gabe has been a fitness freak and health food kind of guy forever and has dealt with the steroid question a million times--and he says no..I believe him.
from the globe: shaunessy
So what about it, Gabe? Ever use steroids?
"No," he said in a phone conversation Wednesday. "Of course, the suspicion is something that I've had to battle my whole career. There's been accusations and finger-pointing and whispering along the way.
"I've never been offended by the questions. But I'm offended when I'll say, `No,' and then someone will say, `C'mon, you don't have to lie to me,' or `Yeah, right.' That's when I get bothered."
He's not talking about reporters' questions. He's talking about conversations with teammates. Those of us who cover baseball have had our heads buried in the ground for years on this issue. Most of the steroid conversations have taken place between ballplayers, when the reporters are not around. Kapler knows.
"You'll hear from a player who heard from another player that you are a steroid user," he said. "That's what bothers me. I'm most concerned with my peers and their point of view.
"Because I've been accused so much, I never point a finger at somebody unless I know for sure. And the only way I know for sure is when someone tells me they're using steroids. Over the years, I'd say there's been a few guys who admitted it. There was a guy I played with in the minors. He told me that in college his best shots would never quite make it out of the park. Then he turned to the steroids and he said that within a month and a half, he was hitting balls 20-30 feet over the fence. When your strength is that far superior to other guys, you have a greater margin of error if you don't hit the sweet spot.
"There was another player who told me he was using and I asked him what it felt like and he said, `It makes you feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof.' That tells me a lot. This is a game of confidence and if you go up there feeling 10 feet tall and bulletproof, you are going to be a better hitter. I heard a lot of stories about guys who stopped taking steroids, started to stumble, then went back and before the steroids took effect, started doing well again. That's the confidence factor.
"I think every player in the league has been offered, or been told about a place where they can get steroids . . . I understand the human body pretty well. I know the human body doesn't do things that some of the human bodies we've seen are doing. Your bones don't grow. Muscles can grow, but when you see somebody whose facial features have grown, it opens some eyes."