The reporter mentioned that he'd covered the Sox for about a decade, including Crawford's time with the club, and didn't know for sure who'd used steroids.
``You didn't know?" Crawford asked, surprise in his voice.
No, the reporter said. How widespread was it? Were there a lot of players?
``Yup," he said.
Five, 10, 20, 50, how many?
``It was just everywhere," he said.
Did this begin in minor league camp, in big league camp?
``So, anyway," Crawford said, ``it's kind of a sore subject, bro. That's it."
And he hung up.
You may remember a 22-year-old version of Paxton Crawford, who in July 2000 with Triple A Pawtucket tossed a seven-inning no-hitter. The next night he fell out of bed in a hotel room in Ottawa and landed on a water glass (that's what he claimed, at least). The rumors that made the rounds suggest a different cause of the gash that cost him 2 pints of blood and a chance to be recalled by the Sox later that month. In 2002, at Pawtucket, he was reprimanded by the team for an incident that took place in the stadium parking lot while the game was in progress.
Crawford, who made 15 big league appearances, all with the Sox in 2000 and 2001, had his share of missteps as a pro baseball player. In ESPN The Magazine he documents yet another: steroid use. Until this, no big league player who has been suspended for steroids or who willfully acknowledged using steroids was a member of the Sox organization at the time he used.
Crawford, in a first-person story, told ESPN The Magazine's Amy Nelson, ``I always envied the guys with rubber arms. I was the type who was always in pain. During minor league spring training with the Red Sox in 1999, some of the other guys saw I was hurting. They told me that if I took this stuff, it would make the pain go away and cut my recovery time in half. Shoot, why not? I'm just a country boy. I didn't even think twice.
``It seemed like everybody else was doing it, so it wasn't a big deal, right?"
Crawford, who stood 6 foot 3 inches tall and weighed about 205 pounds, said he began by injecting himself with 1 cc of Deca Durabolin each week, ``a lot less than some guys were taking." He also began taking Winstrol .
