Ken Caminiti Dies of Drug Overdose, Autopsy Shows

Autopsy shows Caminiti overdosed (ESPN)

Preliminary results of the autopsy performed on Ken Caminiti show that the former National League MVP died of a drug overdose, a New York City police source told ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap. Caminiti, 41, reportedly collapsed in a Bronx apartment on Sunday and was pronounced dead at Lincoln Hospital. His agent, Rick Licht, said at the time Caminiti died of a heart attack. The medical examiner’s office performed the autopsy on Monday, but a spokesperson for the medical examiner said Thursday that no official cause of death would be announced until the completion of a toxicology report, which could take up to 10 days.

Caminiti battled drug and alcohol problems during his 15-year major-league career. In May 2002, he told Sports Illustrated he used steroids during his career. On Tuesday, Newsday (N.Y.) reported that Caminiti was “depressed” and “edgy,” and wanted to talk about “life, love and everything,” during the last half day of his life, according to Rob Silva, a 35-year-old ex-con from Brooklyn, who had met Caminiti about a year and a half ago.

A shame, although hardly surprising.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Paul says:
  2. G Sanchez says:

    You people are idiots to print your story about Ken Caminiti dying from a drug overdose. When you posted your story, the results of the toxicology report were still unknown. Without the toxicology report, how do you know he died of a drug overdose? Are you psychic or something? Wouldn’t it have been better to wait until you knew for sure what the cause of death was before you printed your story. If I were the family, I would be talking to my lawyers about not only you, but ESPN and the others that came out with their stories that were not based on the facts that were known at the time of his death, but rather based on opinions of a bunch of ignorant people. In fact, didn’t ESPN have to retract their story? The man was a great baseball player and should be remembered for that. He was also a very generous individual trying to help out a friend when his unfortunate death occured. We all have our demons to fight, Ken’s were just more publicized than yours or mine.

  3. lee baker says:

    have the test results come back on ken caminiti? no matter what the results, he was a gifted player and good to his fans.