Mark McGwire may have been the first to feel the wrath of the Baseball Writers Association of America the past few years but he certainly will not be the last. The group that votes in the candidates annually met in St. Louis during the All-Star break and turned down a proposal that would have established guidelines on player evaluation during the steroid era.

Rick Telander, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, first brought up the topic at a local BBWAA gathering and then made a formal proposal in St.Louis at a national meeting, which was voted down 30-25. The rules in place now state that voters must consider a player’s “record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”

That can be interpreted in many different ways and it would not be the worst idea to amend that rule slightly with the recent addition of performance-enhancing drugs into the equation. But there are two ways to look at this and it would not be a stretch to say that neither include the obvious.

Initially, would these journalists, who for the most part do not have any independent knowledge of the use and effects of PEDs besides what has come out post-McGwire, actually take the time to speak to people who are more knowledgeable in the subject before coming to a conclusion on this new set of criteria?

Secondly, if things remain the same, are these writers going to be consistent in their vote for all of the players that have been proven to or suspected of using PEDs that would have otherwise deserved to get into Cooperstown? This also brings the consultation into the equation with personnel from the medical profession or another qualified field.

Judging by the low percentage of votes McGwire has received in his first three years of eligibility, the BBWAA may be against the so-called “cheaters.” Big Mac was never a sure thing to make the Hall anyway, so it will be very interesting when the likes of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are on the ballot. The unofficial ‘automatic’ entry statistics such as 500 home runs and 300 wins may go by the wayside if some of these numbers may be viewed as being tainted.

Ken Davidoff, a columnist for New York Newsday and BBWAA member, voted against the proposal. He explained in today’s edition, “Why would we as a group discuss guidelines for PED use – rather than have every voter make that value judgement on his or her own – when we don’t discuss guidelines for closers, or designated hitter, or the merits of on-base percentage versus RBI?”

While Davidoff  does make a valid point, the main objective here is if the members of the BBWAA can make a value judgement on their own without the full knowledge necessary.  Will they hold a certain degree of prejudice against someone who may have used such a limited amount of steroids that it did not even make any difference in his performance?

When anyone – especially an athlete – begins using a PED, it takes more than just one needle in the ass to change warning track power. An entire regimen that includes a proper diet, sleep and intense training must accompany a cycle of steroids for it to have any effect on the user. Most people who take these substances without knowing what they are doing end up just retaining water and getting fat – certainly not a performance enhancer in those situations.

For this Hall of Fame steroid proposal to work, there are many more questions that need to be answered. Some of them will be next to impossible to attain, such as exactly what was administered and what else was done during these cycles. But for this to have any merit, there needs to be an attempt to ascertain those answers.

Sure, it’s easy to broad brush it and say steroids were against the rules and anyone who even tried them once should be sent to the brig. But it is more complicated than that and the idea of certain criteria concerning the Hall of Fame and PEDs is a noble one that can be honed to actually have some validity to it. Before we scoff at the notion, more information, such as what exactly was proposed in St. Louis, is needed to come to a conclusion.

We have contacted both Telander and Davidoff and would welcome their input on what we are proposing.

Photo by Jim Leary

“Cops are afraid of this steroid because it can make people so crazy they can flip a car,” he said regarding oxymetholone, commonly known as anadrol. This particular form that was recovered in the raid was from Iran, so who knows if the government knows something we don’t? Maybe Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had a batch of these cooked up right next to the nuclear power plant.

Seriously, folks. It is remarks like that which cause more good than bad. Anyone who has ever used A-50 knows it’s got a nice kick to it, but doing Superman-type feats of strength like overturning an automobile is pretty outlandish, if I should say so myself.

Franco may have been able to lift a car in “Pumping Iron,” but flipping it is another story. You know some inexperienced 20-something year-old is going to read that and say to himself, “I gotta get me some of those!”

Hey, Sheriff – what type of car were you referring to? One of those new Smart Cars that look like they came out of the Tonka factory or a ‘real’ one that weighs over 2,000 pounds?

How long before the mainstream media picks up on that statement and paints a picture of a juiced-up maniac running around like The Incredible Hulk flipping cars over like pancakes? Even when someone like Sheriff Andy Taylor over there tries to give himself credibility by making a big bust, he loses some of it with nonsensical statements. But the 6 o’clock news anchors won’t know any difference and polarize a remark like that.

If you are at the level of using hCG, especially after heightened levels of testosterone has shown up in previous tests, then you are certainly not a beginner or just happened to take something by accident. Ask anyone associated with bodybuilding about PCT (Post Cycle Therapy, in case Webber or Deese happen to be reading this) and they will tell you that it is an essential part of the cycle to prevent the drastic ‘downfall’ that can follow, and to trick the male body to produce its own testosterone again after ingesting an amount of the synthetic version. That plus to prevent ‘ball shrinkage,’ which does not need to be explained.

