Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd Singing His Own Version of Cocaine Blues

This week former Boston Red Sox, Montreal Expos and Texas Rangers pitcher, Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd admitted to having had a dependency on cocaine during his playing days.

While the man has always been known to indulge in alcohol (the nick-name "Oil Can" was given to him during his beer swilling days in Mississippi), Boyd has never been quite this open about his cocaine use and abuse, though the negative effects have long been evident.

Boyd has recently written a book entitled They Call Me Oil Can: My Life in Baseball slated for release in June.

In his book, Boyd digs deep into these issues and discusses how he believes that had he not been abusing drugs, he could have finished with 150 career wins rather than just 78.

Boyd also proves that he is not bashful when it comes to laying blame either.  In a recent interview for USA Today, Boyd explains:

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"The reason I caught the deep end to it is because I'm black," he said. "The bottom line is the game carries a lot of bigotry, and that was an easy way for them to do it If I wasn't outspoken and a so-called 'proud black man,' maybe I would have gotten the empathy and sympathy like other ballplayers got. … I can name 50 people that got third and fourth chances all because they weren't outspoken black individuals.''

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His best seasons playing professional baseball came from 1984-1986 with the Boston Red Sox. During that three year stretch he managed to win 43 games with a 3.95 ERA and a 1.270 WHIP.

While Red Sox fans will always remember and be grateful for his performance in the 1986 season, Boyd's was a career that was full of potential and ended both too prematurely and indignantly through his personal choices and their consequences.

As the late Johnny Cash once sang, "Come on you hawks and listen to me, lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be."