Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever

- Blurb -

The powerful story of Ken Caminiti, who changed baseball forever as the first player to confess to having used performance-enhancing steroidsIn Playing Through the Pain: The Life of 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.