Former pro baseball player Scott Spiezio talks to L-P students about the dangers of alcohol and drugs

Scott Spiezio was on top of the baseball world.

The son of a big leaguer, Spiezio launched his own professional career when he was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the sixth round of the 1993 amateur draft.

He went on to become a World Series hero, hitting a key three-run homer to spark the Anaheim Angels to a dramatic come-from-behind victory in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series against the Giants.

Spiezio got swept up in all the hoopla and said his priorities began to change.

“I started to believe it, ‘Man, I’m pretty good. I’m pretty special,’” he said. “My priorities started to screw up. It started to become ‘me, me, me.’”

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Former Major League Baseball infielder Scott Spiezio speaks to students Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Matthiessen Auditorium at La Salle-Peru High School. (Scott Anderson)

A serious back injury in spring training of 2004 with the Seattle Mariners led to depression, and he turned to alcohol to help cope with his problems.

“It made me feel better, but it was temporary,” he said. “I had never done it before, so it was like a new experience. ‘Oh, it’s not too bad. It makes me loose, makes me forget about things.’

“When I drink I turned into a different person and make bad decisions. And before you know it, I’m further away from my true self. At 32, I turned into what I know today is an alcoholic. I thought about drinking every day, and that was one of the first things I thought about when I woke up. I wanted to get that first drink in me.”

After being released by the Mariners in August 2005, he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals the next spring, the very same team his dad, Ed, broke in with in the 1960s. He proved to be a big spark for the Cardinals as a utility player and came through in the clutch again in the postseason.

However, his personal life continued to spiral, as he also was addicted to drugs, and it cost him his marriage to his high school sweetheart, his baseball career and almost his life.

On April 6, 2018, facing near death to liver disease, Spiezio gave up drinking. He’s been sober ever since.

Spiezio spoke to students and staff at La Salle-Peru High School on Wednesday morning about the destruction of his life brought about by his addictions.

He has made it his mission to talk to youth and adults alike about the dangers of alcoholism and drug addictions. But he also wants to tell people that there is hope if you get caught up in addictions.

“It’s scary. And it can happen to anybody,” he said. “Being in rehab 11 times in 10 years, I’ve seen people from all walks of life from all different ages suffer from addiction and alcoholism. It’s scary, and one little slip and you can be dead.

“I want to give people hope. If you do slide into addiction and alcoholism, there’s hope to get out of it. And I don’t want people to suffer like I did, or my family did, or my friends did. I was one of those guys who thought it couldn’t happen to them. All of a sudden, I’m in what I call detour for 10 years. It was more than a detour. It was pretty awful. But I’m so fortunate to have another chance.

“As a Christian, I think God allowed me to go through it so I could help others on their journey.”

Spiezio said it’s a miracle that he’s alive today.

“Even though I didn’t like drinking, I got good at it, and I never thought I’d be able to live the rest of my life without it,” he said. “Then, all of a sudden, I had no desire to drink or use it. And every time I see alcohol now, my stomach starts churning.

“And my liver going from basically not working, and my other organs – my kidneys – everything shutting down to a total bill of health, that’s another miracle.”

He told the L-P students that if “you’re around people making bad decisions and it’s influencing you, then maybe it’s time to find new friends and move on.”

All Spiezio ever wanted to do growing up in Morris was become a big league ballplayer like his dad. An aptitude test in third grade came back suggesting that he should become a firefighter. But he told everybody that he wanted to be a major leaguer and even practiced his signature to be ready one day.

“My teachers told me, ‘You have to have realistic goals and have something to fall back on.’ I said, ‘Nope, I’m going to be a big leaguer,’” Spiezio said.

Getting to play for the Cardinals and wearing the same No. 26 uniform, which he proudly wore Wednesday, was a dream come true.

He shared how he had heard a loud knocking at his house in Morris in February 2006 only to find it was a cardinal repeatedly banging on a window on the morning his agent called and told him the Cardinals were interested in him.

“It was magical. When I saw 26 (at spring training), I was brought to tears. That was amazing, and winning the World Series was amazing,” Spiezio said.

When the Cardinals presented the rings to the players on the second day of the 2007 season, they surprised Spiezio by having his dad, wearing his old No. 26 jersey, present his ring to him.

They are the first father-and-son duo to win two World Series championships and the first to win with the same organization.

“Even through it all, the Cardinals bring me and my dad back all the time. They treat us like family,” he said.

Spiezio would like to hold a fantasy camp at the Field of Dreams site in Decorah, Iowa, and “have a catch” with his dad, if he is able to recover from a stroke this year.