We spend so much time worrying about what steroids have done to the game.  We forget there was a time in baseball when much worse things went on- and how those things affect individual lives.  This  Stan Grossfeld piece about Bernie Carbo, his drug addictions and that famous home run and his life after is a definite must-read.  Why?  Many reasons.  It is a window  into the culture that existed in baseball in the late 1960’s and 1970’s that we didn’t really know about.  It shows how easily drugs of any kind could be introduced in such a setting.  Its also a window in how our perception of someone may not be reality.  Lastly, its a beautiful story of someone who had a rough early life, who found his way out of drug addiction, and has turned his life around.

I know his story is one of many, and it only gets to be in the Boston Globe because he once hit a magical, improbable home run one October day.  But everyone who has made his journey should be proud of that journey.