When you think about the 1980s Los Angeles Dodgers, you usually think about Fernandomania or Kirk Gibson’s limping home run. But there’s another name that defined that era in a much darker, more complicated way: Steve Howe.
Steve Howe baseball pitcher wasn’t just a guy who threw a mid-90s fastball with a nasty left-handed delivery. Honestly, he was a phenom. He arrived in the big leagues in 1980 and immediately looked like a future Hall of Famer. He won the NL Rookie of the Year award, saved 17 games, and posted a 2.66 ERA. By 1981, he was closing out the World Series against the New York Yankees.
He was 23 years old. He had the world by the tail. And then, it all started to unravel in a way that baseball had never seen before—and hasn't really seen since.
The Talent That Nobody Could Quit
Most players get one chance to screw up. Maybe two if they’re superstars. Steve Howe got seven.
Major League Baseball suspended him seven different times for drug and alcohol abuse. Seven. That’s a number that feels like a typo, but it’s the cold, hard reality of his career. You’ve gotta ask: why did teams keep bringing him back?
The answer is simple and kinda brutal: he was just that good.
Even when he was struggling with a massive cocaine addiction, Howe could step onto a mound after a year away and still blow away the best hitters in the world. He had this effortless, whip-like motion. Lefties like that are rare. Lefties who can close games under pressure are basically unicorns.
A Timeline of the Chaos
To understand the gravity of his situation, you have to look at how quickly things moved.
- 1980: Wins Rookie of the Year.
- 1981: Wins the World Series.
- 1982: Named an All-Star.
- 1983: The first suspension.
By the time 1984 rolled around, he was suspended for the entire season. He’d go to rehab, come back, show a flash of brilliance, and then disappear again. He bounced from the Dodgers to the Twins, then to the Rangers. It was a cycle of "he’s clean" followed by "he’s gone."
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The Lifetime Ban That Wasn't
The peak of the drama happened in 1992. Fay Vincent, who was the Commissioner of Baseball at the time, had finally had enough. After Howe’s seventh drug-related incident—this one involving a guilty plea for attempting to purchase cocaine—Vincent banned him for life.
"Seven strikes and you're out," was the sentiment. It felt final.
But it wasn't.
The MLB Players Association fought the ban. They argued that Howe’s addiction was a medical disability and that the "lifetime" punishment was arbitrary. In a move that shocked the sporting world, an arbitrator named George Nicolau overturned the ban.
Suddenly, the New York Yankees had a path to sign him. And they did.
George Steinbrenner, the legendary Yankees owner, was famous for giving "second" chances (even if this was technically an eighth or ninth chance). Steinbrenner saw a weapon for his bullpen. The baseball world was furious. People called it a disgrace to the game. But Howe didn't care about the headlines—he just wanted to pitch.
The Yankee Years and Mariano Rivera
Surprisingly, Howe actually found a weird kind of stability in the Bronx for a few years. In 1994, he was absolutely lights-out. He posted a 1.80 ERA and recorded 15 saves. He was the veteran presence in a bullpen that was just starting to become legendary.
Here’s a detail most people miss: Steve Howe was a mentor to Mariano Rivera.
Think about that for a second. The most troubled pitcher in history helped guide the most disciplined, greatest closer of all time. Rivera has actually credited Howe with helping him understand the mental side of being a reliever. It’s one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" baseball facts that makes you look at Howe’s legacy a bit differently.
What Really Happened in the End?
The tragedy of Steve Howe isn't just that he lost his prime years to addiction. It’s how it ended.
His MLB career effectively stopped in 1996 when the Yankees released him. He tried a comeback in the independent leagues with the Sioux Falls Canaries in 1997, but the magic was gone. He looked tired. He looked like a man who had been running from himself for two decades.
On April 28, 2006, Howe was driving his pickup truck through Coachella, California. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt. His truck drifted off the road and rolled over. He was killed instantly at the age of 48.
The toxicology report later found methamphetamine in his system. It was a heartbreaking confirmation that the demons he’d fought since the early '80s never really left him alone.
Why Steve Howe Still Matters Today
We talk a lot about "wasted talent" in sports, but Howe’s story is deeper than that. He was the face of the 1980s drug crisis in professional sports. He was the test case for how the league handles addiction versus punishment.
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Key Takeaways from the Howe Legacy:
- Addiction is a Beast: Even with millions of dollars and world-class talent, you can't just "will" your way out of it.
- The Enablement Factor: Baseball teams will overlook almost anything if you can help them win a pennant.
- Human Complexity: You can be a "bad" example and a "good" mentor at the same time.
If you're looking to dive deeper into this era of baseball, I highly recommend checking out his autobiography, Between the Lines. It was written in 1989, right in the middle of his struggles. It’s raw. It doesn’t have the benefit of hindsight, which makes it feel even more honest.
For those interested in the statistical side, go look at his 1980-1983 splits versus his later years. The drop-off in strikeout-to-walk ratios tells a story that the box scores alone can’t capture.
Steve Howe baseball pitcher was a man who lived a thousand lives in 48 years. He was a champion, a pariah, a comeback kid, and eventually, a cautionary tale. He reminds us that the players we see on the mound are human beings first, and sometimes, the hardest game they play is the one that happens after the stadium lights go out.
Next Steps for Research:
If you want to understand the full context of this era, look up the 1985 Pittsburgh Drug Trials. While Howe wasn't a central figure in those specific trials, they occurred during the peak of his early suspensions and explain the atmosphere of the league at the time. You might also want to compare his career arc to other "comeback" stories of the era, like Dwight Gooden or Darryl Strawberry, to see how the Yankees' culture under Steinbrenner served as a refuge for talented but troubled stars.