Former Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo talks to USA Today about his willingness to consume over-the-counter nutritional “supplements.”

“I have a lot of guys in [the locker room] who think I’m out of [my] mind because I’m taking a lot of things not on the [MLB-approved] list,” Arroyo said, according to the report. “I take 10 to 12 different things a day, and on the days I pitch, there’s four more things. There’s a caffeine drink I take from a company that [former Boston Red Sox teammate] Curt Schilling introduced me to in ’05. I take some Korean ginseng and a few other proteins out there that are not certified. But I haven’t failed any tests, so I figured I’m good.”

…Arroyo says he suspects his name is on the list for taking andro contaminated with steroids.

He says that to gain an edge he also took amphetamines for nearly nine years from 1998 to 2006 and that, as a minor leaguer in 1999, he was stopped by customs agents in Canada while trying to cross the border with such pills.

That encompasses 2004, of course, so one wonders what other Red Sox players were gaining the same edge. And what is this mysterious company Schilling introduced Arroyo to?

If one were to guess at another Red Sox on steroids in 2004, you’d have to say Schilling, who was 21-6 that year. Is this the true story behind the bloody sock?

“You think this country really cares about what ballplayers put in their bodies?” Arroyo asks. “If we really care, why are we pumping Coca-Cola in every kid’s mouth, and McDonald‘s, and Burger King and KFC? That (stuff) is killing people.”

Good for Arroyo for speaking out. You may not agree with his perspective, but at least he’s saying what he thinks, and raising, in a ballplayer kind of way, some real issues.

“People can think what they want of me,” he says. “I don’t give a f—-.”