If it wasn’t quite the baseball equivalent of Walter White returning home from his self-imposed New Hampshire exile in the “Breaking Bad” finale, Jason Grimsley nevertheless stood out as an atypical Old Timer Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
A key contributor to the champion 1999 and 2000 Yankees, the right-handed reliever Grimsley retired suddenly in June 2006, while with the Diamondbacks, when federal agents raided his home upon receiving a tip that he was distributing human growth hormone and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs. According to an affidavit featuring a sworn statement by IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky (who gained notoriety for his intense pursuit of Barry Bonds), after the raid, Grimsley accused nine players — including his Yankees teammates Chuck Knoblauch and Allen Watson and Mets legend Lenny Dykstra — of illegal PED usage
Sunday marked his Yankees Old-Timers’ Day debut, although Grimsley, now 51, said he has attended a couple of events at the behest of the Indians, another former team.