Red Sox 'Roidgate Update:
Duke, Lou Square Off On Air
Duke, Lou Square Off On Air
Duke on Lou's Story: 'I'm Not Buying It'
Dan Duquette Calls WEEI's Big Show and Clears The Air
Just Kidding, Now There Are More Questions Than Answers
Duke, who was asked if he believed that Lou Merloni was essentially saying that the Red Sox were telling players how to do steroids: "No, but I think it's inferred from his comments and the club was never doing that... we had people come in and educate the players about the risks of utilizing steroids, yes we did. I thought that was very important because a lot of the guys that started using steroids and didn't have medical access to them, there was a lot of health risks for the first users of steroids that were prominent in a number of different sports and I knew it was a player's choice."
Seems Like Old Times... Duquettespeak Is Back!
More Head Scratching After Confusing Clarifications from Duke and Lou, Too...
Dan Duquette on Merloni's statements on Saturday: "No, I'm not buying it, Big O and the reason is that all the medical people were clear on the policy of the club. I will say that I felt it was really important to educate the players on the associated health risks associated with steroid use and abuse because, let's face it, it was a player's choice. It wasn't a team choice. The team made their choice very clear, 'you can't do it, it's against the law and it's against Major League Baseball policy and team policy. Player's still had the choice to do that... I think it's was inferred from his comments, and the club was never doing that."
Lou Merloni: �Well Dan I think what the point was was it was brought up in the sense that teams before steroids were illegal in the game of baseball, were aware that it was going on, and what was said was in the meeting, and I know we�ve had numerous meetings talking about the dangers of steroids, and it seemed like people were realizing that, �listen, these meetings, just, they�re not hitting home, people are still taking them and there was one specific meeting that I think a lot of people were kinda surprised walking out of there because with every comment about how they�re bad for you, there was a �but,� and we were talking about �well, you know the one cycle won�t hurt. It is proven actually you know you can stay on the couch, take steroids, and gain strength.� A lot of people walked out of this one meeting, confused in that �wow, that wasn�t all negative about steroids� and it was actually talked about positive about steroids now we just took it as well they�re sitting there saying �we know guys are taking it, and if that�s the case, then we want to educate these guys not to abuse it and let them know, listen if you�re taking one, you�re OK, but if you continue this process that, you know, that it�s gonna come down to hurt you. So we were saying basically that organizations were aware of it.�
Dan Duquette: �Well after the testing program at the major league level, I thought the most important part of any program that a team could have was education to the players. And educating the players to the choices that they were making so they could make an educated choice. And avert the health risks. See, see the comment that we got Saturday was implying that the club was encouraging steroid use or steroid abuse and that wasn�t the case.�
Lou Merloni: �That�s the way people took it. I mean they took it as I was saying that somebody was up there showing us where to put the needle and that wasn�t the case you know like I�ve explained it with the analogy of trying to teach your teenage daughter about safe sex. Well you�re not happy that she�s having sex but at the same point you gotta educate her how to do the safe sex. And by no means are you encouraging her to go out and sleep with every guy you see, but you�re acknowledging the fact that you know what I�m not happy about it but it�s going on."
Dan Duquette: "Yeah exactly, but the club policy was abstinence. The club policy was abstinence and that was Major League Baseball policy. And that was communicated first. Beyond that, if a player made a choice I thought it was important that they understood what the risks were." -- 5.11.09, WEEI's The Big Show
And Duke Said Lou 'Misremembers'... On His Umm... Back Office Blog...
It Was a Very Good Year ...
Lou Merloni Just Can't Remember Which One It Was
Merloni Doesn't Need Another Player to Back His Story, He Was There...
He Knows the Trainer, the Length of the Meeting, What Was Discussed,
What Time It Started, Who Was There, The Room It Was In...
But He Can't Remember The Year It All Happened
Lou Merloni explaining his perfectly clear comments from Saturday on WEEI's The Big Show: "We start talking about steroids and what went on back in the day there�s an awful lot of people that say, �you know I don�t want to get involved in any of this stuff, you know why did that even come up? What are you doing?� That type of thing. And hey, you look back and you�re like, should you have not said it but maybe obviously dealing with everything right now you�re sitting there saying no. But you know what, it happened. There�s nothing I can do about it. The story did happen. I don�t need, necessarily another player, because I was the player, you know I�m not a reporter looking for a source. I was the player�
"The situation, why doesn�t he know the team doctor? Well, because it wasn�t a team doctor. People say it was a Red Sox doctor who did this. No. It wasn�t. A trainer brought this guy in, who he was, I don�t know. Did I document the day after it happened? Did I write something down? �OK, what was this doctor�s name again, I might need this in the future.� No. But I�m sitting in there afterwards, walking up to one of the trainers who�s no longer with the Red Sox saying �what the hell was that?� Because every reasoning why we shouldn�t take it, we actually got a �but,� and talked about, that �one cycle�s not gonna hurt you,� and a �but,� that �if you�re gonna take it, this is the way to get the most out of it.���
"Do I know what year that meeting went on? No. I know that it was in that minor league conference meeting room. Now was that early in big league camp? Was that in the minor leagues? I don't know. I don't recall that and that's for some people that's like a huge issue but I know I was in the meeting."
Red Herring Warning: Lou's Just Needling Us
Lou Merloni brings up needles early and often on The Big Show: "A lot of people felt that there was a demonstration, like somebody was up there showing them how to put a needle in. That wasn�t the case.�
Red Herring Warning: Encouraged vs. Acknowledged
Merloni denies the 'encouraged' inference, but Duke disagreed: "I don�t know where they come up [sic] I said the Red Sox said �encouraged the use of steroids,� no, they acknowledged that it was going on., there�s a big difference.�. Is it a shocker to think that MLB enabled all this to happen for so many years?"
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