It is also kind of ironic that the news of Ramirez being suspended for 50 games comes the day before Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to make his comeback with the Yankees following hip surgery performed during Spring Training. 

Photo by Bill Menzel

Like it or not, athletes have been looking for an advantage since the original Olympic games in Ancient Greece. Since the 1950s, one of those advantages has been steroids and the use of performance-enhancing drugs has been a part of the sports landscape ever since.

Of course, bodybuilding has been synonymous with steroids and the use of them has been a fairly obvious fact since the 1970s. Yes, there are ‘natural’ competitions, but for the most part you cannot gain the type of muscle mass needed to win without using steroids. Let’s not lose sight of that and also understand that the sport has gone to different heights because of it.

The Mr. Olympia contest went from a small show held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1965 to an entire weekend full of everything Las Vegas has to offer. The competitors have gone from muscular to humongous and have graduated from only using steroids to implementing human growth hormone and insulin into their programs.

The late Ben Weider tried for years to get bodybuilding into the Olympics and even came close, but the International Olympic Committee because of the stringent drug testing consistently shot down the idea involved.

Instead of running away from the subject and looking foolish trying to deny it, bodybuilding has simply plodded along and doesn’t seem to be any worse for wear because of it.

All the while, baseball players have spent more time testifying in front of grand juries and Congress and speaking to investigators and the media about steroids than they have taking cuts during batting practice.

Getting back to the games is what the fans want to see instead of federal investigations. So far, it seems like bodybuilders are the only athletes not affected by all of this nonsense negative attention.

Who would have ever guessed that?

“In the early ’90s, the federal government came into pro wrestling and tried to put Vince McMahon in prison for steroid use of wrestlers,” Ventura told KUSA, a television network in Denver, Colorado. “My question is (that) they’ve now determined 104 baseball players failed their steroid test in 2003 – 104! They indicted Vince McMahon, why aren’t they indicting Bud Selig? He’s the head of baseball; it happened on his watch.”

In 1993, McMahon was indicted during the then-WWF’s steroid controversy and was accused of distribution. He was found not guilty following a 1994 trial.

Earth to Ventura: It’s noble of you to go to bat for Vince and a period of steroid use in wrestling that you were a part of. But you fail to realize the major difference between the two situations.

Baseball has the Player’s Association and certain steps that need to be taken for drug testing. Wrestling is an entertainment entity and McMahon is the end all of the rules governing it.

While Selig is definitely no angel in this and enjoyed the benefits from the offensive explosion fueled by performance-enhancing drugs, locking him up and throwing away the key is definitely not an option for punishment.

Even someone as thick-headed as Ventura should be able to see that.

On Saturday afternoon, the hot topic of Alex Rodriguez’s steroid use was on the plate and how little these sportscasters know about the substances and their affects was remarkable. Webber, who sounded as if his only athletic achievements ended with that extra-inning punch ball game at the ripe old age of 12, proceeded to make statements such as “Steroids will kill you,” and used Lyle Alzado, Ken Caminiti and Chris Benoit as examples.

Can steroids kill you? Any drug in excess probably can, but throwing these three names out there just proves that Webber failed to do his homework. He even acknowledged that Alzado had cancer, but said that it was “testicular.” Now, Alzado did pass away from cancer – and not steroids, which has been stated over and over by the medical profession – but it was a brain tumor that felled him.

Caminiti, who retired in 2001, admitted in a Sports Illustrated article a year later that he used steroids during his 1996 MVP season and for a few seasons after that. He had an alcohol and cocaine problem throughout his playing career and died from, according to the official New York City Medical Examiner’s report, “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of cocaine and opiates.” Now please tell me why a man who was three years removed from the game and a heavy drug user also be taking steroids?

Following the tragedy that was the Benoit double murder-suicide, people were quick to judge and call it the so-called ‘roid rage’ factor. Following a toxicology test, the chief medical examiner determined that “there was no indication that anything in Benoit’s body contributed to his violent behavior.”

Benoit did have mental issues and was on medication for it, which probably contributed to his actions even more than his steroid use. He also had severe brain damage due to suffering many concussions over the years in the wrestling ring, and was determined to have an advanced form of dementia, which most definitely could have contributed to his behavior.

Although Webber was the lead man on this subject, Deese kept agreeing with him as he made error after error. All of these misnomers should be left for the sports bar debates and not predicated by so-called professionals who should be more aware of the facts.

