Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
December 22, 2005
Lawton Confesses

Matt Lawton admitted he used steroids:

Lawton told Sports Weekly's Bob Nightengale that he was playing poorly and was hurting, so he turned to steroids.

"I wasn't playing well enough to be on a Little League roster, let alone be on the roster of the New York Yankees," Lawton told Sports Weekly in its current issue. "I just wasn't physically able to do the job. I had never been in the playoff hunt before. So I did something that will always haunt me."

Lawton said that he's never taken amphetamines, but injected the steroid on Sept. 20. The next day, he started in center field and hit a home run in his first at-bat. He said he didn't feel any pain.

He was tested the next day.

I wonder if someone tipped off MLB on this. Lawton goes on to say he was "talking to some guys," and I wonder if someone else heard the conversation and made a phone call.

It also makes me wonder if why we shouldn't use steroids for pain medication. I'm not an expert, but is there a dose that helps with pain while not doing much for building muscle? If Lawton weren't a baseball player, but someone who had a physical job, would a doctor treat him with steroids in such a case? Any comments by doctors would be appreciated.

Update: Lawton signed with the Seattle Mariners for a bit above the major league minimum. He'll miss the first ten days of the 2006 season.


Posted by David Pinto at 04:05 PM | Cheating | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Lawton's pity party also said he spoke to 'teammates,'
then decided to do it. Whether or not that's true, I hope
this guy rots for saying so.

Posted by: susan mullen at December 22, 2005 04:29 PM

Steroids are used to relieve inflammation, which then would relieve the associated pain. Cortisone shots are given for many injuries, sports-related or not.

If it were true that he was hurting, he should have told the Yankees doctors that and they could have given him proper treatment.

To shoot yourself up with horse drugs, knowing it's illegal and that others on the team were under intense scrutiny for it previously, is plain stupid. And I'm pretty sure that no one on that team was going to help him do it - not with what Sheffield and Giambi have gone through.

And what did he do, tell Torre, "Hey Skip - I just got a shot of "horse's little helper" - can I play CF tomorrow?" I doubt that, he was probably doing them for a long time.

This is a blatant attempt to atone for his sins, ala Luis Castillo before the NFL draft, so some team will sign him to say they're giving him a 2nd chance since he's come clean about the positive test.

Posted by: John at December 22, 2005 05:04 PM

This guy should "rot" for saying he spoke to teammates??? You know, the prison ethos of death to snitches isn't necessarily the ideal basis on which to build a sporting culture that frowns on blatant cheating ....

Posted by: Joel J at December 22, 2005 05:10 PM

I think it's obvious this interview wasn't given in
a legal setting. He's doing something similar to what
Rafael Palmeiro did. Throwing teammates under the bus
in an attempt to get someone to feel sorry enough for
him to hire him, as previous poster described. (Not saying another teammate used, but told him it'd be a
good idea).

Posted by: susan mullen at December 22, 2005 05:53 PM

You know, the guy got caught, is doing the time, and said he's sorry and that it was a big mistake. His teammates probably aren't too happy that he said the word "teammates", but there's very few people he could have gotten them from anyways. It's not like his mother or his barber or the guy behind the counter at 7-11 is going to see him grimacing in pain and say, "You know, I have access to this horse steroid that might help you out..."

Posted by: Mike at December 22, 2005 06:44 PM

Just to weigh in on the steroids debate--there are different types of steroids. For simplicity, consider two main types, anabolic and catabolic. Each type has specific chemical structures which promote certain functions in the body (both types occur naturally in the body in certain forms). Anabolic steroids, of which testosterone (and horse "juice") is an example, promote building of tissue, including muscle. This is why men are more muscular than women, generally. Catabolic steroids function in an opposite way--they inhibit the building of tissue. Corticosteroids fall into this category, and their anti-inflammatory actions are a function of their ability to decrease injured tissues' response to being damaged, as inflammation is the body's first step in healing.

Posted by: D. at December 22, 2005 07:02 PM

good ban him for life.

a lot of steriod players seem to end up on the mariners
or already on that team.

Posted by: colin at December 22, 2005 10:52 PM

As I think some other commenters have pointed out, there are steroid formulations that are used for pain and inflammation, such as prednisone and cortisone. These are different from the anabolic steroids used to build muscles. Anti-inflammatories don't increase muscle growth. I think Lawton may be looking for a plausible excuse for his steroid use.

Posted by: Rebecca Allen, RN, PhD at December 23, 2005 10:16 PM

mariners are garbage. matt lawton + carl everatt. ohhh i am scared. texas, anaheim, oakland all much better

Posted by: colin at December 23, 2005 10:38 PM
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