Bronson Arroyo Isn't Afraid of the Big, Bad Steroid Wolf

It's a safe bet that there wasn't much of a race to bring Bud Selig a copy of Thursday's USA Today at the MLB offices on Thursday morning. After all, it's not exactly a strong career move to bring your boss an interview with a major league player making a mockery of everything you've said and done about performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

That's just what Bronson Arroyo did in a wide-ranging interview that's required reading for anyone on any side of the debate of drug use in Major League Baseball. Arroyo starts by admitting he takes a slew of supplements that aren't on the league's approved list, and has never failed a drug test, and then goes on to lacerate just about every sacred cow of the baseball world.

Now, you may be saying to yourself that it makes sense that he hasn't failed a drug test because clearly nothing he takes actually enhances performance. Perhaps, but it's everything else that Arroyo has to say that's making this interview a hot read around the country.

He takes fans and media to task for their outrage about steroid use, saying they're only concerned with records being broken and hypocritical about the health risks that may be associated with using the drugs.

"At the end of the day, you think anybody really (cares) whether Manny Ramirez's kidneys fail and he dies at 50? You were happy if the Red Sox won 95 games. You'd go home, have a cookout with your family. No big deal ... You think this country really cares about what ballplayers put in their bodies?" Arroyo asks. "If we really care, why are we pumping Coca-Cola in every kid's mouth, and McDonald's, and Burger King and KFC? That (stuff) is killing people."

Owners are also in the firing line when Arroyo says that none of them care what players are doing so long as they keep making money, which is also true of the player's union as they work to make sure players can make as much money as possible for as long as possible.

He cops to using amphetamines as well as androstenedione, when they were legal, even though he was warned about risks to his health. Arroyo also makes it clear that he doesn't regret either one because he felt they helped him be a better baseball player.

By the end of the interview Arroyo sounds a lot like Jose Canseco, both in his willingness to discuss what's actually going on and the lengths he goes to in trying to justify his own decisions. That doesn't make him particularly likable, but, just as with Canseco, it doesn't make any of what he said less true, either.

For all of the time spent discussing the use of steroids, HGH, supplements and all the others over the past few years, there's been far too little of this kind of raw speech without fear of the consequences. Baseball's better for it, even if they get a black eye in the process.