Steroids and the 1999 Royals

In a radio interview, Mike Sweeney indicated that in 1999 some of his friends on the team offered him steroids but he declined.

As bad as the Royals were in 1999, that team did perform well offensively, batting .282 with a then-franchise-high 856 runs scored.

“We were good offensively because we had some talented guys,” Sweeney said. Sweeney added that he made his remarks about turning down steroids not to instigate a witch hunt of his former teammates but to demonstrate to youths that a player such as him can be successful without steroid use.

“I took a stand, and when I speak to kids — to the D.A.R.E. program or the Fellowship of Christian Athletes — I tell them, ‘Look, I’m drug-free and I mean it when I say it,’ ” Sweeney said.

Problem with that statement is that Sweeney, while certainly a very talented player, misses considerable time each season due to various injuries. A kid could get the wrong message that Sweeney would be in the lineup a lot more if he had taken the supplements.

(H/T Ben Maller)

Ben Maller also posted a link to the 1999 Royals roster. Do your own guessing about who offered steroids to Sweeney. Jeremy Giambi has already been implicated in the steroid mess but Sweeney's comments were of multiple players. I'm sure this is not the last of these type stories that we'll see.