The powerful story of Ken Caminiti, who changed baseball forever as
the first player to confess to having used performance-enhancing
steroids
In Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession
That Changed Baseball Forever, writer Dan Good seeks to make sense of
MLB MVP Ken Caminiti's fascinating, troubled life. Good began
researching Caminiti in 2012 and conducted his first interviews for his
biography in 2013. Since then he's interviewed nearly 400 people,
providing him with an exclusive and exhaustive view into Caminiti's
addictions, use of steroids, baseball successes, and inner turmoil.
Decades later, the full truth about Major League Baseball's steroids era
remains elusive, and the story of Caminiti, the player who opened the
lid on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball has never been properly
told. A gritty third baseman known for his diving stops, cannon arm, and
switch-hit power, Caminiti voluntarily admitted in a 2002 Sports
Illustrated cover story that he used steroids during his career,
including his 1996 MVP season, and guessed that half of the players were
using performance-enhancing drugs. "I've made a ton of mistakes," he
said. "I don't think using steroids is one of them."
Good's on-the-record sources include Caminiti's steroids supplier, who
has never come forward, discussing in detail his efforts to set up drug
programs for Caminiti and dozens of other MLB players during the late
1990s; people who attended rehab with Caminiti and revealed the secret
inner trauma that fueled his addictions; hundreds of Caminiti's baseball
teammates and coaches, from Little League to the major leagues, who
adored and respected him while struggling to understand how to help him
amid a culture that cultivated substance abuse; childhood friends who
were drawn to his daring personality, warmth, and athleticism; and the
teenager at the center of Caminiti's October 2004 trip to New York City
during which he overdosed and died.
