In an interview with ESPN’s Mike Fish, former Seattle Mariners outfielder, Shane Monahan, admitted using anabolic steroids during his time in the major leagues. Monahan, who played parts of two seasons with the Mariners (1998 and 1999), was the classic example of a fringe player trying to stick in the major leagues.
“I’ve been in minor league and major league clubhouses… I know the pressures and what goes on. Like I told my dad, it is coming from the perspective of a guy who had to fight for everything I got in the big leagues.”
“I saw what kind of money it is going to get you. I had great minor league seasons, but I wanted to stay in the big leagues. I know my teammates and I know guys on other teams are doing it, and they’re hitting home runs left and right. And I’m sitting there going, ‘All right, well, what I’m going to do?’”
Monahan was very candid when he described the clubhouse culture and his reasons for using. Monahan says he mostly used Deca-Durabolin and Winstrol (Stanozolol) that he obtained from “guys” that hung around the clubhouse. He said the dealers were often friends of players given access to the clubhouse.
“There were two or three guys. You’d go up to them and say, ‘Hey, I need some greenies. What is it going to take?’ Well, it might be 100 bucks here. It is a jersey here, or a dozen baseballs and two bats. And you’d give it to him.”
Monahan also admits openly to having used amphetamines. He says he saw all but one player use them.
“Almost everybody takes greenies. I was in the locker room for two years with the Mariners, and I’ll be honest with you: The only person that I didn’t see take greenies was Dan Wilson. He was a big Christian guy, big moral guy. He just didn’t believe in the stuff.”
When asked why he was now admitting using steroids, Monahan said he didn’t want others to even have the opportunity to have to choose between playing clean and failing and experimenting with drugs.
“I don’t want kids from college or kids from high school going through what I had to go through. I certainly don’t want my son, 20 years from now, having to be faced with that decision so he could play professional sports.”
UPDATE:
The following day Jamie Moyer and Raul Ibanez, both Mariners in 1998 and 1999, disputed Monahan’s claims about the clubhouse culture. Moyer was a full-time started when Monahan was first called up, but Ibanez was more or less in the same boat as Monahan, spending parts of both seasons in the minors as well.
From Ibanez:
“In 10 years, I’ve never seen a person take a steroid… I’ve never had anyone come to me in a major-league clubhouse and offer me any.”
From Moyer:
“I choose not to get involved with all of that stuff… We’re all grown men of many different ages. If he’s throwing people under the bus, that’s his choice, but it disappoints me… I can tell you that I was there for 10 years and I never saw anyone take steroids.”
