Mo Vaughn, former MLB star and 1995 American League MVP, has finally come clean about using human growth hormone late in his career.
“I was trying to do everything I could,” Vaughn told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal in a recent interview. “I knew I had a bad, degenerative knee. I was shooting HGH in my knee. Whatever I could do to help the process…”
His admission confirms what baseball fans have suspected since the 2007 Mitchell Report named him among nearly 90 players linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
Vaughn had declined to speak with former Senator George Mitchell during the investigation.
The report uncovered solid evidence connecting Vaughn to Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets batboy who supplied PEDs to numerous players. Mitchell’s investigation found checks from Vaughn to Radomski and contact information linking the two.
According to the report, Vaughn’s teammate Glenallen Hill referred him to Radomski in early 2001 when Vaughn was looking to recover faster from an ankle injury.
That timing is interesting since Vaughn ended up missing the entire 2001 season after rupturing his biceps tendon.
One curious detail from the Mitchell Report: Radomski claimed Vaughn chose HGH over steroids because he was “afraid of the big needles.” HGH could be injected with smaller ones.
It’s worth noting that MLB didn’t actually ban HGH until 2005, so Vaughn didn’t technically break any league rules. The spirit of fair play? That’s another question.
Vaughn’s career spanned 12 seasons in the big leagues, with his best years coming with the Boston Red Sox. He also played for the Angels and Mets.
His career numbers are pretty impressive: 328 home runs and a 132 OPS+ (meaning he was 32% better than the average hitter). Baseball Reference calculates his career value at 27.1 Wins Above Replacement.
But he was never quite the same player after missing that 2001 season.
