Paxton Crawford says majority of his Red Sox teammates were on steroids

[savafan]

Saw a little bit on ESPN News about this. Paxton admitted to using steroids himself, saying that it helped his arm feel stronger after he would pitch. He also said that the majority of his Red Sox teammates in 2001 and 2002 were using steroids. Story to be in upcoming issue of ESPN the Magazine, but I see nothing on ESPN's website about this.

[RedLegSuperStar]

Wasn't Paxton a Red at one point?

[dabvu2498]

Wasn't Paxton a Red at one point?
Yes, in 2004, but did not make it up with the big club.

[Spitball]

I know Paxton but haven't seen him in a few years. I remember when he was in high school, he left parents and friends behind to live with relatives in Arizona in order to get into a particular baseball program. So, early in life, he was willing to sacrifice quite a bit in the pursuit of his dream. I imagine using steroids, to Paxton and all those who have shared that dream, seemed like a natural step towards a goal. I fear we are going to find out that thousands of young men, driven by the dream to play major league baseball, have used or are using illegal methods to enhance their abilities.

I'm afraid we are getting a look at the tip of an ugly,ugly iceberg that might seriously damage baseball.

[cumberlandreds]

I think you are going to see quite a few of these borderline MLB players that used steriods come forward with confessions. I think more than one will name names of others that took them and things will get real ugly. Spitball is correct in saying this is just the tip of a very ugly iceberg.

[RFS62]

This is why I've always felt it is a massive failure of the Players Union to treat testing as a privacy issue. Their first duty should be to protect their membership.

It's the marginal players who think they have to juice to keep up that is the real tragedy in this whole sorry affair.

[RedsFan75]

So more and more we're starting to see that Jose Canseco was right in his book.



NEVER thought I'd say those words.

[smith288]

Did Canseco write his book to clean up baseball or did he write his book for the money/fame and to get back at old enemies? Both?

Whatever was his intentions, the end effect will hopefully clean up the game and send the cheats packing.

[dabvu2498]

Did Canseco write his book to clean up baseball or did he write his book for the money/fame and to get back at old enemies? Both?

That's the easiest one yet... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Johnny Footstool]

Did Canseco write his book to clean up baseball or did he write his book for the money/fame and to get back at old enemies? Both?

Whatever was his intentions, the end effect will hopefully clean up the game and send the cheats packing.

I thought he wrote it to secure a spot in "The Surreal Life" cast. The means to an end.

[RedFanAlways1966]

I am sure ESPN will find evidence that proves the beloved Red Sox did nothing wrong. Perhaps a TV program that shows the true Red Sox good-guy image... "Red Sox on Red Sox". It is the Red Sox afterall.

[RedsBaron]

This is why I've always felt it is a massive failure of the Players Union to treat testing as a privacy issue. Their first duty should be to protect their membership.

It's the marginal players who think they have to juice to keep up that is the real tragedy in this whole sorry affair.
I've long felt the same way.

[blumj]

Paxton Crawford wasn't on the '02 Red Sox. I suppose he might have still been with them in spring training or something. The Red Sox were an embarrassment in '01 in a lot of ways, so there's nothing all that surprising to me about this, really.

[savafan]

Paxton Crawford wasn't on the '02 Red Sox. I suppose he might have still been with them in spring training or something. The Red Sox were an embarrassment in '01 in a lot of ways, so there's nothing all that surprising to me about this, really.

You're right, he was there in 2000 and 2001

[savafan]

Leyritz has said that Yankee teammates were using in 2000, and now we know that Red Sox were using in 2001. A quick check of the rosters shows David Cone to have been a member of both teams. I had heard his name rumored in this a couple years ago, but nothing ever proven. He did have issues with anger (potential roid rage?) didn't he?

[KronoRed]

This is why I've always felt it is a massive failure of the Players Union to treat testing as a privacy issue. Their first duty should be to protect their membership.

It's the marginal players who think they have to juice to keep up that is the real tragedy in this whole sorry affair.
The union is too locked into "Screw the owners anyway we can" that if the owners suggested to the players that the sky was blue the players would argue it was not.

[TeamBoone]

I can't believe that this problem exists only in baseball. When are other sports going to come forward? Or are they too afraid to investigate for fear of the black eye that will surely come with exposure?

Other sports need to come clean as well.

[Astrobuddy]

The NFL has LONG had a very serious stance against steriods. It is NO secret that NFL players used steriods. The Steeler Super Bowl teams were full of roid using players. They are all dying very young as well.

[TeamBoone]

The NFL has LONG had a very serious stance against steriods. It is NO secret that NFL players used steriods. The Steeler Super Bowl teams were full of roid using players. They are all dying very young as well.

