Former MLB pitcher turned broadcaster/writer Dirk Hayhurst wrote a column about the popularity of marijuana throughout MLB and, in the article, he implied there are several potheads on the Tampa Bay Rays.
Hayhurst’s column was inspired by Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan’s recent column about the disparity between drug punishments for MLB and minor league players. Passan’s argument is that because of the lax drug penalties on MLB players, minor leaguers who love weed can smoke their way onto a 40-man roster. It’s a really interesting read.
In response, Hayhurst wrote on Sports on Earth about how widespread marijuana is and has been throughout MLB. Here’s a sampling of what he had to say:
As far back as I can remember, players were getting high. Guys in the minors, on or off the 40-man, would take apples from the locker-room spread, hollow them out and then sneak behind dumpsters and smoke an apple pipe. In Triple-A, the now-defunct Portland Beavers would hide in stadium supply tunnels doing the old puff-puff-pass before jumping a knuckleball fight over the Rocky Mountains. I’ve even seen coaches toking up with their players.
You really should read the whole thing to get the full flavor, but that’s a nice sampling.
Anyway, Hayhurst then decided to share a story about a time when he was in spring training with a team and a group of players got robbed. All of the details point to a 2011 robbery involving three Rays players.
Hayhurst was a spring training invitee of the Rays in 2011. In March 2011, a Port Charlotte home being rented by Evan Longoria, David Price and Reid Brignac was robbed.
The Tampa Bay Times says police estimated $56,000 in valuables were stolen, including “a 60-inch flat-screen TV, three iPads, two Xbox game systems, cash, Price’s laptop and several of Price’s fancy watches.” It later came out that Longoria had an AK47 stolen as well.
Now here’s what Hayhurst wrote. See if it matches up with the robbery story.
While I was in spring training with the … You know what, I’m not going to tell you. Too many potheads still in action there. Let’s just say that while I was in spring training with a certain organization, a group of guys on the team got robbed. They were all staying in a house together, splitting the rent through the course of the spring, their luxury rides all parked out front in a row, leaving at the same time every day. It wasn’t hard for the local criminal element to figure out who they were and the schedule they kept. When these criminals decided to hit the house, they made off with all manner of high-end accessories, televisions, gaming systems and other tech toys.
That part was in the news: Pro athletes getting robbed, that’s kind of a big story, and the organization didn’t try to run from it. The team painted it as a tragic and slightly scary example of what can happen if you show off your wealth without thinking of the ramifications. Live and learn, and next time consider a gated community.
What didn’t make the news was the other stuff that got taken. I may have been naive enough to believe the news reports, but then you start to hear things on the locker-to-locker information superhighway. First, one of the guys really liked his firearms and had a couple of automatic assault rifles, including some AK-47s. Next, a large collection of porno DVDs had gone missing. Finally, the pillow-case-sized bag of weed that had been sitting on the kitchen table, next to its accoutrements. All of it gone, none of it reported.
High-end accessories – check. TVs – check. Tech toys – check. AK47s – check. It all seems to add up.
Hayhurst had a great line saying that the thieves probably thought Cheech and Chong lived in the home based on what they found and stole. He’s probably right; those robbers hit the jackpot. Nothing like being able to smoke a couple of victory Js after a successful score.
I dunno, and maybe David Price is kind of regretting calling Hayhurst a nerd last year during the playoffs. Maybe if he hadn’t done that, Hayhurst wouldn’t have been motivated to indirectly dime him out.
Oh, and even if these guys are or were potheads, it sure hasn’t seemed to keep them from putting together pretty awesome careers.
