Ripken never saw steroids being used, By: Scott Pitoniak

May 13, 2007

The New York Times recently reported that medical records of former Baltimore Orioles players, including Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, are being sought by the Mitchell Commission, which is investigating the steroids issue for Major League Baseball.

That news led to Cal Ripken being asked if he ever witnessed players using performance-enhancing drugs.

"No," he answered. "And I'm glad I was naive to those sorts of things if they were going on.

"Beyond some suspicions about people coming back bigger, stronger and heavier — and there are many ways to explain that — I never saw anything that told me someone was juiced or doing the juice."

The steroids cloud hangs over Barry Bonds' pursuit of Hank Aaron's career home run record.

"The fact that there is a cast of suspicion around that naturally has made it not as big a celebration," Ripken said. "How do you interpret that? I don't know. I would like to think that until there's evidence or proof that (Bonds) has done something, then he will be given the benefit of the doubt. There's a lot of speculation and suspicion, so it's hard for me to figure out what that means."