Oil Can Boyd is something else, that's for sure.
The former Red Sox pitcher whose post-career, drug-using revelations have made just as many headlines as his pitching did, was at it again Friday morning.
Boyd joined the Dennis and Callahan Morning Show to talk about his career in advance of his upcoming book release. The right-hander touched on many things, including his drug use which made news again recently when he admitted to smoking crack throughout the 1986 season.
He was asked about whether or not the rampant drug use may have held him back, and Boyd seemed to contradict himself at times.
"I can't say that I would have been better. I don't regret that at all," he said of his drug use, while also admitting that he was high during the interview. "I don't regret it. I don't. It's an abomination and a lot of people's lives are in despair."
However, a few minutes later, he offered this.
"Yes, I did take for granted how good I was. Yes, I did, as a young kid, not really acknowledge where I was. I didn't make it mean any more than it was. It was a job. … I could pitch and I came to the major leagues at a very young age. And also the world closed in on me at a very young age. I can honestly say I wasn't ready for all the [expletive] that came with it."
Still, Boyd insisted it wasn't the drugs that cut his career short at the age of 31.
"Let me tell you something: I was the best athlete on the field, period. Period. On any ball team I played on, I'm the best athlete on the field," he said. "Sober, drunk, high, whatever you want to call it, nobody was a better athlete than me on the field. Nobody. So, it wasn't my ability to get the job done that cut [my career] short.
"I can only say that I would be better. But if you guys would have never knew, if I would have never told anyone anything about my life, you would have said, 'He was a pretty good ballplayer.' Man, let me tell you something, I wasn't even at 45 percent of the ballplayer that I could be. And they thought I could pitch. They thought I was a good ballplayer."
He was also asked about Wade Boggs, whom he frequently clashed with during his time in Boston. The reason for those clashes, centered around Boyd's perception that Boggs was racist. That's a claim that Boyd said he knew as fact.
"I don't think it, I know it," he said when asked whether he thought Boggs was a bigot.
Boyd also said that it was Boggs' upbringing that made him a bigot, claiming to know that Boggs' father was the reason. Boyd said that Boggs would frequently use the word "n—–" around Boyd, something that he called the former Red Sox third baseman on when he used the word.
"The bottom line was that was just the way Wade was, and I was the bad guy because I questioned that [expletive]," Boyd said.
He even went on to accuse the Red Sox of being bigoted at the time as well.
"Well if you protect it that way, what do you call that?"
Boyd eventually hung up on the interview. You can listen to it in its entirety here, but it is unedited and has plenty of salty language.
