Bronson Arroyo!
Reds' Arroyo is gambling on supplements despite the risk
By Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY
ST. LOUIS - Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo reaches into his locker, pulls down a clear cellophane bag and slowly opens it.
He shakes out the contents like a kid on Halloween night. There are different-colored pills, powders, liquids, proteins, caffeine concentrates and ginseng, products such as creatine, Triflex and xelR8 found at local vitamin stores. Most of the products have not been approved by Major League Baseball for use by players, Arroyo says. Some of the items have the potential to trigger a positive test under baseball's performance-enhancing drug policy. Arroyo takes them anyway.
"I have a lot of guys in (the locker room) who think I'm out of (my) mind because I'm taking a lot of things not on the (MLB-approved) list," Arroyo says. "I take 10 to 12 different things a day, and on the days I pitch, there's four more things. There's a caffeine drink I take from a company that (former teammate) Curt Schilling introduced me to in '05. I take some Korean ginseng and a few other proteins out there that are not certified. But I haven't failed any tests, so I figured I'm good."
Arroyo, 32, is a byproduct of baseball's steroid era, part of the generation of young players who were working their way through the minor leagues in the late 1990s - just as power hitters Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and many others were bulking up, setting records and scoring big contracts.
Arroyo says he took it all in and, although he never knowingly took steroids, he felt the lure to take the same performance-enhancing drugs MLB eventually would ban.
Now, Arroyo is the first player to flout aspects of baseball's drug policy and talk candidly about seeking an edge on the field with the supplements and vitamins he takes off of it. He ignores the dangers that come with popping pills and swallowing drinks bought over the counter - even as studies show they can contain banned substances that, if they turn up in a drug test, could lead to a suspension that would cost him millions of dollars.
"I do what I want to do and say what I want to say," says Arroyo, who will make $9.5 million this season as part of a contract scheduled to pay him more than $38 million from 2006 to 2011. "But society has made this such a tainted thing. The media has made it where people look at it in such a super-negative light. I've always been honest. I'm not going to stop now."
Arroyo, 6-4 and 194 pounds, says he had trouble gaining weight and strength early in his career.
That changed in 1998 when he discovered androstenedione, a steroid precursor that gained national prominence as McGwire, an admitted user, blasted his way to the single-season record of 70 home runs. Arroyo says he took "andro" until it was banned in 2004.
"Man, I didn't think twice about it," says Arroyo, who started taking supplements at age 5, according to his father, Gus.
"I took androstenedione the same way I took my multivitamins. I didn't really know if this was a genius move by Mark McGwire to cover up the real s-- he was taking, but it made me feel unbelievable. I felt like a monster."
'It's an ethical issue'
The 2009 season has been defined as much by the offensive exploits of players such as Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer as it has the revelations linking Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz to banned substances.
After a February report in Sports Illustrated linked Rodriguez to steroids, the New York Yankees third baseman admitted he had taken steroids from 2001 to 2003. In May, Ramirez was suspended for 50 games from the Los Angeles Dodgers for violating MLB's drug policy.
And The New York Times reported last month that the names of Ramirez and Ortiz, teammates with the Boston Red Sox from 2003 to 2008, appear on a list of players who allegedly tested positive for a banned substance during anonymous survey testing in 2003.
That anonymity was threatened in 2004 when the government seized the list from the companies that did the testing as part of a steroid probe into Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in San Francisco. The list now is under a court seal.
Arroyo says he suspects his name is on the list for taking andro contaminated with steroids.
He says that to gain an edge he also took amphetamines for nearly nine years from 1998 to 2006 and that, as a minor leaguer in 1999, he was stopped by customs agents in Canada while trying to cross the border with such pills.
"When you're trying to establish yourself and you've got people saying, 'Try this, it will help you get stronger,' " Arroyo says, "I'm trying (it). There was nothing to be caught about because nobody was testing."
Even today, with MLB having toughened its drug policy three times since it was put in place in 2004, Arroyo acknowledges he is pushing the limits by taking supplements not certified as being legal and free of contaminants.
"It's an interesting mind-set," says Gary Wadler, an internist and member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). "It's an ethical issue as much as anything. It's supposed to be about a level playing field, not a trick of getting as close to the edge as possible without falling over."