And I suppose they believe it no longer exists? They can't possibly.

So, they are either ignoring it or have an effective way of keeping tabs on its possible misuse in this day and age. If so, how do they do it? Perhaps they would share with the powers that be of baseball.

However, I'm more inclined to think they ignore it... yet, they're not in the news every day. Why is that?

[Astrobuddy]

They have a very very strict testing policy and have for a long time. They arent ignoring it. The NFL probably has the best drug policy in professional sports. The NFL tests, tests and tests some more. They random test every week of the season and EVERY player is tested during the season. It is very harsh for a postive steriod test. Automatic suspensions. Its because the players want it that way.

MLB just has a very very strong Union. It isnt MLB, its the damn players. The MLB players Union would never allow a testing policy like that.

[remdog]

The union is too locked into "Screw the owners anyway we can" that if the owners suggested to the players that the sky was blue the players would argue it was not.


By Astrobuddy: MLB just has a very very strong Union. It isnt MLB, its the damn players. The MLB players Union would never allow a testing policy like that.

I agree with that viewpoint. And it's a shame really. The union should be concerned about the well-being of their members but instead they fight old battles.

Rem

[Astrobuddy]

It will possibly destroy the game.

[TeamBoone]

I agree with that viewpoint. And it's a shame really. The union should be concerned about the well-being of their members but instead they fight old battles.

Just curious... who is "they" as it relates to the players' union? Is it the player representatives or are there unbiased non-player stewards or leaders?

If it's player representatives, could they be some of the guility parties? And is the "dead set against it" attitude that of alleged guility players rather than the players down in the ranks who are being overruled by "they"?

With the mess this has become, I can not see how any innocent player, in good conscious, could be against it.

[puca]

The NFL has LONG had a very serious stance against steriods. It is NO secret that NFL players used steriods. The Steeler Super Bowl teams were full of roid using players. They are all dying very young as well.

The NFL doesn't test for HGH, and while they do test for steriods who knows how effective or current those tests are. If you think steriods/HGH abuse is not prevalent in the NFL then you are kidding yourself.

[puca]

Even if you get rid of steriods and HGH at the professional level, the cat is proverbially out of the bag. High school students are now more aware than ever that steriods and HGH can ibe used to improve their atheletic performance and perhaps help them to get a big professional contract, a scholarship or simply the adolation of their classmates.

If you think young adults believe they are invincible, try reasoning with a teenager.

[remdog]

Just curious... who is "they" as it relates to the players' union? Is it the player representatives or are there unbiased non-player stewards or leaders?

If it's player representatives, could they be some of the guility parties? And is the "dead set against it" attitude that of alleged guility players rather than the players down in the ranks who are being overruled by "they"?

With the mess this has become, I can not see how any innocent player, in good conscious, could be against it.

I was referring primarily to the union management such as Donald Fehr and his predecessors. I think (or I at least hope) that most of the players just followed along with their outline of how things should operate. Now that this has become (possibly) the major issue in baseball I'm hopeful that the players will start dictating to Fehr that they want it cleaned up and that the union and the owners have to work together on this---and it has to happpen NOW!

Rem

[RedFanAlways1966]

The NFL doesn't test for HGH, and while they do test for steriods who knows how effective or current those tests are. If you think steriods/HGH abuse is not prevalent in the NFL then you are kidding yourself.

I have a good friend who is a friend of a former NFL QB (played more than 10 yrs in the NFL). Don't know about steroids, but from my "source"...

The drug testing is a sham. Players are told by team officials a minimum of 3 months before it happens that they are going to get tested by the NFL. Only idiots who do not clean themselves up before their known date get busted.

This former QB liked Mary Jane. He did it while in college at a major D-I program and did it while an NFL'er (and supposedly still does it). Never once got caught.

Take it for what it is worth, but not hard to believe. Look at the number of NFL'ers caught each season (not many)... think there are only that many doing steroids or other drugs? I don't.

[Astrobuddy]

Redfan.... my understanding is that the 1st test of the season is in fact scheduled and the players know it is coming, but, they random test every week of the season.

It may not catch all violations, but it is far and above better than what baseball has.

The reason the NFL doesnt test for HGH isnt because they dont want too but it is impossible. HGH is natural and everyone would test positive.

[Chip R]

And I suppose they believe it no longer exists? They can't possibly.

So, they are either ignoring it or have an effective way of keeping tabs on its possible misuse in this day and age. If so, how do they do it? Perhaps they would share with the powers that be of baseball.

However, I'm more inclined to think they ignore it... yet, they're not in the news every day. Why is that?

