Curtis has his limits, By: Ken Davidoff

Outspoken ex-Yank won't name names to Mitchell investigators

May 13 2007

As an active baseball player, Chad Curtis rarely hesitated to voice his opinions. He led the charge in speaking about the perils of performance-enhancing drugs.

Now 38, in his sixth year of retirement, Curtis still speaks his mind - to a point.

The former outfielder, a Yankee from June 1997 through 1999, told Newsday that he agreed to be interviewed last year as part of George Mitchell's steroids investigation. Two of Mitchell's investigators - Curtis couldn't remember their names - met with Curtis in his home in the western part of Michigan and spoke with him for about an hour.

But when they attempted to get Curtis to name names, he said, he didn't bite.

"They tried to dig and prod," Curtis said Friday in a telephone interview. Asked if the investigators brought up specific former teammates, Curtis said, "I think they at least tried to head down that road."

"I'd be shocked if anything major came out of it," Curtis said. "I didn't say anything to them that I haven't said openly to the media."

Curtis is the first former player known to have voluntarily spoken with the staff of Mitchell, whom Bud Selig appointed in March 2006 to lead the search of baseball's past. Many managers and coaches - including former players - have spent time with Mitchell's people, but as team employees, they had little choice in interviewing.

In 2000, Curtis, then with the Texas Rangers, spoke with HBO's "Real Sports." Said Curtis: "Are there players in baseball, major-league baseball, using steroids? Absolutely. Have I heard it from their mouths? Yes, I have."

He also asked the show to test him for steroids, to prove he was clean. He passed.

In 2005, on HBO's "Costas Now," Curtis heavily criticized the Major League Baseball Players Association, saying: "That was the union's hope on steroids, that it would never be addressed. Steroids have blown. We should have dealt with steroids, you know, years ago."

Those comments sparked the interest of Mitchell's staff, and when Curtis received calls and e-mails from the investigators, he didn't notify the Players Association.

"I don't think I have to ask permission of anybody," Curtis said. "The union, they know me well enough. I'm not going to do what Jose [Canseco] did and name names.

"If there's something productive that comes out of what I say, then I'll say it. If it's something that has no productivity whatsoever, it's not going to come out of my mouth."

Mitchell's people asked most of the questions, but Curtis said he asked one of them. "A very intriguing question is, 'Why wouldn't a player take steroids in the '90s?'" he said. "I don't think there's many reasons why a player wouldn't take steroids in the '90s. There was no testing, there was a general acceptance by the players and there was a general acceptance by the union."

If Curtis hadn't been so outspoken, he probably could have extended his career. He was very vocal about his Christianity, and he essentially earned his ejection from the Yankees when he publicly scolded Derek Jeter after Jeter joked around with then-Mariner Alex Rodriguez during a 1999 bench-clearing brawl.

He also got into a fight with former Met Kevin Mitchell while both were with the Indians in 1997, and he nearly fought current Blue Jay Royce Clayton during their time together with the Texas Rangers.

So he appeared to be a good target for Mitchell. But while he did agree to talk, it sounds as if he didn't provide any smoking guns. Just strong opinions.

"I think the consequences need to be stepped up severely," Curtis said, referring to baseball's current penalty system for performance-enhancing drugs. "People ask, 'For how long do you benefit from taking steroids?' I think the answer to that question is, 'For the rest of your life.' If you took steroids for two years and that allowed you to gain strength and muscle mass, you have that you can build off of.

"It's kind of a mess," Curtis said of baseball's involvement in performance-enhancers. And Curtis declined to make the situation any messier.