Pitcher wants achievements while using steroids erased, By: Howard Ulman

March 31, 2006, Associated Press

 
Curt Schilling says he feels bad for Barry Bonds after publication of a book that details alleged extensive steroid use by the San Francisco outfielder and other baseball stars.

If a player gets caught using steroids, Schilling said Thursday, his achievements during that period of use should be "wiped out."

But the Boston Red Sox pitcher, who appeared last March before a congressional committee investigating steroid use in baseball, said he didn't know enough to comment about the major league baseball probe announced Thursday by commissioner Bud Selig.

The investigation centers on alleged steroid use by Bonds and others. It will look into events since September 2002, when baseball banned performance-enhancing drugs. No timetable for the investigation was announced.

Selig appointed former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell - and currently a director of the Red Sox - to lead the inquiry.

"I don't know enough about it to have an opinion other than it's sad," Schilling said. "It's unfortunate and you feel bad for everybody involved because the game got cheated. If guys that I faced cheated, then I got cheated."

The book "Game of Shadows" by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters details the alleged steroid use by baseball players, including Bonds.

"My life is in shambles. It is crazy," Bonds said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press.

That drew sympathy from Schilling.

"I feel bad. I don't want to see anybody go through what he's going through," he said. "As a human being, you don't want to see people go through that."

Bonds has 708 homers and needs seven to pass Babe Ruth and 48 to overtake Hank Aaron for the career home run record.

"If you get caught using steroids, you should have everything you've done in this game wiped out for any period of time that you used it," Schilling said. "A lot of players, I think, have said as much because it is cheating."

Schilling appeared on March 17, 2005, before a congressional panel along with Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Jose Canseco. Palmeiro denied having used steroids but was suspended last Aug. 1 after failing a drug test.

Later that month, Schilling said that Palmeiro has "no credibility" to talk about steroids, and the Baltimore slugger's achievements should be removed from the record books.

On Thursday, he blamed some of the media for ignoring the steroid problem in the late 1990s when McGwire and Sosa were locked in home run battles.

But Schilling was reluctant to speak at length about the latest probe.

"It depends on what they're after," Schilling said. "I don't know if they're in it to find out if guys used or a guy did."