MILWAUKEE – Thanks to three men by the name of Ken Caminiti, Tom Verducci, and Jose Canseco, steroids no longer are a taboo subject to discuss with ballplayers, all of whom plead innocent.
Shame on all of us that it took Caminiti chirping to Sports Illustrated’s Verducci and Canseco threatening to out steroid abusers in a book for the topic to move to the forefront.
Shame on sportswriters for looking the other way for so many years. Shame on paying customers for voting with their dollars in support of outrageous home run totals and shame, most of all, on the players for selling their bodies to the devil, imperiling long-term health for the sake of short-term gain, and on the owners for not insisting on meaningful testing in past labor agreements.
Yesterday, as the world’s best players gathered to participate in the All-Star Game interview session – well, most of the players, at least, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa blew off the sessions – steroids were a safe topic of discussion.
I decided to ask Jason Giambi, he of the body-builder physique, a question about the issue.
“Steroids are in the news this year you are on the record as saying you don’t use them and are against them,” I started. “Have you ever felt as if you’re at a competitive disadvantage because you don’t use them?”
“I don’t even, to be honest with you, think about it,” Giambi said. “You go and play the game and like for myself it’s important to me to play at a certain level. I hired a personal trainer who came with me to New York, so it’s not even an alternative to even think about taking them. I never have. So it’s never really thought about, the issue, to be honest with you.”
Naturally, Giambi thinks too much is being made of the issue. What else is he going to say?
“I still think it’s being blown way out of proportion, to be honest with you,” Giambi said. “Guys have a lot of talent. Guys take a lot of pride in what they do. It’s kind of a little sickening for me. Guys who work their butts off year-round and people are like the guy hits a lot of home runs it must be steroids. No, it doesn’t’ work like that.”
Not with all muscled-up sluggers. Some take Human Growth Hormone (HGH) instead. It’s in all of our bodies and there is no way of testing for it. It even makes skulls grow. And, of course, some sluggers take nothing stronger than legal powders sold over the counter.
“Guys take a lot of pride in what they do,” Giambi said. “It gets kind of ridiculous to start speculating until we have some way to go through it, it’s just blown way out of proportion. Even injuries, a guy gets injured and it’s ‘Oh, he’s on ’em.’ It’s ridiculous.”
Mike Piazza also addressed the steroids issue.
“From a PR standpoint, something needs to be done,” Piazza said. “I don’t think it’s the epidemic some people think it is. I don’t think it’s that widespread. The so-called epidemic, with guys sharing needles and stuff like that, just isn’t there.
From a PR standpoint.
Remember those words when a drug-testing program is implemented because chances are it will be one that’s easier to get around than a tackling dummy, one similar to the one used by the NFL. And, remember, there is no testing for HGH.
Piazza gets angry when the stats of today’s hitters are traced entirely to illegally inflated muscles.
“When they talk about legitimacy of records in baseball, was it steroids that lowered the mound in the ’60s, was it steroids that brought in the DH, was it steroids that expanded baseball four times, was it steroids that put a team in Colorado,” Piazza said. “I’m not saying it’s not something that needs to be addressed.”
Sadly, it will be addressed in cosmetic fashion only. Whatever testing program is negotiated won’t deflate the muscles or the skulls.