Inside each major league clubhouse, there is a list posted on the wall of approved and banned substances. Baseball has established a phone hotline for players and trainers to get information on products. And the players union recently told players about four new supplements that might trigger positive drug tests.
"The union and the commissioner's office has a certification program for supplements," says Michael Weiner, general counsel of the union. "We tell players that the best way to be safe is to use supplements that have been certified as clean. We've been pretty clear with our advice."
Says MLB senior vice president Rich Levin: "If you do take supplements not on our list, you do so at your own risk. You're responsible for what you put in your body."
Arroyo says he has heard it and doesn't care. He has an 81-81 career record, was a 2006 All-Star, has made the most starts of any pitcher in baseball since 2006 and has never gone on the disabled list.
"People can think what they want of me," he says. "I don't give a f--."
'Performance' above all
Arroyo was in the Red Sox organization from 2003 to 2005 and had a 10-9 record in 2004, when Boston won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. He can't understand the furor surrounding former teammates Ramirez and Ortiz, or any other star who has been linked to performance-enhancers.
He says fans and the news media are more concerned with cherished records falling than they are with whether steroids or supplements will have an adverse effect on a player's health.
"I can see where guys like Hank Aaron and some of the old-timers have a beef with it," Arroyo says. "But as far as looking at Manny Ramirez like he's (serial killer) Ted Bundy, you're out of your mind. At the end of the day, you think anybody really (cares) whether Manny Ramirez's kidneys fail and he dies at 50?
"You were happy if the Red Sox won 95 games. You'd go home, have a cookout with your family. No big deal."
Arroyo says he doesn't know whether Ortiz and Ramirez used steroids. He likes that Ramirez has deflected virtually all questions after MLB suspended him for taking HCG, a female fertility drug popular with steroid users to mitigate the side effects at the end of a drug cycle.
He says he would like to believe Ortiz but says "it's a flip of the coin" whether Ortiz was telling the truth last weekend when the slugger said supplements or vitamins caused his name to appear on the 2003 list.
"I have no idea what David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez took," Arroyo says. "Ballplayers aren't nearly as tight as people think they are. … I've never had a guy I played with say, 'Dude, check out what I'm taking.'
"Now, if you get it over the counter, that's different."
And if Ramirez or Ortiz or any other player was taking banned substances, Arroyo says the notion that teams have ever been concerned with anything other than wins, losses and money is absurd. The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants sold thousands of seats and won games with McGwire and Bonds, respectively.
"If Mark McGwire is hitting 60 homers, the only thing that matters is his performance," Arroyo says. "People don't own teams to lose money. If you ask any owner whether they would rather make $20 million and come in last place or lose $20 million and win a World Series, there's only one guy who honestly would take that championship: George Steinbrenner (of the Yankees). Nobody else."
Praise for andro
Arroyo's attitude exemplifies that of many major leaguers: seek anything that gives an edge - without crossing the line.
Arroyo says he never cared whether the andro or another supplement was contaminated with steroids. He took amphetamines without thinking twice, but until 2006 they were not banned.
"Even what we know now about steroids, and all of the dangers," Philadelphia Phillies reliever Scott Eyre says, "if they didn't have testing, I think there'd be more guys doing it now than even did it back then."
Arroyo says he submitted to the anonymous drug test in 2003 but didn't take it seriously, figuring his identity was safe.
The collective bargaining agreement between players and owners stipulated that if more than 5% of the tests were positive, a drug policy with penalties would be put in place the next year.
He says he wasn't surprised when MLB announced after that season that 5% to 7% of players tested positive.
"I think most of us believed we'd be way over 5%," Arroyo says. "You knew for a fact there were a lot more guys taking the stuff five years prior to that."
Arroyo says he stopped taking andro in 2004, when baseball banned it. He has gone on to win at least 10 games in five of six seasons.
"I think I could have had the same career without andro," Arroyo says. "The best years of my career have been after they enacted the steroids policy."
Arroyo says he began taking androstenedione when he was in the Arizona Fall League in 1998, after McGwire's record season. Arroyo couldn't believe the effect. His fastball didn't increase in velocity, he says, but he felt strong the entire game. He added muscle and strength.
