This collection of quotations aims to contain the most poignant, controversial, and historically significant quotes from Baseball’s Steroid Era. The quotes, which focus on famous steroid and hGH users or the controversy in general, are delivered by some very influential officials of Major League Baseball, the players, the government, scientists, and the media.
Greg Anderson
“The whole thing is, everything that I’ve been doing at this point, it’s all undetectable. See the stuff I have, we created it, and you can’t buy it anywhere else, can’t get it anywhere else, but you can take it the day of (the test), pee, and it comes up perfect.”
Source: Recording, SF Chronicle, October 16, 2004
“See like Marion Jones and them; it’s the same stuff that they went to the Olympics with, and they test them every f—ing week at the Olympics, so that’s why I know it works, so that’s why I’m not even tripping. So, it’s cool.”
Source: Recording, Game of Shadows, March 23, 2006
“Do we know when they’re gonna do it? Oh, I have an idea. See, the lab that does this stuff is the lab that does.. I’ll know like probably a week in advance or two weeks in advance before they’re going to do it.”
Source: Recording, SF Chronicle, October 16, 2004
Dusty Baker
“It’s like McCarthyism or something.”
Source: USA Today, Regarding Steroids, Feb. 24, 2004
Barry Bonds
“Can you get my son [on camera) too, just not on me? So you guys can show the pain you’re causing my whole family.”
Source: MLB.com, Mar. 23, 2004
“I never asked Greg. When he said it was flaxseed oil, I just said, whatever.”
Source: Bonds’ Grand Jury Testimony, Dec. 4, 2003
“Doctors ought to quit worrying about what ballplayers are taking. What players take doesn’t matter. It’s nobody else’s business. The doctors should spend their time looking for cures for cancer. It takes more than muscles to hit homers. If all those guys were using stuff, how come they’re not all hitting homers?”
Source: Associated Press, May 21, 2002
“No. I don’t have to [use steroids]. I mean, I’m a good enough ballplayer as it is. I don’t need to be any better. I can’t get any better at this age.”
Source: Bonds @ On the Record with Bob Costas, June 2002
“I never asked. When he said it was flaxseed oil, I just said, ‘Whatever.’ It was in the ballpark.. in front of everybody. I mean, all the reporters, my teammates, I mean they all saw it. I didn’t hide it.”
Source: Bonds’ Grand Jury Testimony, Dec. 4, 2003
“All you guys lied! All of y’all and the story have lied. Should you have asterisks behind your name? All of you lied. All of you have said something wrong. All of you have dirt. When your closet’s clean, then come clean somebody else’s.”
Source: USA Today, Feb. 22, 2005
“I don’t know if steroids are going to help you in baseball. I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe steroids can help eye-hand coordination [and] technically hit a baseball.”
Source: USA Today, Feb. 22, 2005
“You wanted me to jump off the bridge; I finally have jumped. You wanted to bring me down, you’ve finally brought me and my family down. You’ve finally done it. So now go kick a different person. I’m done. I’ll do the best I can and that’s about it. [I’m talking about] inner hurt. I’m physically, mentally done. I’m mentally drained. Tired of my kids crying.”
Source: MLB.com, Mar. 23, 2004
Bret Boone
“Who is to say someone’s wrong for doing it? I don’t know if they’re good or bad. If you abuse anything, there are going to be effects down the road. If steroids are done in moderation, done correctly and safely, it might be an option.”
Source: USA Today, Jul. 7, 2002
“If I took steroids, I could dunk. Never mind baseball, I could play in the NBA.”
Source: ESPN, May 30, 2002
Tom Boswell Journalist
“(Canseco) is the most conspicuous example of a player who has made himself great with steroids.”
Source: CBS News, Sept. 1988
Ken Caminiti
“The stronger you get, the more relaxed you get. You feel good. You just let it fly. If you don’t feel good, you try so hard to make something happen. You grip the bat harder and swing harder and that’s when you tighten up. But you get that edge when you feel strong. That’s the way I felt. I felt strong, like I could just try to meet the ball and — wham! — it’s going to go 1,000 mph. Man, I felt good. I’d think, Damn, this pitcher’s in trouble and I’d crush the ball 450 feet with almost no effort. It’s all about getting an edge.”
Source: Sports Illustrated Magazine, Jun. 3, 2002
“It’s still a hand-eye coordination game, but the difference [with steroids] is the ball is going to go a little farther. Some of the balls that would go to the warning track will go out. That’s the difference.”
Source: Sports Illustrated Magazine, Jun. 3, 2002
“My body was torn up and broken down but it felt good [on steroids]. I felt like a kid. I was running better. I’d be running the bases and think, ‘Man, I’m fast!’ And I had never been that fast. But I was. Steroids made me like that.”
