Wild Thing
ESPN — Turns out Wild Thing’s fastball had a little extra juice. Actor Charlie Sheen tells Sports Illustrated in its latest issue that he took steroids “for like six or eight weeks” while filming the 1989 movie “Major League.” He adds that the performance-enhancing drugs helped his fastball go from 79 mph to 85 mph. Sheen played fireballing relief pitcher Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn, whose wayward pitches were often “jussst a bit outside,” as Bob Uecker’s character, radio broadcaster Harry Doyle, sarcastically announced during the hit comedy. Sheen, who has made recent headlines for erratic behavior and his firing from the show “Two and a Half Men,” says it was the only time he took steroids and they made him a bit more irritable than normal.
Fine. I admit it… I have a bit of an unhealthy fascination with Charlie Sheen. Anytime he did anything crazy over the past few months, I was all over it. I may or may have written stories about him here, here, here, here, and here. Unhealthy. And yet, here we are again. Good ole, Charlie… all roided up for his Wild Thing role in Major League. The only thing shocking about this to me… is that people are shocked by it. Dude’s done every drug under the sun and people are still shocked. Here’s the whole Sports Illustrated interview. Just think Charlie, had you started doing steroids a few years earlier, say in 1983 … you might have an asterick* next to your name.
Charlie Sheen was Santa Monica High School's bullpen ace in 1983.
-bp
[high fives to Jonesy and Burto for lobbin’ this up]