They Call Me Oil Can: Baseball, Drugs, and Life on the Edge

(Hardback)

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Speaking candidly to veteran sportswriter Mike Shalin for the first time about his often tumultuous career in Major League Baseball, Dennis Oil Can Boyd recounts a life that began in the Deep South ofMississippi, and the events that led him toward great heights atop the pitchers mound at Fenway Park. As part of a stellar rotation alongside Bruce Hurst and a young Roger Clemens, Boyd served a dazzling array of pitches to opposing batters, most notably during the Boston Red Sox ill-fated 1986 World Series run against the New York Mets; and while he was at once brilliant and focusedon the mound, off the fieldas he affectingly reveals hereBoyd was unraveled by the personal battles he waged with substance abuse and destructive mood swings. As one of the few African American starting pitchers in the history of baseball, Boyd offers a candid, insightful, and often funny portrait of an athlete with boundless passion for the game, his teammates, and the Boston Red Sox.

Reviews

"A must-read for all baseball fans, never mind Red Sox fans." -- Providence Journal
"Interesting, amusing, puzzling and at times unsettling... [a] blunt, honest and sometimes painful work." --The Tampa Tribune

Author Bio

Dennis Boyd played for the Boston Red Sox, Montreal Expos, and Texas Rangers during his 10-year Major League Baseball career. He lives in East Providence, Rhode Island. Mike Shalin covered the Red Sox during his 22-year career with the Boston Herald and is the author of Donnie Baseball: The Definitive Biography of Don Mattingly. He lives in South Easton, Massachusetts.