Only once in the 409-page Mitchell Report does the word “remorse” appear. It did not come from Bud Selig or Don Fehr, but Dan Naulty, a pitcher with a career record of 5-5 in 130 games.
Tucked at the bottom of Page 233 is a passage few people probably read as they scanned the document for big names.
“Naulty repeatedly expressed remorse for using steroids during the course of his interview,” reads the report by former Sen. George Mitchell. “He told us that ‘If I could give back a little bit of something good, then I would like to.’ ”
Naulty was not one of the hundreds of current and former players who declined to be interviewed by Mitchell. Instead he spoke with one of Mitchell’s investigators for two hours by phone in January and again in a follow-up interview a few weeks ago.
Naulty, a former reliever for the Yankees and Twins, is haunted by his steroid use. He can’t shake the thought of how many lives he affected with his choice to use the drugs. He thinks of the players whose jobs he took through his juiced-up performance.
“My choice has impacted hundreds of people,” Naulty said in an interview with The Post.
The one person he thinks about the most is Mike Trombley. The two pitchers’ lockers were next to each other in Twins spring training in 1996. They were competing for the last spot in the bullpen.
Near the end of spring training, Naulty was told he made the team, meaning Trombley was bound for Triple-A.
“He was the guy sitting there saying, ‘Why is this happening?’ ” Naulty said. “I was throwing 96 [mph]. He threw 87-90, but they wanted 96 instead. There’s no way I could have thrown 96 without drugs.
“When Mike Trombley gets sent to Triple-A, the dominoes fall all the way down to rookie ball where someone gets released. That’s what has penetrated my soul.”
When he graduated from Cal State-Fullerton in 1992, Naulty was a 6-foot-6, 185-pound string bean. Everyone told him to make it to the big leagues he needed more weight. He tried eating and working out non-stop but it didn’t work. So he found the guy with the biggest muscles in his Orange County (Calif.) gym and told him he needed to gain weight fast. Soon, he was on a drug program that had him lifting more weight and adding muscle.
As soon as he stepped on the pitching mound, he saw the radar gun jump to numbers higher than he’d ever seen.
“I went from a guy who would never have gotten out of A-ball to being one of the top prospects in the organization,” he said. “I turned myself into an anabolic prospect.”
Naulty pitched three years for the Twins, then pitched 33 games for the Yankees during the 1999 championship season. The steroid use eventually caused his body to break down, which led him to use human growth hormone.
He retired before the 2000 season and is now a pastor in Littleton, Colo., where he tells his story to groups of kids. Naulty admits he’s concerned of the long-term effects of his drug use.
When he thinks of his career, he can’t help remembering Trombley, and feeling guilt. Instead of turning to steroids to keep up, Trombley learned a split-finger fastball and pitched until 2002. New Yorkers might remember him best as the Twins pitcher who gave up a grand slam to Jason Giambi in the rain.
He now lives in Fort Myers, Fla., and coaches Little League. Yesterday, a reporter told him of Naulty’s remorse. Trombley said he never suspected Naulty was using steroids and holds no hard feelings.
“I’ve never felt that someone cheated me,” Trombley said. “Looking back now, I have some mixed emotions. I guess you could turn it around. If it hurts the guy in the long run, who’s better off? I’ll trade one for the other.”