it's bad for them as individuals and even for their teams but there have been so many alcoholics in MLB history that have drunk themselves to a similar detriment. Both were legal and illegal at different points in the 20th century, and whether they're illegal or not at the time I just don't see a genuine point in it being so publicized. I kind of agree with the player's union there. The US is really inconsistent about how we view addiction, even to this day.
Tons of sex and eating and allegedly gambling addictions thatve hurt players careers too, and i wholeheartedly understand team limits on that sort of behavior during the season and offseason for training's sake, but the league hasnt always been good at preventing certain drugs and substances from being used.
I hear people make the argument that one bad thing's legality means that other arguably 'less bad' things should be re-examined in a libertarian sense, and it gets pretty wacky, but ultimately apart from the addictive nature and the criminal aspect of dealing the drug, it's terrible publicity for the league. If you're trying to get people to come to games, coke busts and overdoses do worse for that cash cow than union bullshit or owner collusion, even though baseball was entertaining in the 80s.
@antonioreconquistador yeah that's honestly really well-said. Ideally it could all be handled within the infrastructure of team ownership and management but of course even the cases like this that were widely associated with one team are never confined to just one. And I wouldn't envy any commissioner that gets tasked with navigating out of that, you just can't win. And of course it's pretty in-line with the political ethos of the time so the way things panned out isn't that surprising. And that's the core of my mixed feelings - it's no more detrimental to a team's performance for a player to show up to spring training 50 pounds overweight and out of shape than it is to show up underweight and hooked on anything illegal. But like you say, it is objectively way worse for the image of MLB if the second one occurs, even though the psychological mechanics behind any addiction are pretty much the same. I don't lean predominantly to either side of the political spectrum but I guess I do prefer looser penalties for drugs and higher regulation for these reasons. It's not a morally admirable place to be but I'd prefer anything highly addictive to at least be legislated consistently. In theory even if it was all illegal, but obviously that doesn't solve much either.
Jail time.
I need to point out something: Fay Vincent did NOT ban PEDs in baseball in 1991. All he did was draft a memo stating that they SHOULD be banned, but rule changes are the result of the collective bargaining agreement between owners and players. The MLB commissioner does not have the unilateral power to change the rules of baseball. (Source: Fay Vincent)
Truth is, steroids and other PEDs weren’t banned in MLB until 2005
Enos Cabell (EE-nuss Ka-BELL) thanks you for mispronouncing his name.
That drove me crazy though out the entire video. 🙄
@@weary1 Clearly, the narrator NEVER followed baseball. He just gathered random facts. Anyone who knows baseball understands how to pronounce Enos Cabell or Tim Pyznarski.
@@MGAF688 No one cares how they are pronounced. You are talking about players from 40 years ago. Which also means you are likely about to die for knowing how to really pronounce these names from that long ago.
Wildest drug scandal…….until the steroid era.
That ain’t really wild that’s expected in most sports
That scandal occurred not far from the collapse of the competitiveness of the Pirates franchise. They really have been the worst team in MLB since then. Sadly, the franchise should be shut down or moved. I was a high school kid int the Pittsburgh area in the late 70’s when they and the Phillies were battling for the NL East title nearly every year.
Didn't think I'd ever hear that the Pirates were brought down by "the parrot and his nostrils" 🤣🤣🤣
This is my first video introduction to this channel and not my last. Hitting the "like" AND "subscribe" buttons now!!! 🤣🤣🤣
Good video. I suspect steroids were around a little earlier than people think too.
A little???😂😂😂😂 yeah they definitely were. Remember in the 80’s they would talk about players “weight training”.😂 There is a story about Babe Ruth taking pig hormones. He got really sick from it and missed games.
Great video
great video
There ain't no drugs in baseball...and the Tooth Fairy flies around with Santa without the help of Santa's magic dust. Back in the early 80s a good friend of mine worked at a club/restaurant frequented by several members of the local pro baseball team. He told me then that one of the waiters was acting as middle-man for some of them, purchasing coke and getting a bit of the product along with a few bucks as a brokers fee for lack of a better term. As for the whole steroid mess, until Baseball restores those home-run records to their rightful owners none of us who were around will forget. Most fans I know don't even acknowledge Bonds, Sosa, or any of those cheating SOB's as the true record holders anyway. I'm willing to give that Judge kid the benefit of the doubt for now but even his 60 HR season has a bit of doubt connected with it. From what I hear Baseball has cut back testing at the MLB level that it's practically non-existent again. I guess those 2-1 snoozers with 14 strikeouts as guys try to hit a HR every time up are boring people...again. Baseball has bigger problems than drugs though.
every job nowadays that pays a decent amount of money/lifestyle and uses the body/physical and/or mental performance is overflowing with PEDs. Today more than ever. All the pro sports, actors, students, weather forecasters etc... etc...
