On Friday, they were calling in from Cincinnati.
Former Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who played an important role on the 2004 World Series team, told the Boston Herald that he took androstenedione and amphetamines.
The andro, which wasn't banned by baseball until 2004, could have contained traces of the steroid Winstrol. That prompted Arroyo to stop taking the substance and could help explain Ortiz's positive test, Arroyo told the Herald.
“Before 2004, none of us paid any attention to anything we took,” Arroyo told the Herald. “Back then, who knows what was in stuff? The FDA wasn’t regulating stuff, not unless it was killing people or people were dying from it.”
Amphetamines were not banned until 2006.
The effects were noticeable for Arroyo, who is listed at 6-foot-5, 195 pounds.
“Andro made me feel great, I felt like a monster," he told the Herald. "I felt like I could jump and hit my head on the basketball rim."
For his own case, Arroyo doesn't seem overly concerned with the fallout from his statements.
“I feel like the game’s getting cleared up,” he said. “Personally, I
don’t care what people think about what I did. I do what I do."
In August of 2003, during the time that he claims he was taking the substances, Arroyo threw a perfect game for the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox. Shortly after the 101-pitch perfect game, Arroyo was promoted to the majors.
He doesn't, however, think his case is unique.
“In my mind, I think you have to lump the whole era together,” said Arroyo. “A lot of people were doing it, a lot weren’t. I think pitchers probably gained three or four miles per hour on their pitches and power hitters got some more power.
“But guys like David and Manny [Ramirez], if they did something, it didn’t make them who they were. Did it make them a little better? Probably.”
