The Red Sox and Major League Baseball have found Curt Schilling was lying about getting offered performance-enhancing drugs in the Boston clubhouse back in 2008.
Schilling’s claim a member of the team’s medical staff raised the possibility of using PEDs to treat his injured shoulder was “completely baseless,” investigations done by the team and MLB concluded, according to ESPNBoston.com sources.
Schilling, however, stood by his remarks in an email to ESPN.
The retired ace pitcher said he told general manager Theo Epstein at the time and Epstein reported the alleged incident to MLB, prompting an investigation. The events came into the spotlight again last week when Schilling brought them up in a radio interview.
“It happened,” Schilling said in the email. “I informed the club, and there were other players that heard the conversation, who I spoke with after. The club immediately informed MLB, and they launched an investigation in which all parties were interviewed.
“If someone’s saying it didn’t happen, I am not sure why, since the two people in the discussion are gone — I’m retired and the other person was fired last year, I think. But it doesn’t shock me that people would deny it was ‘an event,’ though I am unsure why.”
Thorough investigations by the club and MLB started within a week. The players’ union was informed and sources told ESPNBoston.com that both investigations came to the same conclusion.
“Completely baseless,” one source said. “It didn’t happen. The staff member did not say it and he had no PED history whatsoever.”