Former Los Angeles Dodgers closer Eric Gagne has made claims in his new book that up to 80 percent of his teammates used performance enhancing drugs.
Gagne, a former Cy Young winner, admitted in his book that he used human growth hormone multiple times over during the end of his career. He previously set a major league record when he converted 84 straight save chances from 2003 to 2004.
"It was sufficient to ruin my health, tarnish my reputation and throw a shadow over the extraordinary performances of my career," Gagne says in the book, according to the Associated Press.
In 2007, Gagne, along with 88 other players, were listed in the Mitchell Report, which was a Congressional report on the use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball. Gagne admitted to using HGH in 2010.
A number of his Dodger teammates from that period were also named in the report, including pitcher Kevin Brown, infielder Chris Donnels, catcher Todd Hundley and pitcher Mike Judd.
Gagne doesn't name any of the players who used performance enhancing drugs, but claims a majority of his teammates were using them.
"I was intimately aware of the clubhouse in which I lived. I would say that 80% of the Dodgers players were consuming them," Gagne said in the French-language memoir, according to ESPN Los Angeles.
For a time Gagne was considered to be the best reliever in baseball, but revelations revealed that his success was due in part to drug use.
In 2003 Gagne won the Cy Young award after converting all 55 of his save chances with an ERA of 1.20. He earned 152 saves for the Dodgers and had a 13.3 strikeout rate per nine innings.
He was stellar through 2007, earning 161 out of 168 total saves and converting 96.6% of his chances, which is the highest in Major League Baseball history for a pitcher with at least 100 saves. He became the first reliever to win the Cy Young in 11 years.
After pitching with the Dodgers from 1999 to 2006, Gagne had elbow surgery before signing with the Texas Rangers and having a short resurgence. He was solid, posting a 2.16 ERA with 16 saves in 34 games, before being traded to the Boston Red Sox.
Although that team went on to win the World Series, Gagne was awful, blowing three saves and posting an ERA of 6.75. He then signed with the Milwaukee Brewers, pitching in 50 games with an ERA of 5.44. Gagne attempted another comeback with the Dodgers in 2010, but they released him in spring training. The last time he pitched in the majors was in 2008.
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