Former Major League Baseball player Fred Lynn admitted he would have considered using anabolic steroids during his career if they would have helped him avoid or recover from injury. Lynn made his comments in an interview with Larry Brown. Lynn acknowledged that baseball players have always been looking for an advantage even if it involved breaking the rules. The players of his era were no exception.
“It’s hard to say. Popular? Everybody’s always trying to get an edge in baseball, whatever it can be. In my time pitchers would scuff the balls and do those things. There was a little bit of color of the game. Then the pharmaceutical game. It’s hard to say who would do what in what era. I know that when you’re paid to perform and there’s something out there that you think is going to help you perform better, you’re going to be tempted to do it…
“If it would have kept me on the field, yeah I would have considered it to be honest with you. My problem was getting injured. If one of these so-called benefits would be if you get an injury you come back faster, or you stay stronger you don’t become injured, that would be something I would have to look into.”
Fred Lynn gained a place in baseball history for being the first and only player ever to be named both the Rookie of the Year and the Most Valuable Player in the same year. Lynn belongs to an elite group of players to have hit more than 300 home runs during their career. However, he never quite lived up to the Hall of Fame expectations established after his rookie season. He was an effortless hitter while he was healthy during his 17-year career with the Red Sox, Angels, Tigers and Padres but numerous injuries prevented him from living up to his potential leading some to call him “baseball’s version of Rodney Dangerfield”.
Many of the performance-enhancing benefits of anabolic steroids are attributed to the enhanced recovery ability imparted to its users. Evidence has also shown that human growth hormone may be therapeutically useful for recovery from soft tissue injuries. Given the problems with injuries sustained by Lynn during the course of his career, it should come as no surprise that Lynn would have been tempted to use any supplements that would have kept him healthy.
Fred Lynn is currently associated with the Subway Baseball DeSIGNS Tour as an official company spokesman. The Subway Baseball DeSIGNS tour is a partnership between Little League Baseball and Subway restaurants. The traveling tour exhibits baseballs featuring designs by Little League players and autographs by celebrities such as Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Terry Bradshaw, Barry Sanders, Enrique Inglesias, Apollo Ohno and many more. Lynn was a celebrity coach for the National Little League Baseball Appreciation Game in 2010.
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