I did some investigation after spying a meme purporting that pitcher Tug McGraw once said, when asked if he preferred grass or Astroturf, "I don't know, I never smoked Astroturf." Turns out, it's true, and there's more to the story.
McGraw played 19 seasons in the MLB, from 1965-1984, for the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. He is often remembered for coining the phrase "Ya Gotta Believe!" which became the rallying cry for the Mets, and for pitching the final strike out in the 1980 World Series, bringing the Phillies their first World Series win in franchise history.
Tug, who fathered country artist Tim McGraw, was a colorful character. His first memoir was titled Screwball. In his second book, Ya Gotta Believe! My Roller-Coaster Life as a Screwball Pitcher, and Part-Time Father, and My Hope-Filled Fight Against Brain Cancer (2004), he tells the story of his weedy quip, made during a1974 interview with a reporter in San Francisco, where the Giants had gone back and forth from grass to Astroturf within a five-year period.
McGraw also writes about his battle with cancer, after being diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor in 2003. Surgery failed to excise the full tumor, and the malignancy returned in inoperable form. His son Tim paid for costly experimental medicines, but Tug lived only another nine months after his surgery and died on January 5, 2004 at the home of Tim and his wife Faith Hill.
The Mets played the 2004 season with the words "Ya Gotta Believe" embroidered on their left shoulders in McGraw's honor. The music video for his son Tim's 2004 hit "Live Like You Were Dying" featured a clip of McGraw recording the final out of the 1980 World Series. The song was number 1 on the U.S. Billboard country music charts for seven weeks and was named the number 1 country song of 2004 by Billboard.
Glioblastoma, Astroturf and Cannabis
A stunning 2023 investigation by the Philadelphia Inquirer connects the astroturf at Veterans Stadium, the Philadelphia Phillies’ former home, and the deaths of six retired MLB players. The players – McGraw, Darren Daulton, John Vukovich, John Oates, Ken Brett, and David West – all played for the Phillies and all died of the aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma before the age of 60.
The Inquirer found dangerous “forever chemicals” in the turf, which was produced by Monsanto, reports Front Office Sports. "These chemicals have been connected to kidney and testicular cancer, among other maladies, and the brain cancer rate among the 532 Phillies who played at Veterans Stadium from 1971 to 2003 is around triple the average rate of adult men."
“We know that the liver is affected. We know that the kidneys are affected. We know the testicles are affected,” Graham Peaslee, a physicist at the University of Notre Dame, told the Inquirer. “But nobody’s ever done the study to see if the brain is affected, because glioblastoma is such a rare disease.”
The story gets even more tragically ironic. According to NORML, "A review of the modern scientific literature reveals numerous preclinical studies, as well as a limited number of case reports and human studies, demonstrating cannabinoids’ ability to act as antineoplastic agents, particularly on glioma cell lines."Of Tug, Hank, and Pot
McGraw writes in Ya Gotta Believe! about "the brain cells I killed smoking pot," but he got that wrong: it's alcohol that kills brain cells, and cannabis might have helped with his glioblastoma.
Much like comedian George Carlin and his older brother Patrick, McGraw writes about his appreciation for his stoner older brother Hank, who Tug says was the better athlete growing up. "When it comes to the person I am, Hank was key to my development. People thought I was a free-thinker, a screwball. They just didn't know Hank!"
The "Happy Hippie from Napa Valley," as McGraw's family calls Hank, held a variety of odd jobs and, while coaching at a Catholic high school in Vallejo, turned up at homecoming wearing a shirt that said, Legalize Weed.
Saying he admired his brother's independence and tenacity, Tug wrote, "In his opinion, governments are established so that the proper crooks have a license to steal....I look at him and say he's not made the most of the gifts he was given. He looks at me and says I've compromised so that I can live a 'better' life." Since those compromises involved playing on Astroturf, it seems Tug would have been better off sticking with grass.
Hank McGraw died on July 6, 2024 at the age of 81, outlivimg his younger brother by over 20 years.