Arroyo swore by the supplement, even when a teammate warned him of possible liver damage. He says he was tempted to take steroids as he struggled to become a full-time major leaguer from 2000 to 2002 but never did.
"We brought Bronson up on supplements, but it was more about health," says his father, Gus. "I know everybody is human and get caught up with ego, but I don't think Bronson would ever do steroids."
Arroyo was introduced to amphetamines in 1998 by teammates in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, he says, adding he'd still be taking them if they weren't banned in baseball.
"That stuff's like bubblegum compared to steroids," he says. "You're playing (night games) in L.A., you fly across the country, and you're pitching a day game at Wrigley (Field in Chicago). You telling me you don't want something to wake you up? You have half this country, maybe more, that can't function without a cup of coffee.
"You don't want me to get Albert Pujols out? Give me a break. If you give me (the amphetamine) Adderall, and I strike out Pujols in the seventh inning with the bases loaded, there's a pretty good chance I'm going to want to take that Adderall the next time."
No regrets
If not for the home run record falling, first with McGwire and then with Bonds hitting 73 home runs in 2001, Arroyo says there would be no drug testing.
"It might be dangerous," he says, "but so is drinking and driving. And how many of us do it at least once a year? Pretty much everybody."
It's also time, Arroyo says, to stop blaming baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, players union executive director Don Fehr or other officials.
"You think this country really cares about what ballplayers put in their bodies?" Arroyo asks. "If we really care, why are we pumping Coca-Cola in every kid's mouth, and McDonald's, and Burger King and KFC? That (stuff) is killing people.
"If you want to say the union continued to knowingly barter in bad faith for us to have steroids and not have a policy, hey, they're not at fault for anything. The union is there to protect our best interest.
"Whether you think it's right or wrong, the union is there to make sure we look good in the media, make as much money as we possibly can and continue our career as long as we possibly can."
Maybe there are players who are ashamed of playing in the steroid era, Arroyo says, but he is proud. He made it. He survived.
"I don't regret a thing," Arroyo says. "Neither should anyone else."
By Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY
ST. LOUIS - Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo reaches into his locker, pulls down a clear cellophane bag and slowly opens it.
He shakes out the contents like a kid on Halloween night. There are different-colored pills, powders, liquids, proteins, caffeine concentrates and ginseng, products such as creatine, Triflex and xelR8 found at local vitamin stores. Most of the products have not been approved by Major League Baseball for use by players, Arroyo says. Some of the items have the potential to trigger a positive test under baseball's performance-enhancing drug policy. Arroyo takes them anyway.
"I have a lot of guys in (the locker room) who think I'm out of (my) mind because I'm taking a lot of things not on the (MLB-approved) list," Arroyo says. "I take 10 to 12 different things a day, and on the days I pitch, there's four more things. There's a caffeine drink I take from a company that (former teammate) Curt Schilling introduced me to in '05. I take some Korean ginseng and a few other proteins out there that are not certified. But I haven't failed any tests, so I figured I'm good."
Arroyo, 32, is a byproduct of baseball's steroid era, part of the generation of young players who were working their way through the minor leagues in the late 1990s - just as power hitters Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and many others were bulking up, setting records and scoring big contracts.
Arroyo says he took it all in and, although he never knowingly took steroids, he felt the lure to take the same performance-enhancing drugs MLB eventually would ban.
Now, Arroyo is the first player to flout aspects of baseball's drug policy and talk candidly about seeking an edge on the field with the supplements and vitamins he takes off of it. He ignores the dangers that come with popping pills and swallowing drinks bought over the counter - even as studies show they can contain banned substances that, if they turn up in a drug test, could lead to a suspension that would cost him millions of dollars.
"I do what I want to do and say what I want to say," says Arroyo, who will make $9.5 million this season as part of a contract scheduled to pay him more than $38 million from 2006 to 2011. "But society has made this such a tainted thing. The media has made it where people look at it in such a super-negative light. I've always been honest. I'm not going to stop now."
Arroyo, 6-4 and 194 pounds, says he had trouble gaining weight and strength early in his career.
