How talented was Steve Howe, really?
We'll never know, really. In 1979, Howe's first professional season, he posted a 3.13 ERA in the hitter-friendly Texas League. In Howe's second professional season, he posted a 2.66 ERA for the Dodgers and was named National League Rookie of the Year. He pitched even better in his third year (1981), and then again in his fourth.
But after that fourth pro season, in which he'd gone 7-5 with a 2.08 ERA and 13 saves, Howe entered a clinic to treat his addiction to cocaine. He'd been using the stuff since college, and in '82 he'd been snorting two grams of coke per day. Everything seemed great in '83; in his first 22 innings of the season, Howe didn't allow a single earned run. At that point, Howe's career stats included a 2.18 ERA in the major leagues, and he ranked as perhaps the game's No. 1 left-handed relief pitcher.
At that same point -- May 28, to be precise, a week after the birth of his first child -- Howe got "dangerously high," didn't show up at Dodger Stadium for a home game, and checked into rehab again. He returned to the Dodgers a month later, and was fined one month's pay ($53,867) by commissioner Bowie Kuhn; it was the largest player fine in major-league history. On Sept. 23, the Dodgers suspended Howe after he missed a team flight and refused to submit a urine sample. On Dec. 15, Kuhn suspended Howe for the entire 1984 season.
Howe returned in 1985, at least for a while. He pitched in 19 games, but didn't pitch well. And when he didn't show up for a game on June 30, the Dodgers had seen enough. A few days later they released him. After a month, the Twins signed Howe, but he pitched even worse for them, and was released in September. That October, the Dodgers got knocked out of the playoffs when a tired reliever gave up a massive home run, and to this day many people associated with the Dodgers believe that Howe's drug problems cost the team a trip to the World Series.
The next few years saw Howe pitching in Class A, in Mexico, with the Rangers, and also completely out of baseball for two seasons. In 1989, by now "permanently" suspended, Howe applied to commissioner Fay Vincent for reinstatement. According to Vincent, Howe said, "I'm born to Christ. I can stay clean this time." Vincent opened a door, if just slightly: If Howe spent 1990 in the minors and tested clean all season, he could pitch in the majors again. Howe satisfied Vincent, joined the Yankees in 1991, and pitched as well as ever. After the season, though, he got busted with an ounce of cocaine. Vincent threw Howe out of baseball yet again -- depending on how you keep score, this was Howe's eighth violation of baseball's drug policy -- but in a very strange decision, an arbitrator reversed Vincent's decision.
Howe lasted a few more seasons with the Yankees, and was occasionally suspended and frequently disabled with various arm injuries. He finally drew his last release on June 24, 1996. Shortly afterward, he was arrested for attempting to board an airplane flight with a loaded handgun. Howe's agent said there were three teams interested in signing the 38-year-old lefty, but he never pitched in the majors again.
In the 10 years since Howe last pitched for the Yankees, he'd generally managed to keep his name out of the newspapers, which in itself was probably a real accomplishment. He had a wife who stood by him through all his troubles, two children, and he was trying to build a new business.
Steve Howe got more chances than any professional athlete who ever lived. And as Sports Illustrated writer Richard Hoffer later said, "It's almost unconscionable. But in a way, for Steve Howe, it worked out for him and everyone involved. He seemed to have straightened himself out at the end, and was useful to himself and his family."
Until now. Some will say that Steve Howe was destined to die early, because of the way he lived. But the world's not nearly that easy to figure out. Sometimes the good die young, and the bad live forever. And the rest of us, somewhere in the middle, simply go when our luck runs out.
Senior writer Rob Neyer writes for Insider two or three times per week. To offer criticism, praise or anything in between, send an e-mail to rob.neyer@dig.com.