Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Dope, Dope, Dope: Dope-a, Gagne Style

Eric Gagne has largely stayed out of the spotlight since he was linked to HGH usage during his record-setting Dodgers days. But now he's back with a tell-all book, and he's saying he wasn't alone in using performance-enhancing drugs:

Former Cy Young closer Eric Gagne alleges in his new biography that 80 percent of his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates were using performance-enhancing drugs.

Gagne, who set a major league record while converting 84 consecutive save chances, admits that he used human growth hormone over five cycles in a three-year period toward the end of his career.

"It was sufficient to ruin my health, tarnish my reputation and throw a shadow over the extraordinary performances of my career," Gagne says in the French-language book, titled, "Game Over: The Story of Eric Gagne."

Gagne won the 2004 Cy Young while converting all 67 of his save opportunities and posting a 1.20 ERA. He had elbow surgery in 2005 and signed as a free agent with the Texas Rangers before the 2006 season. Gagne signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in 2010, but was released during spring training and hasn't pitched in the major leagues since 2008.

Gagne first admitted publicly to using HGH in 2010.

In the book, Gagne does not provide any names of players he says used PEDs. Baseball began stricter testing in the spring of 2006. Players are subject to HGH testing during spring training and in the offseason, but not during the season.

With the Dodgers flailing down the stretch, this is the equivalent of having Gagne kick my dog, too. Why couldn't Game Over just remain Over?

But I do know this: perhaps 80% of the 2006 Dodgers were juicing, maybe. But 100% of the San Francisco Giants' Melky Cabrera and Guillermo Mota are juicing. Definitely.

16 comments:

Fred's Brim said...

Imagine how bad we would have sucked if we had been clean those years
*cries*

Dusty Baker said...

Selected 2004 Dodgers, just for discussion's sake:

Paul Lo Duca
Shawn Green
Alex Cora
Cesar Izturis
Adrian Beltre
Jayson Werth
Milton Bradley
Juan Encarnacion
Dave Roberts
Steve Finley
Jason Grabowski
David Ross
Robin Ventura
Olmedo Saenz
Hee-Seop Choi
Jeff Weaver
Odalis Perez
Kazuhisa Ishii
Jose Lima
Wilson Alvarez
Hideo Nomo
Edwin Jackson
Guillermo Mota
Duaner Sanchez
Brad Penny
Elmer Dessens
Eric Gagne
Giovanni Carrara
Yhency Brazoban
Darren Dreifort

Franklin Stubbs said...

Say it ain't so, AC!

Franklin Stubbs said...

Also, if Nomo was juicing in '04, I hope he got his money back.

Dusty Baker said...

Jeff Weaver was on something, but likely not HGH.

Alex said...

Shitty research; Gagne won the Cy Young in 2003 converting 55 save opportunities not in 2004 converting 67

Franklin Stubbs said...

Now I'm trying to imagine a situation where THC could be considered a performance-enhancing drug, Dusty.

spank said...

Now we know why AC had that 100 foul ball at bat.

Hideo Nomo said...

HiGH

Hideo Nomo said...

@Stubbs: http://www.ifoce.com/contests.php

Franklin Stubbs said...

That was my first thought, Gnomes, but seeing as speed is factored as well as quantity...

Fred's Brim said...

I know Sax doesn't want to think about how Adrian Beltre could possibly go for 48, 121 and an OPS of 1.017

Fred's Brim said...

Darren Dreifort should have been drinking that shit for breakfast! Are we still paying him?

Steve Sax said...

@FB: A Beltre prod!

But isn't Beltre lighting it up for Texas today? (And don't we still have an urgent need for a power third baseman, btw?)

Franklin Stubbs said...

But our current 3B is the only guy out there that seems to give a shit, so...

Dusty Baker said...

I think we're on the hook for Dreifort through 2078.