Two-time World Series champion Scott Spiezio calls it a “miracle” that he is still alive.
Spiezio reportedly reveals how he slipped into abusing drugs and alcohol, lost his children and his fortune, and kept his parents worrying about the next middle-of-the-night phone call during his autobiography “The Hardest Comeback,” which will be released Tuesday.
“I went from a guy that thought I’d never see a drug and wouldn’t drink,” Spiezio told USA TODAY Sports, “to depending on both of them. I gave up everything for drugs and alcohol. I had to have them to function. I would literally shake if I didn’t have them. Really, it’s a miracle I’m alive.”
Spiezio, 53, played for the Athletics, Angels, Mariners and Cardinals over a 12-year MLB career. His biggest moment was a three-run home run in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series, starting a late five-run comeback for the eventual champion Angels.
In 2007, his final MLB season, the Cardinals announced that Spiezio was seeking treatment for an unspecified abuse problem, and he was cut in 2008 after police said he was involved in a drunken car crash.
The spiral continued.
Spiezio once spent a month in a drug rehab center in Tucson, and then started drinking again on his flight home, according to USA TODAY.
But it began during his playing days, shortly after he injured his back in Seattle while playing on a three-year, $9.15 million contract. Alcohol wasn’t enough – even though he admitted filling Gatorade bottles with vodka during games – so he turned to cocaine.
“I remember one of the first times I did it,” Spiezio said, “I ended up doing four lines that night. Then I had two home runs next day. I did it again, and hit a homer. Then, I didn’t do it, and I struck out three times. So I kept doing it.
“It became like a superstition, and then it turned into a habit. I was planning to stop after the [2006] season. But then we won it all, and I was using it to celebrate.”
Spiezio has two ex-wives and four children. He has been arrested five times.
“There was never a time I thought about going through the process of killing myself,” he said, “but there were times where I knew the amount of drugs I was ingesting or the alcohol that I was drinking could do it. Sometimes, I would write notes and leave them in case I died, saying, ‘I didn’t do it on purpose. Tell my kids I love them. And tell my parents I love them.’”
