Former Red Sox minor leaguer Mike Spinelli's addiction to opioids started more than 20 years ago, after he was injured while pitching. Now he's got a place to stay and is working on his recovery.
But he was caught using steroids and eventually suspended. After he returned to pitching in 1999, he tore a ligament in his elbow and had to have surgery.
The apartment has a donated couch, upholstered chair and other furnishings. Spinelli is grateful for them, but he can't wait to give the place his own touch. He envisions modern furniture, plants and candles. He wants to cook a big Italian Sunday dinner for his mother and brothers -- homemade pasta with"gravy," as his Italian family says, not"sauce."
On the day we visited, much of his team stopped by, including nurse Megan Sonderegger, who specializes in caring for people with addiction. She's been working with Spinelli for about five years, but she wasn't aware of his stint as a ballplayer when she first met him. It took some time to get to move-in day. When the city cleared out the tent encampment, Spinelli first stayed at a public men's shelter. Then his team moved him to a temporary pop-up cottage at Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain. The state worked with Commonwealth Care Alliance and Eliot to set up and operate the cottages as transitional housing for people moving out of"Mass. and Cass." Spinelli went from there to his apartment.
But Spinelli wants to stop using opioids. By July, he and his support team were strategizing about treatment options. His care is complicated by the fact that he's diagnosed with severe depression and needs medical help for a serious injury. Last year, while in an opioid-induced"blackout," he says he walked off a loading dock near"Mass. and Cass" and broke a hip. His team has set him up with an orthopedic doctor.
Mike Spinelli and Mark Bradshaw, who directs housing programs for Eliot Community Human Services and is a member of Spinelli's care team. "I ask myself what I'm doing down there," Spinelli said."I'm setting myself up, you know. So I stopped going down there altogether."
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