That changed in 1998 when he discovered androstenedione, a steroid precursor that gained national prominence as McGwire, an admitted user, blasted his way to the single-season record of 70 home runs. Arroyo says he took "andro" until it was banned in 2004.
"Man, I didn't think twice about it," says Arroyo, who started taking supplements at age 5, according to his father, Gus.
"I took androstenedione the same way I took my multivitamins. I didn't really know if this was a genius move by Mark McGwire to cover up the real s-- he was taking, but it made me feel unbelievable. I felt like a monster."
'It's an ethical issue'
The 2009 season has been defined as much by the offensive exploits of players such as Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer as it has the revelations linking Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz to banned substances.
After a February report in Sports Illustrated linked Rodriguez to steroids, the New York Yankees third baseman admitted he had taken steroids from 2001 to 2003. In May, Ramirez was suspended for 50 games from the Los Angeles Dodgers for violating MLB's drug policy.
And The New York Times reported last month that the names of Ramirez and Ortiz, teammates with the Boston Red Sox from 2003 to 2008, appear on a list of players who allegedly tested positive for a banned substance during anonymous survey testing in 2003.
That anonymity was threatened in 2004 when the government seized the list from the companies that did the testing as part of a steroid probe into Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in San Francisco. The list now is under a court seal.
Arroyo says he suspects his name is on the list for taking andro contaminated with steroids.
He says that to gain an edge he also took amphetamines for nearly nine years from 1998 to 2006 and that, as a minor leaguer in 1999, he was stopped by customs agents in Canada while trying to cross the border with such pills.
"When you're trying to establish yourself and you've got people saying, 'Try this, it will help you get stronger,' " Arroyo says, "I'm trying (it). There was nothing to be caught about because nobody was testing."
Even today, with MLB having toughened its drug policy three times since it was put in place in 2004, Arroyo acknowledges he is pushing the limits by taking supplements not certified as being legal and free of contaminants.
"It's an interesting mind-set," says Gary Wadler, an internist and member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). "It's an ethical issue as much as anything. It's supposed to be about a level playing field, not a trick of getting as close to the edge as possible without falling over."
Inside each major league clubhouse, there is a list posted on the wall of approved and banned substances. Baseball has established a phone hotline for players and trainers to get information on products. And the players union recently told players about four new supplements that might trigger positive drug tests.
"The union and the commissioner's office has a certification program for supplements," says Michael Weiner, general counsel of the union. "We tell players that the best way to be safe is to use supplements that have been certified as clean. We've been pretty clear with our advice."
Says MLB senior vice president Rich Levin: "If you do take supplements not on our list, you do so at your own risk. You're responsible for what you put in your body."
Arroyo says he has heard it and doesn't care. He has an 81-81 career record, was a 2006 All-Star, has made the most starts of any pitcher in baseball since 2006 and has never gone on the disabled list.
"People can think what they want of me," he says. "I don't give a f--."
'Performance' above all
Arroyo was in the Red Sox organization from 2003 to 2005 and had a 10-9 record in 2004, when Boston won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. He can't understand the furor surrounding former teammates Ramirez and Ortiz, or any other star who has been linked to performance-enhancers.
He says fans and the news media are more concerned with cherished records falling than they are with whether steroids or supplements will have an adverse effect on a player's health.
"I can see where guys like Hank Aaron and some of the old-timers have a beef with it," Arroyo says. "But as far as looking at Manny Ramirez like he's (serial killer) Ted Bundy, you're out of your mind. At the end of the day, you think anybody really (cares) whether Manny Ramirez's kidneys fail and he dies at 50?
"You were happy if the Red Sox won 95 games. You'd go home, have a cookout with your family. No big deal."
Arroyo says he doesn't know whether Ortiz and Ramirez used steroids. He likes that Ramirez has deflected virtually all questions after MLB suspended him for taking HCG, a female fertility drug popular with steroid users to mitigate the side effects at the end of a drug cycle.
He says he would like to believe Ortiz but says "it's a flip of the coin" whether Ortiz was telling the truth last weekend when the slugger said supplements or vitamins caused his name to appear on the 2003 list.