This is what responsible journalists/broadcasters do, especially with sensitive subjects such as this one that involves, for all intents and purposes, science. To just start throwing names and theories that have already been proven wrong leads one to believe that they’ll put just about anyone on the air, especially on weekend fill-in shows.

Although he seemed to be agreeing with Webber’s statements, Deese – who played for San Francisco and Tampa Bay before retiring in 2004 – did acknowledge some truths about steroids, mostly that you have to have a natural talent for them to be of assistance. He gave an example of a baseball player that is a singles hitter will suddenly find gap power if he is using steroids, which Webber reluctantly agreed to after having it explained to him very slowly. 

Deese, who earned a Super Bowl ring while playing for the 49ers, stands at 6’3″ and had a playing weight of nearly 300 pounds. Not making any accusations, but steroids and football – especially lineman – usually go hand in hand. One would hope that even if Deese did not use PEDs, he had to be familiar with many that did, and would have at least cut off his radio partner before he made a total fool of himself spewing nonsensical rhetoric.

It is totally understandable when a former player criticizes someone who enhances their performance by using banned substances, but how does that compare with someone who destroys their performance by using different types of substances, mainly cocaine, alcohol and tobacco?

During an episode of “SportsNite” on SNY (the network owned by the New York Mets) , Hernandez commented on Alex Rodriguez’s ESPN appearance and said, “I think that A-Rod knew what he was doing. If you look at his teammates over there in Texas, it was a nest of cheaters.”

“Mex,” who played a good portion of his career for the Mets and is currently one of the team’s television announcers, then speculated if he would have had a plaque in Cooperstown if he had used steroids.

“I was 191 pounds my rookie year,” he said. “If I had ingested steroids, I would have been close to 230 pounds. Now how much better would that have made me, 230 pounds without any body fat? And how many more home runs would I have hit?

“I hit 164 home runs,” continued Hernandez, who in addition to being a wonderful player has been lauded for his broadcast booth savvy in his second career. “I probably would have hit over 250. I drove in 1,100 runs. I probably would have drove in 1,400. And I think that, along with 11 Gold Gloves, I’d be in the Hall of Fame.”

Sorry to break it to you, Keith, but using steroids by themselves won’t make a difference. You have to commit to a workout program, proper diet and plenty of quality rest. That wouldn’t have mixed too well with all the partying that Hernandez was famous for during his playing days.

A star during his tenure in St. Louis (which included a co-National League MVP Award with Willie Stargell in 1979 and being part of the 1982 World Series championship team), he was dealt to the Mets on June 15, 1983 amidst much speculation of cocaine use. That all came to fruition when Hernandez and other players were called to testify at the 1985 trial of a Pittsburgh drug dealer named Curtis Strong.

During the 1986 World Series, Hernandez was seen on television smoking cigarettes in the dugout and became part of baseball folklore when he left the dugout with two outs in the ninth inning of Game Six and went into manager Davey Johnson’s office to drink a Budweiser. He was watching the game on a television while the Mets made their miracle comeback, most likely reaching into the refrigerator more than once.

If Hernandez had used steroids during this period of his life, it would have done nothing more than shut down his already affected liver. His bodyweight and stats would not have improved as he speculated, but there was a way that he could have performed a hell of a lot better. No, I’m not insinuating that he should have used something else, but he could have stayed away from coke, booze and butts.

Although he may be in a different ‘glass house’ than A-Rod and Barry Bonds, Hernandez has some pair of stones to start throwing them around.

Yeah, I know that baseball is the National Pastime and as American as hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet, but what makes the sport so different from all of the others that have dealt with the same issues, some with them much deeper? Take the National Football League, for instance. How many years have the players been using steroids? It is safe to say that since the 1970s, most of the linemen on both sides of the ball have at one time or another taken steroids. As the years went on, the other “smaller” positions followed suit.

The late Lyle Alzado is perhaps the one most associated with using steroids and even tried to use himself as an example while dying of a brain tumor not to indulge in the manner that he did. With all due respect, Alzado’s death had absolutely nothing to do with his use of steroids and every medical report on the subject backs that up. What his “confession” did show shined a light on what everyone already suspected – that steroids were common all throughout football.

Track and field, cycling and even cheerleading all have gone through steroid scandals, so why is a sport such as baseball and its 162-game schedule expected to remain clean? Perhaps it is the stigma that baseball players have had over the years. The old expression, “He’s not an athlete, he’s a baseball player,” may have some truth to it if you subscribe to that theory.