Source: Sports Illustrated Magazine, Jun. 3, 2002
“I would say there are only a couple of guys on a team that don’t take greenies before a game. One or two guys. That’s called going out there naked. And you hear it all the time from teammates, ‘You’re not going to play naked, are you?’ And even the guys who are against greenies may be taking diet pills or popping 25 caffeine pills and they’re up there with their hands shaking. So how good is that? This game is so whacked out that guys will take anything to get an edge. You got a pill that will make me feel better? Let me have it”
Source: Sports Illustrated Magazine, Jun. 3, 2002
Jose Canseco
“The players and owners disagree on most things, but when it comes to making money, they’re on the same page.”
Source: Canseco @ Congressional Hearing, Mar. 17, 2005
“Yes. We spoke and educated three or four players there.. Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez. I injected them. Absolutely.”
Source: 60 Minutes, Aug. 7, 2005
”After batting practice or right before the game, Mark (McGwire) and I would duck into a stall in the men’s room, load up our syringes, and inject ourselves. I always injected myself, because I had practiced enough to know just what I was doing, but often I would inject Mark as well.”
Source: Juiced, Feb. 14, 2005
”The national past-time is juiced.”
Source: Canseco @ Congressional Hearing, Mar. 17, 2005
”Over the years I’ve been diagnosed with arthritis, scoliosis, degenerative disc disease, you name it. I truly believe I would be in a wheelchair today if steroids hadn’t been available to me. I need steroids and human growth hormone just to live.”
Source: Juiced, Feb. 14, 2005
”(Giambi) became the single most vocal, outright juicer in the game, and nobady cared.”
Source: Juiced, Feb. 14, 2005
Roger Clemens
“Grimsley never worked out with me or Andy at any point. I don’t know where that’s coming from. When it’s going to take a serious turn for me is when one of my sponsors pull out, then somebody’s going to be responsible for that. Then my lawyers will take over from there.”
Source: Boston Globe, Oct. 2, 2006
Chad Curtis
“You might have one team where eight guys play naked and another team where nobody does, but that sounds about right. Steroids are popular, but quite a lot more guys take [amphetamines] than steroids. I’m talking about illegal stuff. Speed.. ritalin, which is legal only with a doctor’s prescription.. Sometimes guys don’t even know what they’re taking. One guy will take some pills out of his locker and tell somebody else, ‘Here, take one of these. You’ll feel better.’ And the other guy will take it and not even know what it is”
Source: Sports Illustrated, Jan. 18, 2005
“There are two things that might stop a person from using steroids: a moral obligation — they’re illegal — and a fear of the medical complications. I was 100 percent against the use of steroids. But I must tell you, I would not fear the medical side of it. I fully agree you can take them safely.”
Source: Sports Illustrated Magazine, Jun. 3, 2002
“When I was in New York, a player there told me that hGH was the next big thing, that that’s the road the game’s heading down next. Now you see guys whose facial features, jawbones and cheekbones change after they’re 30. Do they think that happens naturally? You go, ‘What happened to that guy?’ Then you’ll hear him say he worked out over the winter and put on 15 pounds of muscle. I’m sorry, working out is not going to change your facial features.”
Source: Sports Illustrated Magazine, Jun. 3, 2002
Normar Garciaparra
“Who would do the testing? Will results be kept private? Or will they be leaked to the media? What about false positives? You think it’s going to be confidential? I laugh at that.”
Source: ESPN, Jul. 8, 2002
Jason Giambi
“Steroids don’t help you hit a baseball.”
Source: USA Today, Jul. 7, 2002
”Guys that work their butts off and they’re hitting home runs, now it’s because they’re on steroids. Even injuries, a guy gets hurt, ‘Oh, he’s on steroids.’ It’s a little sickening to me.”
Source: ESPN, Jul. 8, 2002
Tony Gwynn
“It’s like the big secret we’re not supposed to talk about.. I think we all have our suspicions who’s on the stuff, but unless someone comes out and admits to it, who’ll ever know for sure.”
Source: Los Angeles Times, June 1995
Rafael Palmeiro
“I have never used steroids. Period. I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never”
Source: Palmeiro @ Congressional Hearing, Mar. 17, 2005
“I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period.”
Source: Statement after being suspended, Aug. 1, 2005
Rickey Henderson
“The article said 50%. Well, I’m not one of them, so that’s 49% right there.”
Source: Baseball Prospectus Quotations, May 27 – June 2, 2002
Donald Hooton Father of Steroid Victim
“Players that are guilty of taking steroids are not only cheaters, you are cowards.. Show our kids that you’re man enough to face authority, tell the truth and face the consequences. Instead, you hide behind the skirts of your union, and with the help of management and your lawyers you’ve made every effort to resist facing the public today.”
