Pedro Martinez: Manny Ramirez spiked drinks with Viagra in Red Sox clubhouse

Viagra may have a new spokesperson.

Former Boston Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez gave his teammates a mixture of alcohol and Viagra, a drug used to assist with erectile dysfunction, before games.

The Red Sox began a tradition of taking a shot of alcohol prior to playoff games in 2004 in order to calm their nerves, Pedro Martinez revealed on Late Night with Seth Meyers following his book release. The process clearly worked for the club, which ended the Curse of the Bambino with a World Series title that year.

Boston players would take turns introducing their favorite shots prior to games when Ramirez presented his teammates with a concoction called mamajuana - a mixture of gin, honey, wine and medicine root. There was, of course, one other special ingredient.

"(Ramirez) put three 100mg Viagras in it. So here we go, somebody needs to taste this to see if it works," Martinez said. "So we decided to let Ellis Burks try to taste it and I say, 'You know, this mamajuana, if you drink it, you might get turned on.' He said, 'Oh, I'll try it. I'll try it. I'm not playing anyway.' So he took it, it seemed like it worked. So everybody was coming up to him for a little shot."

Burks was sidelined due to knee surgery at the time, so he was the perfect guinea pig for Ramirez's experiment.

The tradition of enjoying frothy suds and other guilty pleasures in the Red Sox clubhouse is well-documented and has been embraced by the next class of players in Boston.

Martinez also spoke about why he never used performance-enhancing drugs Wednesday with ESPN's Colin Cowherd, and the conversation somehow mirrored the theme of erectile dysfunction.

"To be honest? Because when I heard, you know, the result would go south and affect you some other places, physically, I just said no."

Martinez, who will be enshrined in Cooperstown this summer, also cited a heart defect as another deterrent from using steroids.