01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, June 22, 2006

BY ART MARTONE
Journal Sports Editor

Baseball's steroids/human-growth-hormone/amphetamines controversy hit home yesterday as former Red Sox pitcher Paxton Crawford admitted in an article in ESPN The Magazine that he used all of those performance-enhancing drugs while in the Boston system.

Crawford pitched briefly for the Red Sox in 2000 and 2001, and also pitched for the Pawtucket Red Sox in 2000, '01 and '02.

In an interview with Amy K. Nelson -- a freelance writer who has worked for The Providence Journal in the past -- Crawford said he first began using steroids during spring training in 1999. He said the drug was recommended to him by minor-league teammates as a means of reducing pain.

"They told me that if I took this stuff, it would make the pain go away and cut my recovery time in half," he told Nelson. "Shoot, why not? I'm just a country boy; I didn't even think twice. It seemed like everybody else was doing it, so it wasn't a big deal, right?"

Crawford said his fastball immediately improved from the 92 to 93 mph range to 95 to 96 mph.

"But the biggest change for me was consistency," he told Nelson. "My breaking pitches had more velocity and sharper break."

Crawford pitched a no-hitter for the PawSox in 2000 -- a seven-inning effort at Ottawa in the first game of a doubleheader -- and made it to the majors later that year, pitching in seven games for the Red Sox with a 2-1 record and a 3.41 earned-run average. He earned a spot in the Sox' starting rotation in spring training 2001 . . . which also is when he began using human growth hormone.

"I was probably using the most back in 2001," he told Nelson. "About that time, I was getting pretty big, and another player introduced me to human growth hormone, which had started to make the rounds in the majors.

"I got a kit with two bottles: One was filled with some kind of water, and the other was filled with these tiny crystals. I put a few drops into the crystals and -- poof! -- it became liquid. I thought, 'Boy, what the hell are you putting into your body?' But I did it, anyway."

Crawford said he didn't like HGH and eventually stopped taking it "because it cut me up. It was a fat burner, and it made my muscles really lean and tight." Because he also was afraid of "roid rage," he began reducing the amount of steroids he took, but then took amphetamines -- "greenies" -- to regain the adrenaline he lost by cutting back on steroids.

"That's why I think steroids are a gateway drug," said Crawford, referring to a drug that leads a person to other drugs.

Crawford started quickly for the Sox in '01. He had a 1-0 record and a 2.55 E.R.A. in his first four starts.

"Back in 2001, I thought I was the man," he told Nelson. "I had no shame, and I thought nobody could touch me."

But it didn't last long. He began pitching erratically and was farmed out to Pawtucket in mid-May. By mid-June, he was on the disabled list because of a stress fracture in his lower back that he now thinks was related to steroid use.

(Crawford also was sidelined by an injury he says happened when he fell out of bed and onto some glass, but asserts the serious back problems were unrelated to that incident.)

Despite having surgery, the back injuries never really went away, and he never made it back to the big leagues. He now is out of baseball at age 28, after having pitched the last two years in independent leagues.

Crawford is the second Red Sox player to be linked to performance-enhancing drugs; in 2000, steroids were found in the glove compartment of utility infielder Manny Alexander's car. And if what Crawford says is any indication, he probably won't be the last.

"I'll never name names," he told Nelson, "but I know it wasn't just me. Steroids had a hold on the game. Guys were walking around like zombies."

He told one story of pitchers who were on steroids:

"A lot of guys on juice would shave their chests and arms and walk around looking oily," he said. "One time I remember a coach telling some of us, 'We don't want guys who look good on the beach. We want guys who can pitch!' "

For all of the physical advantages he received from the drugs, Crawford says they also did damage to him emotionally.

"Baseball is mostly mental," he told Nelson, "and all these things you're putting into your body are going to affect how you think. In 2001, that started happening to me. I was taking way too much stuff, and I'd get rattled. You can't get rattled in the big leagues.

"And then I messed up my back. I think the steroids had something to do with that, too."

Nelson's interview with Crawford is online in the Insider portion of espn.com. It also will be available on newsstands this week.

amartone@projo.com / (401) 277-7345