Ex-Red Sox Hurler 'Oil Can' Boyd Says He Regularly Pitched on Cocaine

(The New York Post) - Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd revealed he pitched under the influence of cocaine for about two-thirds of his major league career.

"Some of the best games I've ever, ever pitched in the major leagues I stayed up all night ... I'd say two-thirds of them," Boyd said Wednesday on WBZ NewsRadio in Fort Myers, Fla. "If I had went to bed, I would have won 150 ballgames in the time span that I played."

Boyd was 78-77 in his 10-year career and was on the Red Sox team that lost to the Mets in the 1986 World Series.

"I feel like my career was cut short for a lot of reasons, but I wasn't doing anything that hundreds of ball players weren't doing at the time," Boyd said. "Because that's how I learned it."

Boyd won a career-high 16 games in 1986 for the Red Sox and lost Game 3 of the World Series that year to a Mets team with more than a few players who admitted to having drug problems.

The 52-year-old, who got his nickname by drinking beer -- "oil cans" in his native Mississippi -- added he pitched under the influence wherever he played.

"Oh yeah, at every ballpark," said Boyd, adding he never had to take a drug test. "There wasn't one ballpark that I probably didn't stay up all night, until four or five in the morning, and the same thing is still in your system."

Boyd's autobiography, "They Call Me Oil Can," is scheduled to be published in June.

Read more: The New York Post