This is an issue that I have been harping upon for a while, and now I find out that Curt Schilling agrees with me. I feel a bit nauseous:
During the 2001 season, in the clubhouse, Pedro [Gomez] and I got into a shouting match about players and steroids. In the middle of the discussion he uttered this statement:
“I personally know of at least three, and more likely four guys on this team that are using steroids.”
Whoa… What?
I asked him how the hell he could “know” that. He said he knew, “people” had told him. I asked him what “people.” He said, “People.” I pushed and asked, “Players?” He said, “Let’s just leave it at people.”
I often times thought of sharing this story with someone from the media just to call Pedro out and see if he denied ever saying what he said to me. In the end it wasn’t worth the time or the effort.
But now this man is going to act as if he was a ‘victim’ of the same thing we all were? Worse yet, so many of these writers and media members are standing on the tallest mountain shouting to anyone who will listen how wrong all of this is, how bad all of it is, and how dare we players sat by idly and did nothing.
These men were privy to the same scenes we were on a daily basis. They saw us dress, and undress, they rolled their eyes the very same way many players did at the guy who ‘worked his ass off’ when he’d really ‘worked his ass on’ and put on astronomical muscle mass in 4 short months.
They saw hitters go from 18 to 40 home runs, pitchers go from 88 to 90mph, to 95-97mph yet we’re the ones who put our heads in the sand? Weren’t these the men and women with the power of the pen?
But please spare me the daily media insistence on lambasting anyone and everyone in the game for this PED nightmare, while at the same time giving a free pass to journalists. It’s as if they are standing on the sideline looking out on the field and saying, “Wow, I can’t believe what you guys have done to the game.”
There are some who bear every bit as much accountability in this as the innocent players who ‘didn’t speak out’ and ‘turn over’ on their teammates and fellow players.
Curt frames the issue perfectly. The media is just as much at fault as the clean players who kept their teammates’ secrets, and they should either ‘fess up or keep quiet.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
4 Responses to Agreeing With Curt Schilling
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
Crazy Curt goes from being the most reasonable and straightforward professional athlete on the planet to Batsh#t insane, random, “why-the-heck-would-he-even-say-that” at the drop of a hat. The man has no censor
But you have to admit, this rant was right on target.
Time for other players to agree with that rant. The media has gotten a pass on this issue for far too long, and their unending self-righteousness has to be called out.
I never thought I’d say this, but ‘go Curt!’.
i’m especially pissed off by sports illustrated and espn and those self-righteous idiots. jayson stark, tom verducci, they’re all good writers, but come on — they act like they’re innocent victims, punished by a-rod’s steroid use. maybe if they would have been questioning mark mcgwire’s freakish strength rather than comparing him to paul bunyan, they could have been part of the solution and not a false bystander.