THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Bronson Arroyo speaks

An honest ballplayer who says it like it is:

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.
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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.
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[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.]
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People can think what they want of me. I don’t give a f—-.
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[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.]
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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.
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If Mark McGwire is hitting 60 homers, the only thing that matters is his performance. 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.
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I think most of us believed we’d be way over 5%. You knew for a fact there were a lot more guys taking the stuff five years prior to that.
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I think I could have had the same career without andro. The best years of my career have been after they enacted the steroids policy.
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That stuff’s like bubblegum compared to steroids. 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.
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You think this country really cares about what ballplayers put in their bodies? 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.
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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.
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I don’t regret a thing. Neither should anyone else.

Wow.  I hung on every single word.  Arroyo says the things most people are afraid to admit: the truth.

(Glove-slap: Repoz)