Chapter[ VIII. Information Obtained Regarding Other Players’ Possession or Use of
Steroids and Human Growth Hormone ]
Section[ C. Additional Information Concerning Players’ Use of Performance Enhancing Substances ]
C. Additional Information Concerning Players’ Use of Performance Enhancing Substances
1. Information Provided by a Former Minor League Strength and Conditioning Coach
From 1999 to 2000, Todd Seyler served as a minor league strength and
conditioning coach for the Albuquerque Dukes, which was then the class AAA affiliate of the
Los Angeles Dodgers. Around May 1999, Seyler began talking with five of the Dukes players
about using performance enhancing substances.
The players were Matt Herges, Paul Lo Duca, Jeff Williams, Mike Judd, and
Ricky Stone. As already discussed, according to Kirk Radomski, Herges, Lo Duca, and
Williams later purchased performance enhancing substances from him. Seyler said that all five
players expected to be called up to the Dodgers later in the season, and they all wanted to be in
“peak physical condition” when that happened.430
Seyler gave Herges a “few hundred dollars” in cash to purchase steroids for him.
Seyler understood that the other players were giving Herges money too and that either Herges or
Lo Duca would buy steroids for the group from a source in Florida. Seyler did not tell anyone in
Dodgers management that he or any of these players were purchasing steroids.
Before a game in mid-July 1999, Seyler and the players met to inject themselves
with the steroids. Seyler and Stone lived in the same apartment complex, and Judd, Herges,
Lo Duca, and Williams met them at Stone’s apartment with the steroids that had been received
from Florida. Seyler recalls Herges as the player who carried the box of steroids into the
apartment.
430 All but Stone were called up late in the 1999 season. Stone first played in Major
League Baseball in 2001 and played with the Cincinnati Reds during a portion of the 2007
season.
230
The five players and Seyler all injected themselves with the steroids at the
apartment. Seyler witnessed Herges and Williams inject themselves in the buttocks with
syringes containing Deca-Durabolin. Seyler also observed Lo Duca and Judd inject themselves
with either Deca-Durabolin or Winstrol, although Seyler could not remember where they
injected themselves or which of the two substances they used. Seyler further observed Stone
inject himself in the thigh with Deca-Durabolin. Seyler injected himself in the thigh with
Winstrol. Seyler said he was inexperienced in the use of anabolic steroids and needed Herges to
explain to him how to perform the injections.
These injections in mid-July 1999 were the beginning of a six-week cycle. In
conjunction with the cycles, Seyler designed and recommended training programs for the players
to optimize the effect of the steroids. Seyler himself worked out frequently – he took the steroids
in part to improve his physical appearance and in part to remain close to the players he was
training.
Seyler never observed these players use steroids after the first occasion, but he
spoke with them frequently about the subject until all but one of the players were promoted to
the Dodgers later during the 1999 season. Based on his conversations with them, Seyler believed
that all of the players continued to use steroids while training and that they completed their six-
week cycles. They had conversations about steroids at the ballpark, in the clubhouse, during
practices, and before and after games. Seyler said that the discussions were “as casual as a
conversation about going to the movies.” Seyler believed that he became “desensitized” to any
illegality of the use of anabolic steroids because of the frequency and “nonchalant” nature of
conversations among him and these players about the use, application and benefits of steroids.
231
Our efforts to speak with Herges, Lo Duca, and Williams are discussed earlier in
this chapter. In order to provide Judd and Stone with information about these allegations and to
give them an opportunity to respond, I asked each of them to meet with me. They did not
respond to my request.
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