ANAHEIM – A’s right fielder Josh Reddick has joined the advisory board of the Taylor Hooten Foundation, an organization that aims to teach youths about the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs.
The foundation is trying to recruit one major leaguer from each team, and Reddick joined after finding a pamphlet in his locker one day. He said educating kids about the danger of PEDs is an issue that registers with him.
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“The earlier you get it across to kids, the better it’s gonna be,” Reddick said. “For a guy like me, coming up here, I struggled to gain weight throughout my career. I finally started doing it at 26 or 27 years old. It does give you a sense of (accomplishment) that you’ve done it the natural way and made it this far without any supplemental help from something that’s banned from the league. So you try to get that message out as soon as you can.”
Reddick, 27, said he weighed in the 185-190 pound range when he got drafted out of Middle Georgia College in 2006. Over the next three years, he dropped to about 175 as he struggled to keep weight on through the baseball season.
“I wasn’t eating right, and even with the protein and the workouts, I still couldn’t gain weight,” he said.
This past offseason, he said he put on about 15 pounds, which surprised him considering his winter regimen included more cardio work, which you would think would make it harder to gain weight. Reddick said he’s been able to maintain a playing weight of about 195 pounds throughout this season, and he hopes his participation in the foundation can help steer kids away from PEDs.
“You don’t want that kind of thing in baseball, or any sport at that,” he said.