NFL players test positive for steroids more often than MLB players do. But no one cares when they do.

[puca]

The difference is that the NFL and their player's union has played lip service to steriods and it didn't take the threat of congress to get seemingly meaningful testing/punishment in place. Between Bud sticking his head in the sand back when the rumblings started about widespread steriod use and by the players union fighting any and all testing, baseball has become the whipping buy on this issue. I definitely believe more football players take steriods and HGH than baseball players and that the NFL testing is a sham used to deflect criticism rather than actually clean up the sport, but they have long acknowledged there was a problem, which has saved them from this type of scrutiny.

[Cooper]

Hgh can be detected with a blood test ....it costs more and takes more time.

It's the owners game. They are the suppossed stewards of the game....heck, they own the game. I dint see or hear one owner push the union into more testing until they began to see it hurt there product post congressional hearings 2004. It's my opinion they dint even care -so long as it did not hurt their product. It's not all the unions fault --they do need to own their fair share....it's also the owners fault. They suspected a problem, but probalby believed it would never hurt their pocket books so they looked away. They are just as guilty.

[Hoosier Red]

Barry Bonds "ballooned" to his weight of 228,
Brett Favre is listed at 222.
I'm going to guess that more than a few people in the NFL with their muscular physiques and otherworldly weights are probably using something stronger than Flintstones vitamins.

[griffeyfreak4]

Hgh can be detected with a blood test ....it costs more and takes more time.
Yes this is true, but HGH testing will probably won't happen for a long time because there is NO WAY the player's union will allow the MLB to take blood and examine it. It gets waaaaaaaaayyyyy too personal and the MLB will have to find another way to test for HGH.

[Jpup]

I am of the opinion that steroid/HGH use in the NFL is nearly as bad as in professional wrestling.

[savafan]

By Chris Snow and Gordon Edes, Globe Staff | June 22, 2006

Paxton Crawford, reached by phone last night, offered no more than a minute to explain himself, despite the fact that in the ESPN The Magazine issue that hit newsstands yesterday he detailed his steroid use beginning in 1999 in minor league camp with the Red Sox and continuing in the majors with the team in 2000 and 2001.

``I thought it was a one-time story deal, bro," said Crawford, who at 28 is out of baseball and working on his family's farm in Arkansas. ``If any other reporter called, I was not interested."

The reporter mentioned that he'd covered the Sox for about a decade, including Crawford's time with the club, and didn't know for sure who'd used steroids.

``You didn't know?" Crawford asked, surprise in his voice.

No, the reporter said. How widespread was it? Were there a lot of players?

``Yup," he said.

Five, 10, 20, 50, how many?

``It was just everywhere," he said.

Did this begin in minor league camp, in big league camp?

``So, anyway," Crawford said, ``it's kind of a sore subject, bro. That's it."

And he hung up.

You may remember a 22-year-old version of Paxton Crawford, who in July 2000 with Triple A Pawtucket tossed a seven-inning no-hitter. The next night he fell out of bed in a hotel room in Ottawa and landed on a water glass (that's what he claimed, at least). The rumors that made the rounds suggest a different cause of the gash that cost him 2 pints of blood and a chance to be recalled by the Sox later that month. In 2002, at Pawtucket, he was reprimanded by the team for an incident that took place in the stadium parking lot while the game was in progress.

Crawford, who made 15 big league appearances, all with the Sox in 2000 and 2001, had his share of missteps as a pro baseball player. In ESPN The Magazine he documents yet another: steroid use. Until this, no big league player who has been suspended for steroids or who willfully acknowledged using steroids was a member of the Sox organization at the time he used.

Crawford, in a first-person story, told ESPN The Magazine's Amy Nelson, ``I always envied the guys with rubber arms. I was the type who was always in pain. During minor league spring training with the Red Sox in 1999, some of the other guys saw I was hurting. They told me that if I took this stuff, it would make the pain go away and cut my recovery time in half. Shoot, why not? I'm just a country boy. I didn't even think twice.

``It seemed like everybody else was doing it, so it wasn't a big deal, right?"

Crawford, who stood 6 foot 3 inches tall and weighed about 205 pounds, said he began by injecting himself with 1 cc of Deca Durabolin each week, ``a lot less than some guys were taking." He also began taking Winstrol .

``That was the big thing with pitchers -- a combo of Winny and Deca," he told ESPN The Magazine. ``Winny would improve your fast-twitch muscles and help you gain velocity. Deca, which is oil-based, would keep your tendons and joints lubed up and make you feel better the next morning.

