Drugs and alcohol nearly cost World Series hero Scott Spiezio everything, including his life

Scott Spiezio underwent an MRI for back pain in 2018. The results of which would seem inconsequential.

When Spiezio exited the MRI, he was yellow. He had jaundice; his liver was failing after years of battling alcoholism.

The World Series champion, who was 47 at the time, was given a 20% chance of surviving.

Spiezio was told by doctors he had to stop drinking for six months before he could receive a liver transplant to save his life. He wasn’t sure he would be able to.

“I didn’t think that I’d be able to do it. I went from a guy that never drank alcohol to thinking I don’t know if I can go six months without drinking to save my own life,” Spiezio said.

Scott Spiezio’s father, Ed, was a two-time World Series champion and played Major League Baseball for nine seasons.

Scott remembered his dad telling him at a young age, “You’re going to be better than me.”

“As soon as he was born I knew he was going to be a ballplayer,” Scott’s mother, Verna Spiezio, said in the upcoming documentary, “Spiezio.”

“I was praying for a son,” Ed said.

Ed said Scott was born to be a baseball player, and he made sure that would happen.

Scott was switch-hitting at age three.

The two spent days working together, trying to achieve the goal of making it to the big leagues.

Their basement was set up for Scott to do drills. Throughout his youth, every practice ended with the same situation: a 3-2 count, two outs, bases loaded, down one run, bottom of the ninth inning, Game 7 of the World Series.

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In high school, they would arrive at the gym at 6 a.m. to hit in the batting cage, work out, and then Scott would go to school.

Everything was done with the intention of making it to the big leagues.

“I think for a long time that’s what my dad thought, and I did too. That (baseball) was my purpose in life. (It) was to be a better baseball player than him and to win championships,” Scott said.

And Scott did just that. Not only did he win a World Series, but he hit one of the biggest home runs in Angels’ franchise history.

In Game 6 of the 2002 World Series, the Angels were down 3-2 in the series to the San Francisco Giants. Spiezio was up in the bottom of the seventh inning with two runners on base and the Angels down 5-0, with their season hanging in the balance.

Spiezio had been practicing for a situation like this his entire life.

Giants manager Dusty Baker brought in reliever Felix Rodriguez to retire Spiezio and neutralize the Angels’ threat. It looked like Rodriguez was going to do it, too.

He got ahead 1-2 in the count and had Spiezio on the ropes. But Scott didn’t quit. Foul ball, ball, foul ball, ball, and he worked the count full at 3-2, a count he was quite familiar with. Spiezio then turned on a fastball and deposited it into the right-field seats.

“Everything was in slow motion. I was running to first, I was watching the ball, I was literally praying, like, God, please push this out, like let this go,” Spiezio said. “And then I heard the loudest noise in my life.”

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Spiezio’s blast cut the lead to 5-3 and sparked an Angels comeback, as they went on to win Game 6, 6-5, and eventually won Game 7 of the World Series, bringing the Angels their first World Series title in franchise history.

The home run also made Spiezio in demand. It’s when he said his ego started to kick in.

However, “ego,” to Spiezio, meant something different. For him, ego is an acronym: “edging God out.”

After the World Series win in 2002, Spiezio said he began edging God out, and things took a turn for the worse.

“People tell you how great you are and you start believing. And for me, ego stood for edging God out, and I started edging him out and started believing the hype and started drifting a little bit as a person,” Spiezio said.

After the World Series win, David Letterman wanted him on the Top 10 List. Jay Leno and Carson Daly wanted Spiezio on their shows. Spiezio had a band, and they were playing concerts in front of 1,500 people.

Back in his hometown of Morris, Illinois, billboards went up calling Spiezio a hometown hero. The mayor gave him a key to the city. He was honored at his high school. The town named a street after him: Scott Spiezio Drive.

Scott Spiezio was at the top of the world.

Spiezio left the Angels after the 2003 season and signed with the Seattle Mariners on a three-year, $9 million contract.

In spring training, Spiezio was playing third base for the Mariners. As he tried to catch a pop-up over the pitcher’s mound, he tripped on the mound at full speed and hurt his back. Spiezio blew out his thoracic T6 and T7 discs.

Another collision for him would risk paralyzing him. It was the first serious injury Spiezio had suffered in his life, and it sent him down a troubling path.

“When I got hurt, kind of started feeling sorry for myself and drifted from God. More like, ‘Why I’ve done everything you wanted me to do? Why am I being punished?’ And instead of turning to him, I turned to alcohol,” Spiezio said.

“They told me I might be paralyzed. I might not play again, and I got depressed, anxious and all these things that I thought people made up.”

In Seattle, an unfamiliar city, and without an established friend group, and now with a serious injury, Spiezio was out of his element.

“I’m with a new team. I went out to try to fit in, and I ended up drinking too much, and before you know it, that first night out turned into an everyday thing, and I was on a roller-coaster ride of becoming physically addicted to alcohol.”