The way to get people to stop doing drugs isn’t to ban them. It’s to give people incentives to use other things instead of cocaine for instance. If there is no incentive to take drugs, people won’t take them. It’s that simple
Imprisonment.
Chain gangs.
Did you say at 4:06 Pittsburgh Peeretts?
God I miss the 80s
This is similar to the Phoenix Suns cocaine scandal in 1987
Putting the steroid issue aside, baseball wasn't even done with cocaine in the late 80s, see Daryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden.
Oil Can Boyd
You wonder why some of them look like smokers 😂
civilians went to jail for years, players didnt even miss a game.......that wasnt justice
MLBPA not exactly looking out for their clean members or for the health of any of their members. Some union.
Keith should be in the hall.. That was the punishment for him testifying
Still should be in the Hall of Fame
Whats wrong with good cocaine? Steroids were much more detrimental to the integrity of the game, and especially gambling. Pete Rose deserves his punishment. And all the steroid users they got their money but they don't get to get into Hall of Fame. They chose one that's what they get.
Reminds me of Lenny Dykstra Nails
Nancy Regan was pooping pills like candy that whole time lol
So you're saying she was full of shit?
It’s wonderful that baseball gives guys like keith Hernandez and Ron Washington second chances . With the primary demographic MLB doesn’t necessarily cater to yet receives the majority of their revenue from being what it is ( WASPs ) , the interesting thing about our national past time is that even though it’s principal patrons can be incredibly conservative , it actually embodies our most progressive ideals when it comes to things like this as well as the somewhat extraordinary factors such as the pension funds , the influence of the 2 main unions ( players / umpires ) , and so on and so forth …
😂 having the Rockies on the map. What year did they become an expansion franchise?
😂🤣
90 something
@@yankees29 So a decade plus after this happened? 😂
@@markbeckens more like 6-7 years I think. I’m pretty sure it was when I was just going into high school. But yeah definitely after.
@@yankees29 The point was, he used a map with a team on it that didn't exist when this took place! I knew when the Rockies and Marlins joined the MLB. This happened during the early 80s, the Rockies started 1993. The trial was in 85. So the timeline is 80-85 and 1993. So I don't see how a decade is wrong!
Everyone Was doing blow in that era
Takes a special kind of jerk, to bring up Willie Mays. To justify his use. True or not
0:45 One might say at the time that Pittsburgh was Pennsylvania's Glory hole.
So we should call them the Pittsburgh Hirates?
In an alternate universe, the MLB STILL allowed the use of banned drugs; in turn, Commissioner Rob Manfred was arrested by the FBI and sentenced to the death penalty (which would take place at midnight on the day he was convicted). Joe Orsini would step in and take Manfred's place as MLB Commissioner, a position that he would eventually keep. Commissioner Orsini would then do the following, all of which would take effect immediately at the MLB Winter Meetings [reason in brackets]:
Getting rid of the Pitch Clock [let the pitcher take as much time as he wants before throwing a pitch]
Lifting Pete Rose's lifetime ban from baseball [Rose becomes present at the meetings and signs a contract to become Manager of the Cincinnati Reds; in turn, it also FINALLY puts Rose into the Hall of Fame]
Change the size of the bases back to their former size [doesn't care about injuries]
Bring ties into the game [if the game is tied after nine full innings, the game is declared a tie (both Pitchers that were on the mound by the time of the end of the game get a No Decision)]
Have the Manager of each team play a game of F-Zero X between half-innings (starting with the middle of the 1st), where one run is awarded for every five CPU players he destroys (two if the other 29 fall off the track) (track is in the shape of the outline of the team's logo) [gives the fans some entertainment between innings]
Good ole Rock Raines. 😅
Is THAT the meaning behind the nickname? 😆
Somebody tell these athletes Loose lips sink ships
Next they’ll want to drug test musicians and politicians
Politicians for sure.
So the players chose to do drugs but its the leagues fault for not doing anything about it. Okay
The mlb sucks, always has….baseball is a beautiful and wonderful game, the mlb is a farce.l.
So baseball has never been or will be a "clean sport".
BASEBALL PLAYERS LIKE ALWAYS.
PLAYING INNOCENT
Dynasty? Pirates dynasty? What Pirates dynasty? They were not a dynasty. They only won one year in 1979 and thats it. That is not a dynasty.
Coke and amphetamines are more performance enhancing as it pertains to baseball than steroids in my opinion. Everyone thinks about 1998 and the bonds years as the peak of “peds” but nobody really talks about the speed and coke era.
Probably similar in enhancing results, no?
Like pitting the Flash versus the Hulk? 😂
How about the Adderal era?
I don’t think a cocaine habit would enhance performance, probably the opposite.
But look at all them hall of fame guys and why cant the steroid guys get in 😂
wow. another bot vid that cant pronounce names or words correctly, big surprise