Mottola, 38, signed the day of the draft for $400,000 and bought his parents a house. He was ready to play, he said, and knew nothing about haggling. He showed decent power in the minors but played only 35 games for the Reds.
By the time he resurfaced in the majors, with Toronto in 2000, Mottola was 28, too old to be a real prospect. It was the height of the steroid era.
“The only thing I regret is not taking steroids, as bad as it sounds,” he said. “I’m not mad at them. I’m more mad at the system that allowed it to happen. Maybe if I had done it, I’d be living the way they’re living. But I know the way I played, and I’m not bitter at all.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/sport ... anted=1&hp
Now I'm not trying to stir up a tired debate, but I've always wondered how many guys are out there who feel this way, 'cause there have to be tons. I've kind of hoped to see a huge class-action lawsuit with the hundreds of AAAA types, who didn't get a chance at the bigs, filed for untold millions because MLB was negligent in screening for performance enhancers. I have no idea if they'd win, but I'd love to see dozens of Mottola's and JFG's and name your favorite dozen of never was types testifying about how they got ripped off by 'roid users.
Anyway, there's lost of interesting tidbits in here, totally unrelated to steroids, but this was the bit that made me decide to start a thread, which I almost never do.