Spiezio went from someone who was hesitant to take Advil or Tylenol, to drinking every day.

Spiezio went from winning the Oakland Athletics’ Dave Stewart Community Award in 1997, to being the Angels’ Roberto Clemente nominee in 2003, to being someone who worked with DARE, to becoming an alcoholic without knowing it.

He still believed in God, but Spiezio said he began to stray from His ways throughout his struggles. Spiezio said he was spending $2,000 to $3,000 a night on bottle service.

His relationship with his father became frayed as he started drinking more. He ended up having an affair with his future second wife and got divorced from his first wife. He began using cocaine recreationally.

As things were starting to spiral, Spiezio had a meeting at his parents’ house, when his father told him that things had gotten “crazy” and that “they had to stop.” As Scott tried to get into his car and leave, he pushed his father away, and the neighbors called the police. His kids witnessed it all and ran into the backyard.

After that night, he stopped speaking to his father.

Spiezio ended up getting released from the Mariners during the second season of his three-year contract, and he called it a reprieve. The following offseason, he ended up getting married to his second wife.

Yet none of his friends wanted to go to his wedding. Spiezio said at that point he was drinking nearly a handle of vodka a day. He was a different person than the one his friends knew.

In 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals invited him to spring training as a minor league invitee, and it rejuvenated him, coming back to the team his dad played for, and returning home. Despite not speaking to his dad, he donned his dad’s No. 26.

With the Cardinals, he had a resurgent season, hitting .272 with 13 home runs and 52 RBI while playing all over the field. Spiezio played a massive role in their World Series-winning team.

However, this World Series victory was different for Spiezio. He didn’t get to celebrate with his dad, as he did in 2002.

Spiezio won a World Series for the Cardinals, just like his dad, but he wasn’t able to share the moment with him.

The fanfare was also much different. There was not another party at the high school. He wasn’t being covered the same way by the newspapers. His reputation didn’t warrant the same celebration it did in 2002.

His relationship with his dad had deteriorated so much that he wasn’t sure he would be invited to his funeral.

Some things are bigger than baseball.

On Opening Day 2007, the St. Louis Cardinals were awarding players their World Series rings from 2006.

The Cardinals had a special surprise for Scott Spiezio. They were bringing out his father, Ed, to give him his World Series ring.

Ed, who still had not spoken to Scott since that fateful night at his house, wasn’t sure he should go.

“I didn’t feel I should go down there, but for this event I did,” Ed said.

As the Cardinals announced that Ed was presenting Scott with his ring, the son burst into tears.

“The Cardinals brought my dad back without me knowing to give me my ring in 2007. The first time in history and only time in history that a father and son have won with the same organization. They called him up and presented my ring to him and then called me up, and he presented my ring to me, and we hugged and that was the prodigal son moment that turned everything around,” Scott said.

Ed said there wasn’t a dry eye in the whole stadium.

Scott called that moment a pivotal moment in their relationship. While he wished he had gotten sober right then and there, at least he knew he had his dad back in his corner.

Later that year, Scott spoke at Christian Day in Busch Stadium after a game, and his father attended.

“I think he started realizing that there was a greater purpose and, uh, we started opening up to each other after I spoke at Christian Day at Busch Stadium with the Cardinals. And he told me at that moment, we hugged, and he said, ‘I’m proud of you. Like, I couldn’t be prouder of you,’” Scott said.

However, while his dad was back in his life, his relationship with alcohol worsened. During games, Spiezio was drinking alcohol out of water bottles in the dugout and was playing baseball drunk.

The legal limit is .08. Spiezio theorized he was playing at 0.20. He would drink during the game because he had the shakes, and he had cocaine on him so he wouldn’t sleep.

Spiezio eventually collapsed in front of the Cardinals’ trainers, and they sent him to an outpatient rehab facility in St. Charles, Missouri, near St. Louis.

The proximity of the facility to St. Louis was a detriment because people knew who he was in St. Charles, and Spiezio didn’t share at all and waited until it was over.

He checked a box and was in the Cardinals’ lineup 28 days later, but he was still an addict and an alcoholic.

After the 2007 season, Spiezio was involved in a hit-and-run, and went to rehab in Tucson, Arizona. He rejoined the team in 2008 but then got released after a warrant went out for his arrest.

The Atlanta Braves then signed him to a minor league deal, but he retired from baseball in 2008 because he didn’t want to be too far from home. Upon his retirement, Spiezio dove straight back into alcohol and cocaine.

He divorced his second wife in 2010. Spiezio was drinking one to two handles of vodka a day and spending thousands of dollars on cocaine per week.

From 2007 to 2016, Spiezio was in 11 different rehabs. He spent hundreds of hours in AA meetings and with counselors. At that point, Spiezio ceded control of his property and the money he had left to his parents.

“(My parents) strung me along to bring me food and would help me. They saved my property so I had somewhere to live. Otherwise, I would have spent everything and thrown everything away. And yet I was smart enough to give – I trusted them so much that I gave them power of attorney and I got rid of all my cars, got rid of all my credit cards, got rid of my checks, and let them do everything, so I wouldn’t have access to money,” Spiezio said.

