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STOCKTON, Calif. -- Former major league player Ed Sprague said he used androstenedione and amphetamines before either was banned in the game.

Sprague, now baseball coach at University of the Pacific, said he started using androstenedione in the mid to late 1990s. He hit a career-high 36 home runs in 1996.

"It could have been '96 ..." Sprague told the Stockton (Calif.) Record. "I could have taken andro then ... and I might have. I don't remember everything I took."

Sprague averaged about 14 home runs per season during his 11-year career in the majors, most of it with the Toronto Blue Jays. He finished with 152 homers and 558 RBIs.

"Andro" was a dietary supplement popularized in the 1990s by sluggers such as Mark McGwire. Baseball banned andro in 2004 after federal officials prohibited its sale because its use posed significant health risks. Andro was reclassified as an anabolic steroid in 2005.

Baseball did not ban amphetamines, which boost energy, until 2006.

"That was an ultimate part of the game," Sprague said of amphetamines. "It was in the locker room forever. It was either a diet pill or a caffeine pill or whatever it was to give you more energy, and that was more prevalent than anything else."

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press