Matt Harvey Took The Stand In The Tyler Skaggs Trial Where He Admitted To Giving Skaggs Percocets And Using Cocaine Dating Back To His Time In New York

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There had been a lot of whispers the last few days about how Matt Harvey could have been involved in the death of Tyler Skaggs, with former Angels communications director Eric Kay on trial for giving Skaggs the drugs that resulted in his death. Today, Harvey took the stand and made some pretty explosive admissions, which TJ Quinn from ESPN transcribed on Twitter.

This may surprise you guys, but I'm not a big drug guy to the point I had to research about oxy and percocets before blogging this. I got a couple of Oxys when I had my vasectomy but didn't use them because I barely had any pain and was scared of getting addicted to them. But the biggest takeaway in all this is just how sad it is. Death, addiction, and the need for some players to need drugs in order to try to hang on to continue to do their job.

I actually started listening to Eddie and Chief discuss the opioid crisis in America today on The Dog Walk, which feels like a relevant topic with this story in the news today and the unreal amount of people it impacts regardless of where you live.

The other big quote that is making its rounds is Harvey admitting to using cocaine dating back to when he was in New York.

As someone that has followed New York sports since the 80s, I was exactly 0% surprised a young player that became a star in New York City almost overnight may have dabbled in coke. It fucking sucks that there wasn't a better support system around Harvey, both in his crew and around the Mets, that could've steered him clear of the booger sugar. However, he's not the first nor the last pro athlete that will go through that cycle in New York or anywhere else in the country, even though these pictures now hit completely differently.

To be clear, Harvey was definitely not without fault by being the star of some of the most absurd headlines the Mets have ever had on this website, which is saying something. No-showing games, blaming bladder issues on holding his pee in too long, and a million other nonsensical things that KFC blogged back in the day in between cuncelling da saeson. 

I know a lot of Mets fans were angry with Matt Harvey for the way things ended in Queens. But I've always seen him as a tragic figure and a cautionary tale during a time where there was little to no accountability in the organization. Most of all, I just miss when #HarveyDay was a joyous event that happened once every five days for a little while before the rigors of baseball and the fast life took them away.