At one point, things got so low for Spiezio that he had a death wish.

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“I remember the cops were called,” Kevin Donoho, Pastor of Crossbridge Community Church said in the documentary.

“And basically (Scott) had taken off on foot, and he was out in the field. The cops are out looking for him and basically they see him. And he said, ‘I’m going to run at them so they shoot me, and they can just put an end to all of this. I just thought, ‘That’s as low as it gets.’”

Spiezio was weighed down with guilt and shame over letting his kids down, letting his town down, letting his parents down and wasting his platform. His life revolved around drugs and alcohol for a decade.

He didn’t want to show his face.

For so long, Spiezio asked God for help, then took over the wheel and went back to his old ways. He got a wake-up call when an MRI for his back in 2018 changed his life.

“I would ask God for help, and he would help me, and then I’d take the wheel back. And then finally, I think he was like, ‘Hey man, you’re not getting this. I’m going to have to wake you up.’ And I ended up getting jaundice,” Spiezio said.

His liver was failing. Doctors gave him a 20% chance to live. If he could make it six months without drinking, they could do a liver transplant.

Spiezio didn’t think he could stop drinking to save his own life.

“I went from a guy that never drank alcohol to thinking I don’t know if I can go six months without drinking to save my own life. I just cried out to God. I said, ‘God, take away my cravings.’ And that was April 6, 2018,” Spiezio said.

“From that day on, I’ve had zero cravings. When I see alcohol, I get physically ill when I see it. I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

Spiezio said he was going to do what God wanted him to do. He knew it was his last chance.

Every couple of weeks, he returned to the hospital to have two liters of fluid drained from his abdomen. Slowly but surely, Spiezio felt better.

When he returned to Northwestern Hospital for the fourth time, the doctors were dumbfounded by what they saw.

“By the fourth time I went in, they read my scans, they looked at my blood work and said, ‘We don’t know how to explain it, but your liver is normal, and your blood work is great. We’ve never seen anything like this before. All we can say is somebody upstairs is looking out for you,’” Spiezio said.

“And I knew that that God had performed a second miracle on me.”

And then he started moving sticks.

Moving sticks in the yard so he could mow the lawn. Then he got a wheelbarrow and created a burn pile with the sticks. Just that simple action gave Spiezio the motivation to go out and talk to people.

He started building his relationship with the Lord. He was going to church more. He asked Donoho if he could work at the church and started cleaning the office complex.

He started reading the Bible. Spiezio started reconnecting with friends. His relationship with Jesus grew stronger. He felt a calling to share his story.

Spiezio used to have millions. According to Baseball-Reference, he made more than $16.5 million playing baseball. Yet now he lives month to month and is happier now than he has ever been.

Spiezio has a documentary coming out Sept. 10, titled “Spiezio,” which details his tumultuous journey. He released a memoir in July, called “The Hardest Comeback.”

For his memoir, there was a reason why he settled on “The Hardest Comeback.”

“I thought of a bunch of different titles for the book and one of them was ‘It’s never too late,’ and ‘Never Give Up. Like there was all sorts of of titles. We went with ‘The Hardest Comeback’ because we wanted people to realize how hard it really was. I had the comeback with the Game 6 home run in the World Series, but the hardest comeback was this by far,” Spiezio said.

For people who are struggling with addiction or mental health, Spiezio wants them to know that there is hope.

“I want people to know that there’s hope, if you’re vulnerable, and you let people in your life that that can steer you in the right direction and can hold your hand while you’re going through stuff, you have to be willing to want to stop. And I can tell you from a guy that thought I couldn’t stop drinking in order to save my own life to a guy that wonders why in the world I ever put any of that stuff in my system,” Spiezio said.

“Life is so much better.”

Spiezio now runs a baseball facility and gives one-on-one lessons to kids. He shares his faith anytime he gets a chance, and is very involved with his church. He goes to schools to talk about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

He is repairing his relationships with his kids. He has a 26-year-old, 24-year-old, 22-year-old and an 11-year-old. Spiezio said the 11-year-old is teaching him how to fish.

He lives back in his hometown, because the community helped him get back to his roots and remember who he really is.

Now, joy for him is helping others.

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“I had millions and millions of dollars. Now, I live month to month. But I’m happier now than when I had seven cars and three houses and was hanging out with all these, you know, famous people. I have true joy now because I know how the story ends. And the biggest thrill for me is when people tell me that, you know, after talking to you I’ve saved my marriage,” Spiezio said.

“Or I’ve restored my faith in God or have 12 months sober or five years sober or 30 days sober. There’s nothing like getting those texts where people are like, thank you for taking the time.”

“It’s never too late. I always say as long as you got a breath, you got a pen to write a great ending. As long as you got a pulse, you got a purpose. It’s never too late to get sober. It’s never too late to mend broken relationships.”

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