In Mark Carreon's 10 seasons as a big-league outfielder, he hit a modest 69 home runs and was neither a slugger nor an all-star.
The Salpointe Catholic grad was traded for players you probably never heard of, including Jim Poole and Randy Marshall, and completed his career playing for Japan's Chiba Lotte Marines in 1998.
Yet on Page 163 of baseball's Mitchell Report, admitted steroid dealer Kirk Radomski says he provided Dianabol pills to Carreon and that "the ball was jumping off his bat." Radomski also told investigators that Carreon could hit the ball farther while using steroids.
On Monday, Carreon admitted he once used steroids "for a six-week cycle" while playing for the San Francisco Giants in the mid-1990s.
"I don't feel my career was a sham," he said in a phone conversation from his home in Victoria, Texas. "Through the span of my baseball days, I did nothing that would require me to hang my head. I played strictly on the talent I possessed and through hard work."
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Carreon, who is 6 feet tall, played most of his career at 195 pounds. He was known as a feared pinch hitter and capable extra outfielder for the Giants, Mets, Tigers and Indians, never hitting more than 17 homers in a season.
There was not a notable bump in his statistics after taking steroids. His physique did not change. In fact, after Carreon hit .301 for San Francisco in 1995, he was traded to Cleveland for Poole and an unspecified amount of money midway through 1996.
Yet his name is probably forever scarred. He becomes a living, perhaps enduring part baseball's steroids era.
It is a steep price to pay for someone who never suspected he would go down in history lumped with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
"I'm not embarrassed to say that I had a one-year experiment. That's the truth of it," said Carreon, 44, a father of three school-age children who is contemplating a job in the oil industry. "It doesn't do any good for me to go into details. For 17 of my 18 years in baseball, I was clean. I made one error in judgment."
A day before the Mitchell Report was made public, Carreon received a certified letter requesting a response to Radomski's allegations.
He phoned the players' association. He talked to his family. He said he was "shocked." What else could he do? His name was on what seemed to be a permanent ticker on ESPN programming. His name was in all the papers.
The damage was done.
In Tucson, Carreon's former Little League and high school teammate, ex-major-league pitcher Ed Vosberg, was saddened by the report.
"Mark is a good guy, and he has a good reputation. Those things won't change," said Vosberg, who attended the UA after playing with Carreon at Salpointe.
"I'm not talking about Mark, but I played with and against many guys who were marginal players who felt they had to use steroids to keep their jobs. In every clubhouse, there were whispers about this guy and that guy. Overall, I was surprised so few names (85) were mentioned. From my experiences in baseball, I was expecting many more."
There is far more to Mark Carreon, ex-baseball player, than his name in the Mitchell Report.
It should be remembered that during the 1994 baseball strike he returned to Tucson and became involved, at his expense, in the building of some housing for low-income families. While playing for the Giants, he was active in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program.
A few weeks before Christmas 1992, Carreon agreed to help a Tucson radio station raise money for needy families. In doing so, he established a card show/autograph session. Once it was obvious that too few people knew about the project, he paid for advertising to attract a greater crowd and earn more Christmas money for the families.
This is not an attempt to alibi for Carreon's presence in the Mitchell Report. Rather, because the baseball people did not offer a realistic forum for rebuttal last week, it is fair to establish that Carreon has not attempted to duck the issue.
He has been a stand-up guy.
Recovering from knee surgery as a Mets outfielder in 1990, Carreon checked himself into New York's Smithers Center for Alcoholism and Drug Treatment. Because he was on the disabled list and on no one's celebrity radar, he could have kept it a secret.
Instead, he told the Star that winter, "I checked into the program because I wanted to educate myself, to learn more about this problem before it got any worse."
On Monday, Carreon said he would support baseball in its attempt to restore its reputation and to move past the steroid era.
"This whole thing caught me by surprise because I have been detached from that arena for so long," he said. "I felt it was unfair because I had no time to reply. I don't know to what capacity others used steroids. I only know my situation. I made a mistake. Now I'll move on and try to make the best of it."
the carreon file
Salpointe's Mark Carreon played for four teams as a major-league baseball player.
10
Seasons
69
Career home runs
.301
'95 hitting average
44
Carreon's age
1996
Last year in majors