A former Red Sox trainer went against state law when he administered a powerful painkiller by injection to some of the players. Trainers are not allowed to inject players with any drug, this is not only against state law, but the industry guidelines also prohibit this, according to Yahoo News on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013.
Mike Reinold, who was an athletic trainer and a physical therapist for the Boston Red Sox from “regularly injected players with the powerful and controversial painkiller Toradol” during the years 2006-2011. Reinold would treat mostly Boston’s pitchers including Schilling and three others, who remain unnamed.
Toradol is a legal drug and is not a drug banned in the MLB, but The Massachusetts Board of Allied Health Professionals have disciplined trainers in the state for administering medications by injections to players.
The 35-year-old trainer had witnesses who saw him injecting the players and the findings in Reinold's investigation is that he did inject players, both at home and on the road with the painkiller.
Schilling said that Reinold never injected him with the painkiller, but he never said who did. Schilling did say he witnessed him inject others with the drug.
"I had a Toradol shot almost every single game for the last 10 years of my career," Schilling told Yahoo! Sports. "It was never administered by a doctor at home or on the road. I didn't think it was wrong."
Toradol is an anti-inflammatory drug, it is a stronger “cousin” to Advil and Aleve and some doctors believe it can damage organs. The drug is used throughout the MLB teams, as the pitchers often take it to prevent arm pain before a game and also to treat pain during a game.
While Toradol is not considered a performance enhancing drug, it’s well known that the drug has the ability to help the pitcher’s performance. The investigation concluded with reaching “a set of specific understandings” with the Red Sox franchise about how they will "operate going forward," reports MLB’s executive VP of affairs, Rob Manfred.
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