FORMER RED SOX pitcher Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd says he probably pitched under the influence of cocaine "at every ballpark" during his 10-year career.
"There wasn't one ballpark that I probably didn't stay up all night, until 4 or 5 in the morning, and the same thing is in your system," Boyd told Jon Miller, of WBZ radio in Boston. "It ain't like you had time to go and do it while you were in the game, which I have [done] that."
Boyd, 52, was 78-77 with a 4.04 ERA in his career. In 8 years with Boston (1982-89), he was 60-56. In his last two seasons, he was 18-21 with Montreal and Texas.
"Some of the best games that I've ever, ever pitched in the major leagues, I stayed up all night. I'd say two-thirds of them," he said yesterday at Boston's spring-training base in Fort Myers, Fla., "and if I had went to bed, I would have won 150 ballgames in the time span that I played and . . . I felt like my career was cut short for a lot of reasons."
Boyd said he "wasn't doing anything that hundreds of ballplayers weren't doing at the time, because that's how I learned it and I just caught the deep end of it . . . If I wasn't outspoken and so-called 'a proud, proud black man' maybe I would have got empathy and sympathy like other ballplayers got that I didn't get; like a Darryl Strawberry or Dwight Gooden, Steve Howe. I can name 50 people that got third and fourth chances all because they weren't outspoken black individuals."
In other baseball news:
* Texas outfielder Nelson Cruz agreed to a 2-year, $16 million contract.
Authorities have widened the investigation into former Wisconsin associated athletic director John Chadima after a third adult male came forward with allegations of sexual impropriety.
* Charles Edward Scott, the former LSU running back who was a sixth-round Eagles draft choice in 2010, pleaded not guilty in Gonzales, La., to one count of sexual battery of an 18-year-old woman last year.
* Consultants are recommending that Ohio State hire a vice president to oversee a new office and committee that would monitor ethics and rules compliance across the university system.
Rafael Cabrera-Bello shot a 9-under 63 for a two-shot lead in the Dubai Desert Classic.
* American Stacy Lewis and Australia's Sarah Kemp shared the Women's Australian Open lead at 4-under 69, with top-ranked Yani Tseng a stroke back.
Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France champion, was stripped of his third-place finish in the 2005 race by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for "intensive involvement" in blood doping linked to the Operation Puerto case. Ullrich, 38, retired in 2006 after the investigation emerged.
* UFC welterweight Nick Diaz tested positive for marijuana after his loss to Carlos Condit on Saturday and faces disciplinary action, including a possible suspension and fine, the head of the Nevada Athletic Commission said.
