Jim Parque Comes Clean About HGH

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jul 23, 2009 2:20PM

Remember Jim Parque? While not exactly a household name, we Sox fans do remember the pitcher who won 13 games for the 2000 team that won the AL Central crown, before his career derailed due to injury. After his 13-6 campaign, he pitched just 13 more games for the Sox over the next two season and just five more with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays before his career ended for good in 2003.

As the steroid scandal continues to hang over major league baseball, the guys like Parque -- who was mentioned in the December 2007 Mitchell Report -- could dodge the heat focused on the big names who produced outsized stats, like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens or Alex Rodriguez. Yet Parque has decided to go public about his human growth hormone use. In today's Sun-Times, Parque himself details his use of performance-enhancing drugs and why he did so. In penning a confession of what he did, he acknowledges that he is, "a cheater, a villain and nothing more than a drug user in the eyes of the media and some fans."

Having torn his labrum during his game 1 start of the '00 ALDS, he was unable to regain his velocity on his pitches -- which was never very high to begin with. After being released from the Sox following two years of rehab and minor league appearances, he took the plunge into the world of HGH , which "was not banned by Major League Baseball when [he] ordered it. It was controversial and unethical, but it was not banned." With a career that looked to be finished before turning to HGH, Parque wrote, "negative thoughts of baseball ending were soon replaced with a euphoric sensation that I would resurrect my shattered career and be able to provide, once again, for my family." While many hold players who cheated in contempt, Parque asks, "What would you have done?"

You have a bleak future and a family to provide for. You are taking a substance that is not banned. You can live your boyhood dreams. Millions of dollars, glory and fame are there for the taking. If you take the non-banned substance, you hold on to your job -- a job that is all you have ever known. If you do not, you enter an unknown world with no known path to success.

While we feel cheated by those who performance-enhancing drugs to crush homers by the dozens and earn nine-figure contracts, we don't feel quite the same outrage for the guy who was trying just to get healthy enough again to make a major league roster, a guy who didn't earn millions and who needed financial security for the next sixty years. While we can't condone his actions, we certainly can empathize with the situation that drove him to that decision at the time. At least he's willing to be frank about his past, which will hopefully help move major league baseball forward and past a dark era for the game.