Before baseball had a problem with performance enhancing drugs, it had a problem with recreational drugs. This was highlighted by the “Pittsburgh Drug Trials” of 1985. During these trials, a number of baseball players took the stand to discuss cocaine use in baseball. One of those players was Keith Hernandez.
At the time of the trials, Hernandez was a member of the New York Mets, having been traded in 1983 for pennies on the dollar. While on the stand, he suggested that 40% of ballplayers were using cocaine. Shortly after, Whitey Herzog (Hernandez’s former manager with the Cardinals) publicly agreed with Hernandez, stating that there were 11 “heavy users” on their team in the early 1980’s.
Herzog continued to say this…
It got so bad that when we went to Montreal, which was where they all seemed to get it, I had to have us fly in on the day of the game. That way, I knew we`d play decent for one night, even though the rest of the trip might be a lost cause
I decided to take a look at how well the Cardinals fared in Montreal on the first game of a series versus the remainder of the series. Herzog managed the Cardinals for 73 games in 1980 before becoming the team’s general manager in August. At the end of the season, he would became the Cardinals full-time manager. I limited my search to Herzog’s tenure in 1980 until 1983. Since we don’t have the Cardinals travel logs and flight schedules, we have to assume that they actually did in fact arrive on the day of the first game in each series.
For the sake of record keeping, a one game series will be counted towards the “first day’s” record, even though there aren’t subsequent games in the series. Also, a couple of these series begin with doubleheaders. These will also be counted towards the “first day’s” record.
A few of the first games of the series began around 2PM, when the Cardinals were in St. Louis the previous day. A flight from St. Louis to Montreal takes approximately 4.5 hours while also losing an hour changing time zones. The team would have to leave St. Louis very early to make it to Montreal if you factor in trips to and from the airport. Realistically, it would be very difficult to have regular game day preparation (ie batting practice) with this travel schedule. But for the sake of Herzog’s theory, we’ll allow it.
1980
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7/10/80 |
3
|
4
|
L
|
| 7/11/80 |
5
|
3
|
W
|
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/29/80 |
2
|
5
|
L
|
| 9/30/80 |
2
|
7
|
L
|
| 10/1/80 |
0
|
8
|
L
|
1981
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5/25/81 |
3
|
5
|
L
|
| 5/26/81 |
3
|
4
|
L
|
| 5/27/81 |
1
|
4
|
L
|
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8/14/81 |
3
|
1
|
W
|
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/15/81 |
3
|
2
|
W
|
| 9/15/81 |
3
|
4
|
L
|
| 9/16/81 |
7
|
1
|
W
|
| 9/16/81 |
3
|
4
|
L
|
| 9/17/81 |
7
|
4
|
W
|
*An interesting fact about the strike-shortened 1981 season is that the Cardinals finished with the best overall record in the National League East, but did not win the first or second half titles. The Expos would win the 2nd half title and advance to the postseason.
1982
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6/7/82 |
2
|
3
|
L
|
| 6/8/82 |
5
|
4
|
W
|
| 6/9/82 |
1
|
5
|
L
|
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7/29/82 |
3
|
4
|
L
|
| 7/30/82 |
4
|
5
|
L
|
| 7/31/82 |
10
|
1
|
W
|
| 8/1/82 |
4
|
5
|
L
|
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/27/82 |
4
|
2
|
W
|
| 9/28/82 |
4
|
5
|
L
|
1983
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/21/83 |
5
|
6
|
L
|
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7/28/83 |
3
|
2
|
W
|
| 7/28/83 |
10
|
1
|
W
|
| 7/29/83 |
2
|
7
|
L
|
| 7/30/83 |
3
|
2
|
W
|
| 7/31/83 |
5
|
6
|
L
|
| Date | STL | MON | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/19/83 |
0
|
3
|
L
|
| 9/19/83 |
3
|
6
|
L
|
| 9/20/83 |
1
|
10
|
L
|
Final Tally
| Day | W | L | W% | R | RA | Pyth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Day |
5
|
9
|
.357
|
47
|
48
|
.490
|
| Remaining Days |
6
|
12
|
.333
|
67
|
85
|
.394
|
The overall record (.357 win %) on the first day was slightly better than the record on the other days (.333 win %). But the Cardinals played significantly better when we look at their pythogorean record, which uses runs scored and runs allowed.
This is hardly enough games to be considered an adequate sample, and there are too many assumptions to make a definitive assessment. We don’t know for sure how many times they actually traveled on the day of the first game. My guess is that they did it for days where the first game was a night game, although I do question if they did it for afternoon games. With the information we have, it does appear that an altered travel schedule did help the team to some extent.
The mere fact that a manager would even have to consider this type of travel schedule to keep their players clean is quite sad. Cocaine use was a major problem not only in baseball, but in many American cities. However, the Cardinals would win the World Series in 1982, so their quality of play wasn’t diminished too much.
For further reading on the Pittsburgh Drug Trials, consider reading The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven, by Aaron Skirboll.