Boston, MA

Former Boston Red Sox starter Curt Schilling revealed that some ex-members of the team tried to convince him to use performance-enhancing drugs to help him get healthy and extend his baseball career.

Schilling signed a one-year contract with Boston in 2008 but did not pitch that season due to a shoulder injury. He officially retired from baseball in March 2009 and now works as ESPN analyst.

"At the end of my career, in 2008 when I had gotten hurt, there was a conversation that I was involved in, in which it was brought to my attention that this is a potential path I might want to pursue," Schilling told ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd.

Schilling said the conversation was uncomfortable because it came up in a clubhouse conversation and could be overheard by several teammates.

And it was suggested to me that at my age and in my situation, why not? What did I have to lose?" Because if I wasn't going to get healthy, it didn't matter. And if I did get healthy, great," Schilling said.

He, however, declined to identify who was involved in the conversation, or whether it was a player, coach or staff member.

Schilling later tweeted that it "wasn't anyone in uniform, nor the baseball ops group."

In a radio interview, Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer, who was working for Boston in 2008 along with and Cubs president Theo Epstein and Schilling, denied that he and Epstein had such a conversation with the pitcher.

"The first I ever heard of that was this morning when I saw it, so clearly, no, it didn't ring true to me at all," Hoyer said.

"I can tell you it would be preposterous that Theo or I would be involved in that. So I can comment for the two of us. I obviously wasn't there. I don't know the story he's talking about so I can't comment on the rest of it," he added.

 

Kevin Dupont and Joe Sullivan debate whether Curt Schilling was telling the truth when he said he was encouraged to take PED's in 2008

Schilling: Ex-Red Sox Members Tried to Convince Me to Use PEDs

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