August 15, 2005

PALMEIRO NOT ALONE ON LIST OF SUPERSTAR STEROID USERS

      The old adage comes into play when describing Rafael Palmeiro—you aren’t cheating unless you get caught.  Palmeiro was suspended for ten days in violation of the league’s substance abuse policy, but the particulars behinds that suspension show not only that baseball is too lenient when dealing with its superstars but it very well might be blocking its own path to the truth.

       Palmeiro apparently failed his drug test early in the season—and just shortly after his very public finger wagging at congress where he vehemently denied ever having used steroids.  It took almost the remainder of the season, however, for those results to be confirmed as baseball went to extreme lengths to ensure the veracity of the tests before publicly disclosing them.  No other player, until this point, was given as much rope as baseball went after, and caught, minor league players and minor major league names to prove that its testing procedure was not only valid but operational.  But when the testing showed that a future hall-of-famer, about to become only the fourth player in major league history to accumulate 500 home runs and 3000 hits, was guilty of steroid abuse baseball went to great lengths to allow Palmeiro much leeway in proving his innocence.  When he was unable to do so, and an arbitrator ruled that he could not positively explain away his test failure, the results were made public and he was suspended.

       Did baseball delay the inevitable discovery and disclosure until after Palmeiro had stroked his 3000^th hit so that the shroud of indecency wouldn’t cloud the hallmark moment?  Or did baseball delay the announcement simply to ensure that it had all its ducks in a row as they were obviously dealing with a name far greater than an Alex Sanchez or a Juan Rincon?  Either way baseball showed that there are two differing levels of guilt—and that superstars would be given every conceivable format and forum to prove their innocence and keep themselves out of such a powerful negative light.  If so, how many other superstars failed tests but were able to utilize better lawyers, or better doctors, to destroy baseball’s evidence against them.

       Let’s look at some other possibly guilty parties and their situations.  The obvious names to begin with are Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Sammy Sosa.  Those three are the superstars whose reputations have been sullied with possible drug abuse.  Bonds has sat out the entire season due to multiple surgeries on his knee (though there is much speculation that he is sitting out to avoid the drug testing since he knows that a failed test would ruin all the good he has accomplished).  I doubt whether Bonds is sitting out to avoid the testing, but it is quite possible that the injuries could be related to steroid abuse—remember Mark McGwire’s good health diminished quickly and doctors are unanimous in their claim that eventually steroids will break down the body.  Sosa, once the most feared power hitter in the game—is now a shell of his former self, both physically and athletically.  His talent loss has been quick and harsh.  Giambi, on the other hand, has recovered this season and seems to be returning to his former self, both in stature and in statistics.  This, of course, leads to speculation that, realizing that his career was coming to a crashing halt, he desperately sought out a new drug that could be easily masked.  When one is familiar with the doctors and their drugs it would be fairly easy to seek out newer and more complicated forms. 

       Let’s quickly take a peek back a few years and question some players and their break out seasons.  How about Brady Anderson—a line drive type hitter who, when batting leadoff, went from 16 home runs to 50 in one season.  Questionable?  Or Luis Gonzalez who, while a decent hitter, suddenly managed to stroke 57 in one season.  Neither player ever came close to matching those seasons again. How about Shawn Green?  Green became very good friends with Jose Canseco while the two played with Toronto.  Is it a surprise that soon after that Green went from being a potentially good player to a 40 home run man?  None of these players have ever even been considered as steroid users, but when those seasons are placed under the microscope questions immediately follow. 

       There are other superstars whose names have been associated with steroids—Gary Sheffield, Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez…and each of these players could be shown to have dramatic improvements in both body stature and statistics within a short period of time.  While Sheffield has continued to be a superstar hitter (does he have better doctors able to mask the drugs?) Rodriguez has shown a noticeable drop in body weight.  Gonzalez has recurring injuries not uncommon to either baseball players or steroids abusers.      

       It is no longer a surprise when players are found guilty of steroid abuse.  In fact even former ballplayers are quick to attribute the inflated numbers on steroids.  Hall of famer Reggie Jackson openly questions the field of play when singles hitters start hitting the ball out of the park to the opposite field.  Home runs are no longer an ultimate test of power hitters.  Anybody can do it now.  How does Reggie feel when someone like Palmeiro first catches and then passes him on the all-time home run list?  How does Hank Aaron feel knowing the Bonds is on the doorstep to possibly catching him for the all-time crown?  I doubt whether those players feel anything but annoyed at the prospect of their records being passed by cheaters. 

       Does baseball really want to clean up its game?    If they do they won’t stop at catching one big name.  The conception is that both McGwire and Sosa were juiced the year they supposedly brought baseball back from the depths dug by the lockout in 1994, and that Bonds was juiced when he broke the home run record a few years later.  Baseball needs to show that it wants a clean game.  Bud Selig promised the U.S. congress that he absolutely, and definitively, wanted to clean up baseball.  (Sounds like Judge Landis after the Black Sox scandal of 1919). 

      If Selig is true to his words, and is willing to put asterisks and black marks next to some of baseball’s great names and great records, then baseball has a chance to return to its pure roots.  Otherwise questions and speculations will continue to haunt the great game and place a dark gray cloud over ever accomplishment.  That can’t be what baseball wants from its game—is it?