Former major leaguer Jim Leyritz has admitted using amphetamines when he was an active player, ESPN reported Friday.

According to ESPN, "I can remember my first amphetamine," Jim Leyritz said during an interview Thursday on XM Satellite Radio. "I was out all night drinking with Andy Hawkins and some of the guys on the team. I was a young player."

Leyritz, who began his big league career with the New York Yankees in 1990, played 11 seasons with six different teams, according to ESPN.

"I came in. I was hung over, sleeping by my locker. And all of a sudden, (Don) Mattingly came to me and said, 'Hey, you're in the lineup.' And I went, 'What?' He goes, 'Yeah, I just hurt my back.'

"Now I'm walking around, I'm going, 'I don't know how I'm going to do this. There's no way that I can go play this game today.' I ran into my teammate who I knew had some of the 'little helpers,' as they called them.

"He said, 'Take one of these. It should help. It'll take the edge off.'

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"So sure enough, I took one. He goes, 'OK, you can take two, but no more than two.' So I popped one more, and I went out and went 3 for 4 with two homers."

According to retrosheet.org, Leyritz is referencing a Saturday, June 30 game in 1990 against the Chicago White Sox, where he went 3 for 5 with two homers and four RBIs, ESPN reported.

His recollection of the day isn't perfect spot-on, however, as Mattingly played first base and Leyritz manned third, according to ESPN.

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This admission comes in the wake of an investigation of pitcher Jason Grimsley, where Grimsley told federal agents that he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Grimsley reported said that amphetamine use was prevalent in pro baseball, and that it was placed in coffee in clubhouses — marked "leaded" or "unleaded" to indicate which pots contained the drugs, according to court documents.

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