[mbgrayson]

Originally Posted by westofyou

Pete Rose used Greenies, he admitted it in an interview in 1980

Now ask yourself, how many times was a game affected by Pete Roses drug use and how many games were affected by Pete Roses gambling habit.

Which one affects the game more?

It is very well documented that Greenies were extremely common in baseball for decades. They were not banned by MLB until 2005.

Players pop "greenies" or "beans" before games to increase focus and to shake their bodies from fatigue caused by their grueling schedule. The late Ken Caminiti told SI in 2002 that only one or two players per team competed without greenies--those exceptions are said to be "playing naked." After a night of drinking (which is often used to come down from the high of the amphetamines), Caminiti said, "You take some pills, go out and run in the outfield, and you get the blood flowing. All of a sudden you feel much better. There were other times when you'd say, 'I feel good enough to play naked today, but you know what? I can feel even better.' So you'd take them then too."

There used to be two coffee pots in each clubhouse, one labeled "regular" and one labeled "hot." Or sometimes it was "unleaded" and "leaded."

Baseball players quickly figured out what chemists know, that caffeine can ramp up the effectiveness of other substances. So they dumped a handful of greenies - so named, according to baseball lore, because the amphetamine Dexedrine came in green tablets - into a pot of coffee to kick it up a notch.

Jim Bouton, in Ball Four, his book chronicling the 1969 season of the Seattle Pilots, also disclosed how rampant amphetamine or "greenies" usage was among players.