His first four years were excellent -- fantastic ERA, great control, kept the ball in the park (8HR allowed in 300-odd innings, OK he pitched in Dodger stadium but still). What more would you want from a short reliever? He was awful at the height of his cocaine addiction, as you'd expect, but once he cleaned up (er, sorta) and came back with the Yankees he had a few more good seasons (and a couple of bad ones).
His autobiography, which was published around 1990 IIRC (while he was still retired), is a brutally honest read -- it's frankness, together with his particular ordeals (boy wonder athlete gets fucked up on cocaine and ruins his life -- very 80's, very LA) make it wholly unique among all other baseball books I've read. At the end of the book, he seemed so defiant about finally cleaning up his act, so much so that I felt hugely disappointed when he made a comeback and got suspended yet again (and banned from baseball, although that was later overturned). I suppose I deserved that for putting too much trust in a drug addict.
RIP, YSI, etc.
― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Friday, 28 April 2006 23:57 (twenty years ago)