Velarde’s Name Shocks Salmon

TEMPE, Ariz. —  Designated hitter Tim Salmon was stunned to learn Tuesday that ex-teammate Randy Velarde, an Angel infielder from 1996 to ‘99, was reportedly one of six major league players who received steroids from the Burlingame nutritional supplement lab that is at the center of a growing sports drug scandal.

“That’s kind of a shocker,” Salmon said of Velarde, who retired after the 2002 season. “He was so ripped as it was, that’s surprising. But I guess the way things have gone the last few months, I should be less and less shocked. These kinds of things always seem to come back and get you one way or another.”

Velarde, a weight-room fanatic who had so little body fat he often wore a jacket in the clubhouse to stay warm, signed a three-year, $2.45-million deal before the 1996 season and hit .285 with 14 home runs and 54 runs batted in his first year in Anaheim.

But he injured his elbow while making a routine throw from the outfield before a spring training game in 1997 and sat out the entire season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn ligament.

While sitting out the first half of 1998, Velarde was so desperate to find something to boost his recovery from surgery that he tried using horse liniment, an oil used to strengthen the muscles, tendons and ligaments of racehorses. “I figured if it works for horses, it ought to work for humans,” Velarde said at the time.

Velarde returned to hit .261 in 51 games in 1998 and .306 with nine homers and 48 RBIs in 95 games in 1999 before being traded to Oakland. He spent 2000 with the A’s, 2001 with the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees and 2002 with the A’s.

“Randy was always a fitness freak -- he was always in great shape -- and I know what kind of effort he put in,” Salmon said. “It seems like guys use steroids as a shortcut, but he was not the kind of guy to do that. My guess is he looked at it for the healing aspect, because there is a healing element [to using steroids] that is beneficial. If that’s the case, I can swallow this a little easier.”

*

A Major League Baseball Players Assn. representative expressed disappointment Tuesday that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in January released news that Angel reliever Derrick Turnbow had tested positive for a banned steroid at a U.S. national team and Olympic qualifying camp last October.

“One aspect of any fair testing program is that rules of confidentiality need to be observed,” said Mike Weiner, the union’s associate general counsel who addressed the Angels on Tuesday morning. “I’m not certain whether those rules were observed in this case.”

Turnbow tested positive for metabolites of a steroid, either nandrolone or 19-norandrostenedione, both banned by the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency. Turnbow said he had taken an over-the-counter dietary supplement containing “19-nor,” as the substance is known.

“It was for working out, helping me out in the winter,” said Turnbow, who is battling for a bullpen job this spring. “I stopped taking it.”

That, however, does not lessen the fact that Turnbow was the first major leaguer publicly identified as testing positive for a banned steroid.

“There’s a little bit [of a stigma attached to my name],” Turnbow said. “I hope I can move on from it. It’s old news, but it will always be attached to my name, and I have to deal with it.”