``When I started using, I noticed my fastball jumped from 92-93 to 95-96 m.p.h. But the biggest change for me was consistency. My breaking pitches had more velocity and sharper break. I was probably using the most back in 2001, when I made the Red Sox' rotation out of spring training. About that time I was getting pretty big, and another player introduced me to human growth hormone (HGH), which had started to make the rounds in the majors."

Crawford, however, said he didn't like HGH and stopped using it ``because it cut me up. It's a fat burner, and it made my muscles really lean and tight."

One of Crawford's surprises amid steroid use: instead of experiencing ``roid rage," he felt the opposite.

``I was so sure the Deca would feed my aggression that I actually let up; I was going to the mound less pissed off than before," he told ESPN The Magazine. ``That's when some of my teammates introduced me to greenies [amphetamines]. The whole thing is a cycle. That's why I think steroids are a gateway drug. One time I took this pill called speckled trout. It was pink with red flecks in it, and it made my heart almost jump out of my chest.

``Back in 2001, I thought I was the man. I had no shame, and I thought nobody could touch me. One time, I walked right into the Red Sox clubhouse with a bunch of needles wrapped in a towel and left them on my chair. A few minutes later, one of my teammates came running over, saying, `Paxton, someone knocked your chair over and your freaking needles are all over the floor!' Man, we just died about that. He said it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen, told me I was nuts. But that's the way it was back then."

Only three members of the current Sox were teammates with Crawford in Boston in 2001: captain Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield, and Trot Nixon (Doug Mirabelli was dealt to the Sox in June 2001 but wasn't teammates with Crawford).

Both Varitek and Wakefield, when informed of Crawford's account, said the scene with needles on the clubhouse carpet sounds difficult to believe. Wakefield called ``ridiculous" the suggestion that a member of the Sox one of those years introduced him to steroids.

But, Wakefield added, ``I didn't see him in spring training that much. I really don't know him. He was up here, what, two months?"

Indeed, Crawford's major league career was a brief one. He debuted July 1, 2000, pitching 5 1/3 innings at Chicago and allowing two earned runs in a 7-2 loss. He made 15 total appearances over that season and the next, 11 of them starts, going 5-1 with a 4.15 ERA. Varitek remembers that debut.

``I caught him," Varitek said. ``That one sticks out. It was a pretty phenomenal start. He had a pretty explosive fastball. We were looking to utilize him."

His major league career, though, lasted less than a full calendar year. He was in the rotation to begin 2001 but made just seven starts. He suffered a stress fracture in his lower back in June 2001 and had shoulder surgery in February 2002. He never got out of Pawtucket in 2002, going 2-3 with a 5.55 ERA in just nine games. In October 2002, the Sox released him.

``That was quite something," Mike Port, who released Crawford, said yesterday, after reading the ESPN account. ``I remember he wasn't throwing the ball well. But I never had any reason to suspect anything. Nor do I expect any of us did. He was a big strong fellow to begin with.

``Unfortunately, I would say it's a story I hope -- not at Paxton's expense -- but a story I hope a lot of people should read now. And be advised, knowing the things we know now.

``As I knew him, his personality, I never had a problem. He was cooperative enough. I think he was just trying to make his own way. I'm sorry to read about it, but if any good can come out of it hopefully others will read it this week."

Port was interim GM for just one season, 2002, and was an assistant GM the years Crawford acknowledged using steroids (1999-2001). But Port said there were no indications Crawford was using steroids. The same notion was voiced by Varitek and Wakefield.

``There's so much we don't know about what other guys are doing," Varitek said. ``We know on the field, where we all compete. Granted, this team over the years has gotten to where guys hang out more, go to dinner, and I still don't think you're necessarily going to know, no matter what it is."

Crawford's career just recently came to an end, though not without another forgettable incident.

In August 2004 with Chattanooga, the Double A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, he was suspended 15 days for violating the league's alcohol and drug abuse policy. His last destination, last summer, was with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, home of those with nowhere left to turn. His teammates included John Rocker, Pete Rose Jr., and former Cardinals prospect Donovan Osborne. He was off to an 8-2 start with a 1.92 ERA but went into a tailspin and called it a career in August.

Now, he's home in Arkansas, helping his parents, Carl and Marilyn, on the family farm.

``Sometimes I feel like it's my fault, like I brought this on baseball," Crawford told ESPN The Magazine. ``I'll never name names, but I know it wasn't just me. Steroids had a hold on the game. Guys were walking around like zombies. Baseball is mostly mental, and all these things you're putting into your body are going to affect how you think.

``In 2001, that started happening to me. I was taking way too much stuff, and I'd get rattled. You can't get rattled in the big leagues. And then I messed up my back. I think the steroids had something to do with that, too.

``It's like playing with fire."