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You think Doc Gooden was bad?

Valadius
Apr 02 2010 08:02 PM

Try Bernie Carbo on for size:

[url]http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Bosox-s-Bernie-Carbo-says-he-was-stoned-during-;_ylt=AmwZQS.zX1qm4B14AXZ5RE8RvLYF?urn=mlb,231719

"I played every game high,'' Carbo said. "I was addicted to anything you could possibly be addicted to. I played the outfield sometimes where it looked like the stars were falling from the sky."

seawolf17
Apr 02 2010 08:24 PM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

Whoa.

I think of Bernie Carbo as a star, mostly because he was before my time. But looking at his career -- what a flash in the pan! Dude was lights-out as a rookie in 1970, finishing second in the ROY voting, and then completely... well, apparently let the drugs get to him.

His similarity score goes from Billy Williams as a rookie to Larry Walker to Luis Gonzalez to Carmelo Martinez to Paul O'Neill (ha!) to Michael Tucker to Randy Bush his final year. That's a depressingly long way to fall.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Apr 02 2010 08:26 PM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

Hit a pretty friggin big 3-run homer in the 75 series.

Edgy DC
Apr 02 2010 09:11 PM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

You think Doc Gooden was bad?

Not really.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr
Apr 02 2010 09:26 PM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote:
Hit a pretty friggin big 3-run homer in the 75 series.


Which, apparently, tasted just like schnozzberries.

Valadius
Apr 02 2010 09:49 PM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

His pre-game routine consisted of:

“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,’’ Carbo said.


How'd he get to that point by the '75 World Series?

“When I came to the big leagues in 1970 with the Big Red Machine, the trainer told me, ‘You need to take these vitamins,’ ’’ Carbo said.

Carbo gobbled them down. He hit .310 for Cincinnati manager Sparky Anderson and was The Sporting News Rookie of the Year. He would never do better.

In the offseason, he asked his doctor for more “vitamins.’’

“These aren’t vitamins,’’ the doctor said. “You’re taking speed.’’

That was the beginning of the end, Carbo said.

“The Cincinnati organization trainer was giving me speed, so I never played a game without it,’’ he said. “Then he started giving me pain pills. Then when I couldn’t sleep, he was giving me sleeping pills. So I got to the point where I couldn’t play without any of them. “I was introduced to marijuana in 1969.

I was introduced to cocaine in 1973. So from 1973-80, I was taking Dexedrine, Benzedrine, Darvons, sleeping pills, smoking dope, drinking beer, doing cocaine, and chasing women, and I never played a day without it.’’

batmagadanleadoff
Apr 02 2010 11:11 PM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

I am presently conflating Bobby Tolan and Bernie Carbo, although I didn't always conflate the two.

Benjamin Grimm
Apr 03 2010 04:47 AM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

Edgy DC wrote:
You think Doc Gooden was bad?

Not really.


I remember him as being pretty good.

Frayed Knot
Apr 03 2010 06:05 AM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

Any wonder that he and Bill Lee were good buddies on those BoSox teams?

dgwphotography
Apr 03 2010 06:34 AM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

Bernie Carbo was quite the jerk (not to me) the one time I met him.

I had the good fortune of having field access at Fenway for the Old Timers Day game in 1989, and spent both games i nthe photo box next to the Sox' dugout...

Anyway, Carbo runs out onto the field, and a couple of kids call to him for an autograph. He runs over, asks to borrow a pen with the promise that he'd be right back. He then ran out to Lou Brock, and had him sign a couple of baseballs. On his way back to the dugout, he just flipped the pen back to the kids - no autograph. Douche.

Ashie62
Apr 03 2010 08:25 AM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

dgwphotography wrote:
Bernie Carbo was quite the jerk (not to me) the one time I met him.

I had the good fortune of having field access at Fenway for the Old Timers Day game in 1989, and spent both games i nthe photo box next to the Sox' dugout...

Anyway, Carbo runs out onto the field, and a couple of kids call to him for an autograph. He runs over, asks to borrow a pen with the promise that he'd be right back. He then ran out to Lou Brock, and had him sign a couple of baseballs. On his way back to the dugout, he just flipped the pen back to the kids - no autograph. Douche.


I hear ya. Something similar happened to me with Tug McGraw Montreal..I begged him to come over and sign a prograkm finally resorting to "I came all the way from NJ to see you" The response from Tug? "So did I" what a Jackass

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr
May 13 2010 02:44 PM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

This is interesting, and in no way third-party-verifiable:

In an upcoming segment for ESPN's "Outside the Lines," Carbo said that in 1985 he became enraged when Hernandez testified in open court that Carbo introduced him to cocaine.

Via ESPN:

"I knew some people, and I had $2,000, and I asked them to break his arms," Carbo said. "He said, 'We'll do it in two or three years if you want it done, but we're not going to do it today, Bernie. If we went and broke his legs today, or broke his arms, you don't think they would understand that you are the one that had it done?' "

Basically, Carbo is saying "I hated Keith Hernandez." OK, OK, that's not far-fetched. But $2,000? Was that the going rate in '85 to break some limbs, Bernie? What's next — are you gonna tell us who really killed JFK? What's with all of the attention-seeking? Is the ministry in trouble? You just need money?

Edgy DC
May 13 2010 02:51 PM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

Like Keith doesn't "know some people" of his own.

smg58
May 13 2010 03:23 PM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

Notice that Carbo was mad at being outed, but he doesn't appear to have denied what Keith said.

Fman99
May 13 2010 09:57 PM
Re: You think Doc Gooden was bad?

What a fuckin asshole.