Former Boston Red Sox player and current analyst and reporter for Comcast SportsNet New England, Lou Merloni, claimed last week that Sox management taught players how to use steroids during his tenure with the team.
"I'm in spring training, and I got an 8:30-9:00 meeting in the morning," said Merloni, 38, a native of Framingham, Massachusetts and graduate of Providence College who played five seasons on Yawkey Way as an infielder from 1998-2003.
"And I walk into that office, and this happened while I was with the Boston Red Sox before this last regime, I'm sitting in the meeting. There's a doctor up there and he's talking about steroids, and everyone was like 'Here we go, we're gonna sit here and get the whole thing—they're bad for you.' No. He spins it and says 'You know what, if you take steroids and sit on the couch all winter long, you can actually get stronger than someone who works out clean, if you're going to take steroids, one cycle won't hurt you, abusing steroids it will.'”
WEEI-AM’s “Big Show” co-host continued, “He sat there for one hour and told us how to properly use steroids while I'm with the Boston Red Sox, sitting there with the rest of the organization, and after this I said 'What the heck was that?' And everybody on the team was like 'What was that?' And the response we got was 'Well, we know guys are taking it, so we want to make sure they're taking it the right way'... Where did that come from? That didn't come from the Players Association."
“Sweet Lou’s” startling comments were made two days after long time Red Sox superstar Manny Ramirez was suspended 50 games for violating Major League Baseball’s Performance Enhancing Drugs policy.
Merloni’s candid account is yet another emphatic reminder that the Director of the Boston Red Sox, George Mitchell, conducted an unethical and biased investigation into the usage of steroids in professional baseball.
The one time United States Senator and Waylon Smithers clone, conveniently did not include one single player of note on the team he is employed by when he released the findings of his corrupt, 20-month investigation known as the “Mitchell Report” in December 2007.
Mitchell’s dishonorable examination concentrated primarily on disclosures made by former New York Yankees strength coach, Brian McNamee, and New York Mets bat boy and clubhouse worker of yesteryear, Kirk Radomski.
"You had two guys from New York doing all the talking in the Mitchell report,” observed Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Joe Torre. “That's why you have information on New York players."
It was irresponsible and negligent for Mitchell to focus the bulk of his energy and resources on the words of two informants when the league has positive test results that document that drug use was rampant in baseball and was not just a Big Apple epidemic.
Although Mitchell is clearly a conflicted snake, much of the onus must be placed on the Major League Baseball suits that put him in charge of a major drug investigation when it is evident that his allegiance to the Red Sox created a conflict of interest.
Performance enhancing drugs were not a problem that strictly ravaged the New York and Texas baseball communities.
The steroids epidemic was widespread, from San Diego to New England, for more than twenty years in the sport of baseball and it is a shame that one unqualified man had the audacity to make the public think otherwise for any length of time whatsoever.
http://www.newyorkyankeesnews.com/colin815/weblog/7283/if-a-rod-tipped-pitches-he-should.html
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