When the New York Mets arrived in Port St. Lucie, Fla., for spring training in late February of 1993, trying to forget their 72-90 record from the season before, they were greeted by an old friend with new muscles.
Kirk J. Radomski, who was beginning his seventh season as the Mets’ home clubhouse attendant, had spent much of the offseason in a Bronx gym, trying to make himself into a competitive bodybuilder. Players commented on his enhanced physique. They asked him about his workout regimen. He told them he was using steroids.
The questions soon turned into requests for steroids. Within months, Radomski was dealing steroids and other substances to friends and acquaintances on major league rosters, helping to push baseball into its biggest scandal in almost 90 years.
The recently released Mitchell report implicated 92 current and former players. Radomski, the report said, provided steroids or other drugs to more than half of them. And one of Radomski’s customers, personal trainer Brian McNamee, allegedly gave performance-enhancing drugs to three other players, including legendary pitcher Roger Clemens, who has vehemently denied the allegations through his attorney.
Even though Mitchell’s report concluded that the use of performance-enhancing drugs poses a “serious threat to the integrity of the game,” former Baltimore Orioles infielder and designated hitter David Segui, one of the players named in the report, told Mitchell during a recent interview that he still thought highly of Radomski. The drugs he provided were safe, Segui said, and he never pushed substances on anybody
Radomski was “doing the players a favor,” Segui said, according to Mitchell. The players were “lucky to have a guy like Radomski.”
According to the report and its accompanying documents, Radomski grew up on Long Island near Mets equipment manager Charlie Samuels. His connections landed him a job as a Mets batboy in his early teens. By 1987, he had worked his way up to home clubhouse attendant. By 1988, he was joining the team during its annual spring training in Port St. Lucie and starting to develop friendships with many players.
In 1989, he became friendly with outfielder Lenny Dykstra, who would be traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in the middle of that season. Dykstra had reported to spring training that year looking noticeably bigger. In one of their many conversations, Dykstra admitted to Radomski that he was using steroids.
Even after he left New York, Dykstra did not forget Radomski, who had become known around the Mets clubhouse for his nutritional shakes and workout advice. Shortly after the Phillies lost the 1993 World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games, Dykstra called his friend and asked whether Radomski could get steroids for him.
Radomski sent him three popular steroids at the time: Deca-Durabolin, Dianabol and testosterone. It was the first transaction recorded in Mitchell’s report.
A year later, pitcher Josias Manzanillo asked Radomski to inject him with Deca-Durabolin in the Mets clubhouse, and Radomski complied. A year after that, Segui, then with the Mets, showed Radomski a bottle of veterinary steroids he had gotten from Mexico, and Radomski, apparently appalled, offered Segui — without charge — a bottle of Deca-Durabolin, Radomski’s favorite steroid.
Deca-Durabolin was, he believed, safer and stayed in the body a long time (baseball did not have a testing program before 2003). It also, he believed, alleviated joint pain.
That gesture apparently had an impact on Segui. He became Radomski’s best client, engaging in more than 12 transactions. He also brought in lots of new business.
When Segui was with the Montreal Expos in 1995, he introduced Radomski to utility player F.P. Santangelo — who later hooked up Radomski with outfielder Adam Piatt — and catcher Tim Laker. During their first meeting at a New York hotel, Laker gave Radomski between $500 and $1,000 for syringes and testosterone on the spot, the report said. He continued to place orders for several years.
In 2003, Segui introduced Radomski to Orioles teammates Larry Bigbie, who had been staying in his house, and Jerry Hairston Jr. Because Bigbie was a young player who wasn’t making much money by big league standards, Radomski sold him drugs at cost, the report said.
Other players came through references. Slugger Mo Vaughn, the American League most valuable player with the Boston Red Sox in 1995, learned about Radomski through Glenallen Hill. Pitcher Denny Neagle, who met Radomski at a New York City club, referred pitcher Ron Villone and catcher Gary Bennett Jr.
Catcher Todd Hundley referred catcher Paul Lo Duca, who referred at least four players: pitcher Kevin Brown, reliever Eric Gagne, pitcher Matt Herges and utility player Adam Riggs. Riggs, in turn, referred pitcher Bart Miadich.
In short, business was good. The report claimed that obtaining steroids was easy for Radomski, who got them from fellow gym rats, shelling out $100 to $300 per bottle. Once MLB began drug-testing in 2003, however, players shifted away from steroids and toward human growth hormone, which is not detectable in urine tests. To obtain HGH, which is illegal without a prescription, Radomski would approach patients as they left pharmacies, offering them money for their newly filled prescriptions.
After a while, some patients began going straight to gyms with their medicine, looking to make a buck. Radomski usually paid about $1,000 for a “kit” of human growth hormone, the report said. He charged most players $1,600 or less for the kits.
As investigators closed in on him late in 2005, the affidavit said, Radomski bragged during a tape-recorded call to an informant that he could write a more explosive book than the one admitted steroid user Jose Canseco wrote on baseball.
A few months later, on Dec. 14, 2005, federal law enforcement officials executed a search warrant on his home. Agents seized documents, receipts and Radomski’s address book. Radomski immediately began cooperating with investigators.
Not long after, the pitcher Herges called Radomski.
Herges, who had purchased $3,240 of human growth hormone a month before, asked Radomski to sell him more.
Radomski told him he “was dry right now.”
Herges never called back.
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