In his day, former New York Yankees pitcher David Wells was known for being a little rough around the edges.
When he’s not railing against woke culture, Nike, transgender athletes and Colin Kaepernick, Wells is offering up his thoughts on what it was like to pitch during the steroid era during a recent appearance on Foul Territory.
“I never really gotten into those,” Wells said when asked by Erik Kratz how much he felt the banning of greenies in 2006 impacted the game of baseball. “I wish I would have done the steroids now because I would have had a better body and who knows what the [heck] would have happened. To me, it’s competition. And I don’t care if you’re on it or not. I’ve been plagued by [steroids] by losing games from guys who normally don’t get a home run off you to doing that or fisting one in.
“The greenies weren’t really…to me, there was so many day games back then. If you’re getting in late, I didn’t have a problem with them. To me, you still have to play the game. Steroids is a different subject because that does enhance you. That does make you stronger…The guys that were injured and if it was under a doctor’s supervision, I don’t think I would have a problem with it, but all the guys that did it, they are lying about it, saying they never did it. You know they did it.”
Wells said that he’s a “code” guy and that he won’t throw anybody under the bus.
“I know what I did in my career,” Wells said. “I’m alright with it.”
Kratz didn’t ask Wells to throw anybody under the bus but asked him when the first time he started questioning the use of steroids around him. Wells said that his suspicions arose in the late 1980s, and early 90s with the Texas Rangers.
“I think it was Rubén Sierra, Pudge, Julio Franco, Juan González all these guys,” said Wells. “I remember the year before they were so skinny and then a year or two later, they’re so big and they’re just going deep. I had no clue. I have no idea if they’ve ever been caught doing it, if they were on the list, but that’s when you had a sense that something is going on here when these guys are going that far oppo…Then all of a sudden the whole league is doing it and they didn’t move the ballparks in that much back then.”
So while Wells didn’t throw anybody under the bus, he offered some suspicions.
“You never knew what was going on,” Wells added. “Like I said, I pitched in the era. It didn’t really bother me that the guys did it. It just sucked when you lost on a guy who was dirty.”