"I have no idea what David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez took," Arroyo says. "Ballplayers aren't nearly as tight as people think they are. … I've never had a guy I played with say, 'Dude, check out what I'm taking.'
"Now, if you get it over the counter, that's different."
And if Ramirez or Ortiz or any other player was taking banned substances, Arroyo says the notion that teams have ever been concerned with anything other than wins, losses and money is absurd. The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants sold thousands of seats and won games with McGwire and Bonds, respectively.
"If Mark McGwire is hitting 60 homers, the only thing that matters is his performance," Arroyo says. "People don't own teams to lose money. If you ask any owner whether they would rather make $20 million and come in last place or lose $20 million and win a World Series, there's only one guy who honestly would take that championship: George Steinbrenner (of the Yankees). Nobody else."
Praise for andro
Arroyo's attitude exemplifies that of many major leaguers: seek anything that gives an edge - without crossing the line.
Arroyo says he never cared whether the andro or another supplement was contaminated with steroids. He took amphetamines without thinking twice, but until 2006 they were not banned.
"Even what we know now about steroids, and all of the dangers," Philadelphia Phillies reliever Scott Eyre says, "if they didn't have testing, I think there'd be more guys doing it now than even did it back then."
Arroyo says he submitted to the anonymous drug test in 2003 but didn't take it seriously, figuring his identity was safe.
The collective bargaining agreement between players and owners stipulated that if more than 5% of the tests were positive, a drug policy with penalties would be put in place the next year.
He says he wasn't surprised when MLB announced after that season that 5% to 7% of players tested positive.
"I think most of us believed we'd be way over 5%," Arroyo says. "You knew for a fact there were a lot more guys taking the stuff five years prior to that."
Arroyo says he stopped taking andro in 2004, when baseball banned it. He has gone on to win at least 10 games in five of six seasons.
"I think I could have had the same career without andro," Arroyo says. "The best years of my career have been after they enacted the steroids policy."
Arroyo says he began taking androstenedione when he was in the Arizona Fall League in 1998, after McGwire's record season. Arroyo couldn't believe the effect. His fastball didn't increase in velocity, he says, but he felt strong the entire game. He added muscle and strength.
Arroyo swore by the supplement, even when a teammate warned him of possible liver damage. He says he was tempted to take steroids as he struggled to become a full-time major leaguer from 2000 to 2002 but never did.
"We brought Bronson up on supplements, but it was more about health," says his father, Gus. "I know everybody is human and get caught up with ego, but I don't think Bronson would ever do steroids."
Arroyo was introduced to amphetamines in 1998 by teammates in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, he says, adding he'd still be taking them if they weren't banned in baseball.
"That stuff's like bubblegum compared to steroids," he says. "You're playing (night games) in L.A., you fly across the country, and you're pitching a day game at Wrigley (Field in Chicago). You telling me you don't want something to wake you up? You have half this country, maybe more, that can't function without a cup of coffee.
"You don't want me to get Albert Pujols out? Give me a break. If you give me (the amphetamine) Adderall, and I strike out Pujols in the seventh inning with the bases loaded, there's a pretty good chance I'm going to want to take that Adderall the next time."
No regrets
If not for the home run record falling, first with McGwire and then with Bonds hitting 73 home runs in 2001, Arroyo says there would be no drug testing.
"It might be dangerous," he says, "but so is drinking and driving. And how many of us do it at least once a year? Pretty much everybody."
It's also time, Arroyo says, to stop blaming baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, players union executive director Don Fehr or other officials.
"You think this country really cares about what ballplayers put in their bodies?" Arroyo asks. "If we really care, why are we pumping Coca-Cola in every kid's mouth, and McDonald's, and Burger King and KFC? That (stuff) is killing people.
"If you want to say the union continued to knowingly barter in bad faith for us to have steroids and not have a policy, hey, they're not at fault for anything. The union is there to protect our best interest.
"Whether you think it's right or wrong, the union is there to make sure we look good in the media, make as much money as we possibly can and continue our career as long as we possibly can."
Maybe there are players who are ashamed of playing in the steroid era, Arroyo says, but he is proud. He made it. He survived.
"I don't regret a thing," Arroyo says. "Neither should anyone else."