Hey Howard Bryant, does Bill Buckner count as someone “around the game”? Because if he does, you’re going to have to update your toxicity scoreboard:
“I tried a million different things to combat the injury. I had to stay on the field. I was a little bit aware of the extraordinary physical gains some guys were making, but I don’t really look at it like some former players do, that it’s cheating. It’s a very tempting thing to do whatever you can to get healthy because the game puts such demands on you physically. I didn’t have the opportunity to use those things, and I’m glad I didn’t because I definitely would have been tempted. The direction is always better and stronger, better and faster, better and better. Anybody would have been tempted.”
There’s more than just the steroids stuff in the article -- Buckner is the “day games hurt the Cubs” camp and he’s not in the “players were better in my day” camp -- so it’s definitely worth a read.