Royals' Sweeney recalls being offered `the juice'

 

BY JEFFREY FLANAGAN

Knight Ridder Newspapers

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Were the 1999 Royals using steroids?

 

You'd never have guessed it by their record: The Royals finished a woeful 64-97 that season, 32 1/2 games behind the first-place Cleveland Indians.

 

But Royals slugger Mike Sweeney said on talk radio Friday and to The Kansas City Star that he was approached by friends on the team who had "the juice."

 

"In 1999, my career was in the crossroads and I was converting from a catcher to a first baseman," Sweeney said on KCSP's mid-morning show with Tim Grunhard and Doug Franz, "and I had some friends of mine that I played with at the time in KC that said, `Look, hey, I picked up the juice. It will help you be stronger, it will give you a better longevity in your career. Do you want to take it?'

 

"I went to bed that night and I had a sick feeling in my stomach, and I woke up the next morning and I told myself, `Look, I've never done drugs in my life. I've never even taken a puff of marijuana, nothing, no greenies. Why should I start now?' "

 

Sweeney told The Star later Friday that he has never taken steroids.

 

"There would have been no repercussions back then," Sweeney said by phone from California. "There was no testing like that. But I knew in my heart it was wrong, and I had my faith to get me through it."

 

Sweeney said he also has no intentions of naming those who may have been using steroids.

 

"We are a family in the clubhouse," he said. "What happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse. It's like that saying about Vegas - what happens there, stays there.

 

"I also don't want to give the impression that there was rampant usage back then. There wasn't. In my 11-year career, I may have known four or five guys who might have been doing it. That's it."

 

Interestingly, one of the players on that 1999 team was Jeremy Giambi, who admitted to The Star in the spring of 2005 that he used steroids during his career. Giambi did not offer specifics of his usage.

 

Royals vice president of communications David Witty said the team cannot comment on potential steroid activity, past or present, because of Major League Baseball policy.

 

MLB senior vice president of public relations Richard Levin did not return a call Friday.

 

As bad as the Royals were in 1999, that team did perform well offensively, batting .282 with a then-franchise-high 856 runs scored.

 

"We were good offensively because we had some talented guys," Sweeney said.

 

Sweeney added that he made his remarks about turning down steroids not to instigate a witch hunt of his former teammates but to demonstrate to youths that a player such as him can be successful without steroid use.

 

"I took a stand, and when I speak to kids - to the D.A.R.E. program or the Fellowship of Christian Athletes - I tell them, `Look, I'm drug-free and I mean it when I say it,' " Sweeney said.

Very encouraging, he is a good one too..

Seems like a great guy with a good head on his shoulders. I've always liked him, but just gained a little more respect for him.