Source: Hooton of Plano, Texas, father of a high school baseball player who committed suicide in 2003 after steroid use @ Congressional Hearing
David Justice
“Half the players? Come on, I look around the clubhouse, and I don’t see anybody with signs of steroid use. I don’t know of anyone who came to camp 20-30 pounds heavier.”
Source: USA Today, Jul. 7, 2002
Tom Lantos
“I increasingly feel a theater of the absurd unfolding here.”
Source: Lantos, D-Calif @ Congressional Hearing, Mar. 17, 2005
Tony La Russa
“If you want privacy go play semi-pro ball. drug use (including steroids) hurts baseball. Why should we pay millions of dollars to these guys and have they go on the disabled list?”
Source: USA Today, Jul. 7, 2002
Mark McGwire
“Everybody I know in the game of baseball uses the same stuff I use.”
Source: Associated Press, Regarding Androstenedione, Aug. 22, 1998
“I’m not here to talk about the past.”
Source: McGwire @ Congressional Hearing, Mar. 17, 2005
“Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem… My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family and myself. I intend to follow their advice.”
Source: McGwire @ Congressional Hearing, Mar. 17, 2005
Robert Millman MLB Chief Medical Adviser
“There is no evidence andro does anything bad or good.”
Source: Washington Post, Dec. 1998
Tim Montgomery Olympic Track Star
“Any sport there is, Mr. Conte got someone in it.. he would brag on Barry Bonds, he would brag on (2003 Mr. Olympia) Ronnie Coleman.”
Source: Montgomery’s Grand Jury Testimony Dec. 3, 2003
Prosecutor: “Did (Conte) say he gave any steroids, Winstrol or any of the other ones to Mr. Bonds?”
Montgomery: “Yes, he did.. Winstrol”
Source: Montgomery’s Grand Jury Testimony Dec. 3, 2003
David Segui
“The doctor put me on human growth hormone, monitored my levels,
monitored blood level, blood work periodically, regularly.. I was under doctor’s prescription, under doctor’s supervision.”
Source: ESPN Interview Transcript June 18, 2006
Bud Selig The Comissioner
“I think what Mark McGwire has accomplished is so remarkable, and he has handled it all so beautifully, we want to do everything we can to enjoy a great moment in baseball history.”
Source: Washington Post, Aug. 24, 1998
“So that there is no misunderstanding from my perspective, I will suspend any player who tests positive for an illegal steroid. There will be no exceptions. The (players) union is aware of that and they accept it.”
Source: Selig @ Congressional Hearing, Mar. 17, 2005
Gary Sheffield
“Nothing was between me and Greg. Barry pretty much controlled everything.. It was basically Barry (saying), ‘Trust me. Do what I do.'”
Source: Sheffield’s Grand Jury Testimony, Dec. 4, 2003
Randy Smith GM of the San Diego Padres
“We all know there’s steroid use, and it’s definitely become more prevalent.. I think 10% to 20%. No one has any hardcore proof, but there’s lot of guys you suspect.”
Source: Los Angeles Times, June 1995
Sammy Sosa
“I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs. I have never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything. I have not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic. I have been tested as recently as 2004 and I am clean.”
Source: Sosa @ Congressional Hearing: As read by his lawyer, Mar. 17, 2005
Gary Wadler Author, Advisor
“Growth hormone made its name because it was a way of trying to accomplish the same things one tried to accomplish by taking steroids, except that you cannot find growth hormone using regular methodology in the urine. So it was a way of beating the steroid test.”
Source: National Public Radio, Aug. 26, 1999
Turk Wendell
“If my personal trainer, me, Turk Wendell, got indicted for that, there’s no one in the world who wouldn’t think that I wasn’t taking steroids. What, because he’s Barry Bonds, no one’s going to say that? I mean, obviously he did it. (His trainer) admitted to giving steroids to baseball players. He just doesn’t want to say his name. You don’t have to. It’s clear just seeing his body.”
Source: Denver Post, Feb. 23, 2004
George Will Journalist
“(Barry) Bonds’ records must remain part of baseball’s history. His hits happened. Erase them and there will be discrepancies in baseball’s bookkeeping about the records of the pitchers who gave them up. George Orwell said that in totalitarian societies, yesterday’s weather could be changed by decree. Baseball, indeed America, is not like that. Besides, the people who care about the record book — serious fans — will know how to read it. That may be Bonds’ biggest worry.”
Source: Townhall.com, May 12, 2006
Charles Yesalis Author, Epidemiologist
“The most rigorous drug testing systems have loopholes through which I could drive every M1 Abrams tank we own, and not scrape the body armor.”
Source: Yesalis @ Congressional Hearing, Mar. 10, 2005