Baseball in Fort Wayne

As most of the world knows by now, the George J Mitchell Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball was released yesterday. I’m not going to opine about the value, relevance or what this means to the future of Major League Baseball, but if you want to read the report in it’s entirety, it can be found here [courtesy of MLB.com] I suggest downloading it to your computer and reading it from there as it is quite long.

While I only moderately perused the content, and I know that it does not provide a complete list of names, I was pleased to see only one former Fort Wayne Wizards player named in it. Beginning on page 232 of the report, it discusses the findings regarding Naulty. It reads:

We contacted Naulty as part of our effort to interview former players. During his telephone interview, Naulty admitted to using steroids, on and off, for seven years, and human growth hormone for one year. Naulty used performance enhancing substances while playing in both Major League Baseball and in the minor leagues.

Naulty started using steroids as a minor league player, before the 1993 season, because he needed to put on weight. Naulty learned about steroids from other players. After starting his steroid regimen Naulty reported to spring training for the 1993 season approximately 20 pounds heavier and throwing five miles per hour harder than he did the year before. Naulty said that he went “from an A-ball pitcher to a major league prospect in a matter of two years.”

Naulty purchased steroids and human growth hormone through illegal dealers. Naulty was aware of at least four gyms in Orange County, California, where he could obtain steroids.

Naulty believes that his use of steroids made him injury prone. He suffered a number of injuries, including a torn triceps muscle, a torn groin muscle and numbness in an arm from the loss of circulation, that he attributes to his use of steroids. Naulty said that he had stopped using steroids by the time he played for the Yankees in 1999. Naulty lost muscle mass and arm strength once he stopped using steroids.

Naulty repeatedly expressed remorse for using steroids during the course of his interview. He told us that “if I could give back a little bit of something good then I would like to.”

By my count, this brings the number of Fort Wayne Wizards linked to performance enhancing substances to three. Both Matt Lawton and Dan Serafini have tested positive since testing began a few years back.

You can read more about Dan Naulty in Baseball in Fort Wayne on page 103. Photograph courtesy of the Fort Wayne Wizards.

[tags]MLB Steroid Probe, Dan Naulty, Daniel Naulty, Fort Wayne Wizards, Mitchell Report[/tags]