Jose Canseco, if he was the first to use them or not, has been called baseball’s “godfather of steroids.”  Just a few seasons after Keith Hernandez made smoking cigarettes in the dugout and drinking a Budweiser while the Mets made their Game Six comeback in the 1986 World Series part of baseball folklore, Canseco took it to the other extreme. Hernandez – who also had to answer for using cocaine during his playing career – has been beloved for years, even though he hasn’t exactly led a perfect life. On the other hand, Canseco has been raked over the coals and viewed as a clown for his truthfulness and outing of the baseball players that also used performance-enhancing drugs.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the former Oakland slugger wrote two books on the subject for financial gain and self-promotion. Canseco even went three rounds recently in a celebrity boxing match with Danny Bonaduce and had to settle for a draw with the much smaller former “Partridge Family” child actor. But that’s not the point.

When he was at his prime, Canseco was a physical specimen that excelled at what he was doing. If you read his first book, “Juiced,” he did not start using steroids blindly. He schooled himself on what would work for him and was careful about the amounts he was taking. When someone is that meticulous about their workout regimen, they are not going to destroy all of that hard work by practicing bad habits. If you are going to the extreme of using steroids, then the results you’re looking for will not occur if you do not do everything else proper, such as a good high protein, low fat diet, plenty of sleep and refraining from using alcohol, tobacco and the so-called ‘recreational’ drugs.

One major complaint by the public is that players such as Bonds, Mark McGwire and now Rodriguez are bad influences for children. While not disputing that logic, is Josh Hamilton a better role model for your Little Leaguer? The star of last season’s Home Run Derby nearly lost his career, marriage and life due to being addicted to crack-cocaine. He stole from his own grandmother to feed his habit and just because he cleaned himself up, does that make him better than A-Rod? Hamilton was considered a ‘can’t-miss’ prospect after he was chosen first overall by the then-Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1999.

Tom Hicks, the owner of the Texas Rangers who signed off on the $252 million Rodriguez contract in 2001, told reporters that he was “personally betrayed” by Rodriguez’s comments. “I feel deceived by Alex,” he said. “He assured me that he had far too much respect for his own body to ever do that to himself.”

This is the same man that allowed his organization to trade their top pitching prospect Edinson Volquez for Hamilton, who did have a productive first campaign in Texas (.304, 32, 130) but can fall off the wagon at any time. Just as Dwight Gooden and Steve Howe before him, Hamilton is fighting a long, uphill battle and has the support of not only the fans, but the entire baseball family.

All the while, players who have chosen to live their lives clean and have done everything they could to perform at the highest level are the scapegoats and subjects of a witch hunt that has not been this deep since Joe McCarthy was trying to convince the country that everyone he dragged in front of the United States Senate’s Subcommittee on Investigations were communists.

Before Rodriguez’s appearance on ESPN was five minutes old, President Barrack Obama commented that it was “disappointing,” and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) was looking to drag the 33-year-old slugger in front of another congressional session.

Just how far will this go? Even previously believed to be squeaky clean players such as Rodriguez are now known to be just another in the long line of steroid users. Bud Selig may have had aspirations that one day A-Rod would have surpassed Bonds’ career total of 762 home runs to become the ‘real’ home run king, but that plan was thwarted. The commissioner is going to have to come to the realization that the fitness craze of the 1980s and 90s also affected the game of baseball and some of the players who took it seriously may have taken it a step further.

That is old hat with the NFL, who have been dealing with this issue for much longer and seems to be doing just fine. Shawn Merrimen, Pro Bowl linebacker of the San Diego Chargers, wasn’t made to confess in front of Congress or the cameras and quietly received a four-game suspension.

Now after carefully digesting all of this, who is better off?

According to a report on the Sports Illustrated website, “four sources have independently told” SI that “Rodriguez’s name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball’s ’03 survey testing.”

The previously stated anonymous testing was conducted after MLB and the Player’s Association agreed to it as a reference source if random drug testing would be necessary the following year.

The report further stated that Rodriguez told an SI reporter on Thursday that he was not saying anything about it and that the scribe would “have to talk to the union.” Subsequent attempts to receive a statement from Donald Fehr, the union executive director, were met with negative results.

When the test was given, Rodriguez was a member of the Texas Rangers and won both the American League Most Valuable Player Award and the home run title (47) that summer. During that offseason, he was dealt to the Yankees. Rodriguez tested positive for two types of steroids – testosterone and Primobolan, which is also known as methenolone.  

The list of player’s names that tested positive has been exposed as a result of a seizure by federal agents at a Long Beach, California lab that was one of two that performed the testing. They were investigating 10 player’s links to BALCO.

Due to more than five percent of players testing positive during the anonymous period, MLB instituted a mandatory testing program with penalties in 2004.

Photo by Joe Perricone