Red Sox' Schilling Calls Past Steroid Comments 'Mistake'

FORT MYERS, Fla., March 19 -- Curt Schilling, a self-appointed authority on a variety of topics, admitted fault in flippantly characterizing baseball's performance-enhancing drug problem as rampant in a magazine article several years ago, which he believes increased fans' mistrust of the game. He hoped that his appearance in Thursday's House committee hearing, rectifying those comments he made several years ago, would lead to changes in baseball's steroid policy.

In a news conference prior to the Baltimore Orioles' 8-0 win against the Boston Red Sox at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, Fla., Schilling, speaking for the first time since being a witness at the hearing, said that perhaps his comments in a June 2002 interview in Sports Illustrated helped create an atmosphere of paranoia.

While with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Schilling said when he would pat teammates on the behind, they would respond: "Don't hit me there, man. It hurts."

"That's because that's where they shoot the steroid needles," Schilling said in the article.

"Again I made a mistake," he said. "I can't take it back. I said it. In my mind now I know I was wrong in not just saying it, but in what I said. I can't change how people perceive that or change it. I made a comment in an environment very different than the one we were in Thursday. That doesn't make it okay. Doesn't make it right. Makes me wrong. Certainly not the first time and certainly not the last. But you know what, it was an irresponsible mistake. It was comments like that only fueled the pace to get to where we were at on Thursday."

Schilling said loopholes in baseball's steroid policy needed to be changed, regardless of the results of this year's testing, not only to clean up the game but also to appease fans who are skeptical of the prodigious statistics and records that have occurred in the past 15 years. Testing in 2004 showed that only 1.7 percent of the results came back positive for steroids -- numbers fans still scrutinized.

"I think no one views it as working because they don't look at the testing as valid testing," Schilling said. "I think the whole basis for the hearing or the arguments in the congressional side were that our program was a joke. And you heard the medical people talk to that effect. I just think when you try to gloss over something with such broad sweeping strokes you miss the details, which I think is the issue."

Thursday's hearing, Schilling argued, showed that baseball's testing program, though enhanced since last season, is flawed.

"Things like those should be addressed and cleaned up now," he said. "So a year from now when we're coming out and saying, 'Hey the numbers are now this. And this is a good thing.' At least have a basis to argue from. People then can't just dismiss it."

Schilling defended the penalties the current agreement levies at offenders, a part of the testing program that was highly criticized by congressmen in Thursday's hearings. A player is banned after the fifth offense. Some congressmen believed a player should be suspended for a significant amount of time after the first offense. Under the current agreement a player is suspended for only 10 days after a first positive result.

"It's very clear now that if someone is a positive, they're done," Schilling said. "They might still be able to play after the suspension, but they are forever labeled as a cheater. God forbid that first person is a false positive. I think that language is there is for the exception."

While noting that some superstars' statistics have come under scrutiny because of possible steroid use, Schilling did something more impressive than admit he was wrong: He praised noted enemy Alex Rodriguez.

"If anything, it makes me appreciate the fact that Alex Rodriguez is more of a genetic freak than we ever thought," Schilling said, "because he is truly the only 40-40 guy to ever play the game."