Eric Show

Eric Show

Eric Show has been described as “the winningest pitcher in San Diego Padres history,” but the sportsman also faced terrible battles with drug addiction and alienation. The child of an abusive father, Show began drinking early, got into a pistol-packing confrontation at a party while still a college student, and was pressurized into following a baseball career. When he became a part of the Padres squad he was regarded as an eccentric by most of his team members for things like joining the John Birch Society, reading Ayn Rand novels and (probably accidentally) hitting a fellow baseball player on the cheekbone with a ball during a game. After his retirement from baseball in 1990, he quickly took to abusing drugs such as cocaine, heroin and crystal meth, and eventually died from a heart attack after taking a speedball, on March 16, 1994 — ironically whilst in rehab.