“I think some things that happened and some poor choices on how I lived my life led to it more than anything,” he said.
Part of that was not eating right or sleeping enough, the basics of being a good athlete, but that was not the killer. He said he had a “serious drinking problem,” a binge drinker who stopped when he ran out of booze or passed out.
Proctor is the last major league reliever to throw 100 innings, ending up at 102 1/3 in a league-high 83 appearances for Torre’s Yankees in 2006. Not as effective the next year, he was traded to the Dodgers over the summer. Still, he made 83 appearances for the second straight season in 2007, covering 86 1/3 innings.
Proctor and Torre reunited in Los Angeles for the 2008 season, but it didn’t last long. Proctor’s elbow started acting up, putting him on the DL in June, and while he tried to keep pitching, he was forced to have Tommy John surgery in May 2009. He returned to struggle in spot duty in 2010 and ’11 before going to Korea. In total, he has a 6.59 ERA in 86 major league appearances since the beginning of 2008.
Proctor did have a successful season in Korea last year, saving 35 games with a 1.79 ERA. He says he’s perfected the splitter he used to throw in majors on occasion, and he’s thrown two scoreless innings for the Giants so far this spring.
More importantly, he says he’s been sober for four years now. He’ll open to accepting a Triple-A assignment should he fail to make the Giants, so it seems likely that we’ll see him back in the majors again at some point.
