Autopsy Shows Porter Had Cocaine in System

Former All-Star catcher Darrell Porter had cocaine in his system when he died, according to autopsy results released Monday.

Porter, 50, had a level of cocaine in his system “typical of someone who uses [cocaine] recreationally,” Jackson County medical examiner Dr. Thomas Young said.

Young would not be more specific, saying measurements of cocaine in the body after death can be unreliable and can vary depending on where blood is drawn. It was unclear when Porter took the drug.

Porter did not die of an overdose, Young said, but of a condition called excited delirium, which causes “behavior that is agitated, bizarre and potentially violent,” and stopped Porter’s heart.

Porter, the most valuable player of the 1982 World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals, was found dead Aug. 5 next to his car in a park.

During spring training in 1980, Porter checked into a drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation center. He chronicled his struggle with addiction and recovery from it in a 1984 book, “Snap Me Perfect! The Darrell Porter Story.”

Young said “heat exposure” and an enlarged heart, common among drug users or those with high cholesterol, contributed to Porter’s death.

There was no evidence to support earlier speculation by authorities that Porter tried to push his stalled car off a tree stump at a nearby park. They had guessed Porter might have overheated in high heat and humidity.