From USA today:Former Major League Baseball player David Segui revealed Sunday that he used human growth hormone during his 15-year career and confirmed that former teammate Jason Grimsley identified him to federal agents as using illegal performance-enhancing drugs.I find the Jason Grimsley story fascinating. According to his lawyer, the Feds wanted him to wear a wire so that they could get some dirt on Bonds doing performance enhancing drugs (but he didn’t play with Bonds, so that’s a little odd). According to his lawyer he decided not to cooperate so they raided his house and found out he was on human growth hormone. He was a middle of the road pitcher, not a hulking slugger, not a star. This is yet another sign that performance-enhancing drugs must be rampant. There must be scores of guys just like him flying under the radar. These are guys fighting to make the roster, not guys who are trying to break records.
Now that Segui has come forward, I can't wait to see what happens next. Will the other players Jason named in his statement wait to be outed?
The USA Today article would have us believe that he just started taking HGH this year. But let's play "what if". What if someone else hooked him up years ago with HGH and/or other substances. Jason played for a bunch of teams. There are a lot of people he's been in contact with who had unexplained breakout years or who have had careers that lasted (maybe) a little too long. There are also people with addictive personalities (see below). There were the guys that looked a little too big. And there were guys that had fallen off that would've been looking for a way to stay in the game while moving from one team to another, year after year.
I'm wondering if some of the following people may be on his list:
- '89-'91 Phillies: Lenny Dykstra, Mike Schmidt (blasphemy to some, I know).
- '93-'95 Indians: Albert Belle, Glenallen Hill, Carlos Baerga, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Sandy Alomar, Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield, Tony Pena, Orel Hershiser, Dennis Martinez. [I would look really closely at the Indians of the mid to late '90's.].
- '96 Angels: Jim Edmonds, Chili Davis, Troy Percival, Tim Salmon.
- '99-'00 Yankees: Chili Davis (again), Paul O'Neill (sacrilege!), Shane Spencer, Darryl Strawberry, Roger Clemens, Mike Stanton, Andy Pettitte, Jeff Nelson, Glenallen Hill (again), Roberto Kelly, Dwight Gooden, Chuck Knoblauch.
- '01-'04 Royals: Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye, Chuck Knoblauch (again), Benito Santiago, Juan Gonzalez, Jose Lima, Kevin Appier.
- '04-'05 Orioles: Rafael Palmiero, Melvin Mora, Miguel Tejada, Sidney Ponson, Sammy Sosa, B.J. Surhoff
- '06 Diamondbacks: Tony Clark, Luis Gonzalez, Shawn Greene.
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4 comments:
SHAZAM!!! Whew! You ran down some interesting names down there miss Michelle. I loved the inclusion of: I would look really closely at the Indians of the mid to late '90's. Those were some homerun hitting goons weren't they??? I would look at Jim Thome too (I didn't see him on your list for the Phillies).. He hit some incredible moon shots in very tough to hit stadiums!
Thome joined the Phillies in '03, long after Grimsley's stint there. If they hooked up, it would've been in Cleveland. ;)
Thome was (and is) a monster. I’m really suspicious of him. I’m suspicious of Albert Belle too. He was putting up crazy numbers before he went to the White Sox, screwed them over with that badly structured contract, then jetted for Baltimore where he had some mysterious career-ending injuries. He was the Barry Bonds of that era -- hated and feared.
The guys that I listed that I think will be outed eventually (but not necessarily in conjunction with Grimsley) are Dykstra (got buff overnight), Belle (in a perpetual ‘roid rage), Thome, Sandy Alomar (killed the Yankees in the ’97 division series when his career was supposedly over), Dennis Martinez (hung around for 22 years), Clemens (got stronger as he got older -- warning flag), Stanton & Nelson (they fell off so abruptly it makes me think they stopped doing something), Knoblauch (doubled his homeruns when he came to the Yanks in’98), Santiago (a catcher that lasts until 40), Tejada (played with the Giambi brothers in Oakland, and they juiced), and, of course, Sosa, Palmiero, Juan Gonzalez and Luis Gonzalez.
A: My man Carlos Baerga was fat and happy at 2nd base. No roids there. If he ever admits to anything I'll throw away his jersey on my wall and signed ball and baseball cards.
B: Sandy Alomar was always a big dude... which was mostly the reason why he went up and down. He was a large man squatting behind the plate and it takes its toll... sometimes you feel good, sometimes a tweak lingers for a long time. He even was the reason why those pads came into use that now hang off the heels of many catchers.
C: Thome could very easily have been juicing. Look at the back problems he had and it seems to be the MO of alot of guys on roids. He always had a large frame though and big legs and hips to really drive the ball so it may have just been junk like andro or other "helpers" that some claim arent cheating (not me)
D: Albert Belle didnt have a mystery illness. He had a degenerative hip condition. He also had a short fuse, just ask Fernando Vina. He corked his bat, so cheating wasnt an issue. And the person who crawled through the ductwork to the umpires room at the Jake to take the corked bat and replace it with a Paul Sorrento bat was none other than Jason Grimsley. Dude was on roids, no doubt about it. Probably a hell of a player without, but who knows.
E: E is for Eddie Murray. Seriously, shut up, the dude was good and i dont think he was roided up. But he didnt hit a home run from each side of the plate in the same inning like my man Carlos... the first ever and one of only two (mark bellhorn).
F: Shut up about the mid 90's indians. There may have been guys roiding there but there were roid heads playing against them too. Those teams spent money to go out and get sluggers and follow the John Hart model for a contending but never championship team. You can name their entire roster and the fact is they had alot of great players then who did as the rest of the league was doing. Dennis Martines, Glenallen Hill... what the heck... add in Eric Plunk, Paul Assenmacher, Jaret Wright, Chuck Nagy, David Justice, Paul Shuey, Joe Table... anyone else? Alot of things went right then but dont discount a small chunk of "very good" just for that. Let Cleveland have at least one untainted look at a championship in the last 40 years. Its not like they have any trophies to give back.
An Indians fan! How did you find my blog?
I like your argument. It essentially boils down to, "Yeah, they probably juiced, but they had to and it's okay because they didn't win a championship." Well, then everyone who juiced but didn't win a championship is good too and you should only test the team that actually wins it all. I can get with that. ;)
That breakout year Sandy had in '97 was too over the top.
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