The Cautionary Tale of Ken Caminiti: The Steroid Era's First Truth-Teller

Cammy was my favorite Astro back in the day. I was so mad when Tal Smith and his son foisted that horrible trade on us.

Our highlight of the trade was a mediocre Derek Bell while we got to watch Cammy blossom into a superstar for another team. It stills stings.

 

I had just come to live in Houston in the summer of '87 and had fortuitously been introduced to baseball by a sweet, lovely Texas girl who just wanted to share her love of the game, and to teach this innocent English guy the intricacies and poetry of baseball. Soon enough the game had a hold of me and has never let go, even though I haven't seen a live Astros ballgame for 28 years, but I had 3 years as a spectator at the Dome in which I barely missed a game but there are a handful of memories which are burnt into my cortex - Nolan Ryans 16 K's against San Francisco, the neverending game against the Dodgers (must look up the stats for that) in which the whole rotations pitched and the whole rosters had an at bat I think (met Orel Hershiser the next morning in the Galleria having breakfast on his own and I was star struck), Craig Biggio's debut as catcher, Mike Scott's split finger fastballs bamboozling all and sundry, but the thing I've always seen the clearest in my fading memory is Caminiti's debut - the sense of wonder at his ability and grace and the sense of destiny to be a great that even I could see, and from then on he was 'my' player, the name I always looked for. I was devastated and hurt when he got traded and his death had a profound effect on me, just the overwhelming sense of sadness that hit me like a train when I read of it then, and reading this now, especially Biggio's simple little epitaph, has reduced me to tears for what feels like the twentieth time this strange, wonderful week. I love this game.

 

Way too long. How did he die?

 

Heroin and cocaine overdose.

 

Yeah I wanted to read the full story but it was early in the morning and I was rushing to work.

Thanks for letting me know. Will read it all tonight.

 

I remember that haunting interview... it was clear that he was getting a lot of hate from the MLB collective clubhouse. He was anguished, half-crying through it... he was never a particularly articulate guy, but over and over I heard "s**t, I never wanted to hurt anybody"...