Pedro Martinez’s memoir, titled Pedro, was already a must-read for baseball and Red Sox fans. But upon hearing the story he told about former teammate Manny Ramirez on Late Night with Seth Meyers Tuesday night, the urgency to read that book may have surged. Kind of like something else might surge after taking a certain prescription drug frequently advertised during sports telecasts.
Perhaps you’ve heard that the Red Sox did shots of whiskey before games during the 2004 postseason. The practice really took off after Boston won Game 6 of the ALCS versus the Yankees. But “Manny being Manny,” one of those pregame rituals included a little something extra with the liquor. According to Martinez, Ramirez spiked his teammates’ drinks with 100 mg of Viagra.
That puts “Performance Enhancing Drug” in quite a different context. (Keep your “dinger” jokes to yourselves, people.)
As Pedro explained, Ellis Burks volunteered to be a test subject since he wasn’t on the postseason roster. Apparently, the concoction of gin, honey, wine and… Viagra had the desired effect, though Pedro didn’t elaborate as to how. Maybe we have to buy the book to find out. Or maybe our imaginations can run wild with speculation as to what a 39-year-old Burks did with what — or to whom — after ingesting Mama Juana spiked with an erectile dysfunction drug.
What effect may the drink have had on the Red Sox players who sampled it? We don’t know before which game this occurred, but Boston did come back to beat the Yankees in the ALCS and swept the Cardinals in the World Series. Read into that what you will. Or just enjoy a great story from Pedro about Manny.
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