RSSProfessional Baseball and Steroids: This Ain’t No Never-Never Land
Mar 08
Sports baseball, Steroids Comments Off
The lingering steroid investigation in Major League Baseball is not going away any time soon. Not as long as more names keep coming up in connection with illicit drug providers. Not as long as some players continue to deny the truth and others refuse to cooperate. And not as long as ‘Roid Rage Bonds continues to get a hefty paycheck to make fools out of the cowardly San Francisco Giants (seriously, does San Francisco really need anything else to make it look ridiculous?) And with all of the revelations, from the books Game of Shadows and Juiced, to leaked grand jury testimony, to seized billing records, I have a hard time thinking about my favorite players and all the historic moments without the nervous fear. Who was on steroids? How do I really know?
The big question (actually, the barrel-chested, Popeye-armed, chiseled 4% body fat question) is who can you trust? I used to be a big fan of Rafael Palmero, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa. I’ve even put in an impressively strong showing of denial trying to retain my youthful admiration and respect for those three. I was crushed by the time there was virtually no denying what they had done. But, it’s not just the players that we know about now or have strong reason to suspect based on radical body change or a season or two of aberrant statistics (somewhere Brady Anderson just tiptoed backwards out of a room). It’s the good guys, the faces of baseball, the men that still can inspire childlike awe. Accusations have run as high as 85% of all big leaguers using steroids, but if it’s one quarter of that number, it would be devastating to me. So, who’s to say our other heroes aren’t simply better at concealing their deception?
And it’s not just the hitters. For example, I absolutely love Roger Clemens (unless he goes back to the Yankees and then you know what happens), but in this era it’s hard not to consider how rare it is for a pitcher to continue to dominate after age 40. He had a remarkable resurgence starting in 1997 with the Blue Jays. Come to think of it, Nolan Ryan had a cannon arm when he retired at age 47. And what about Eric Gagne, who was a washout as a starter until he suddenly remade himself into a fire-breathing beast of a closer, before getting injured? There are dozens of players whose bodies changed as they aged and whose statistics could easily be dissected to imply steroid use. There’s nothing to stop the speculation or even my own concerns that absolutely anyone could have been a user.
So, in a better world, I would be able to bring all these thoughts together and wrap this up by either deciding who is most to blame or making a declaration of how to handle the gossip and the fear of lost innocence. Maybe since everyone is a suspect, you just have to enjoy the games for what they are or just go with your heart, take each case one by one, and believe what you want to believe. But, I won’t do that. Because the tacky sitcom-style “solve the problem before the end credits roll” reasoning really doesn’t help me here. I truly don’t know what to do about it. And it genuinely hurts me to think about it. I get a nauseous feeling in my stomach when I wonder if Luis Gonzalez of the Diamondbacks was juicing when he sunk Mariano Rivera and the Yankees in game 7 of the 2001 World Series, or which of a thousand other cherished memories are just a lie. And I know, it’s just baseball. I’m not obsessed, I do shake off the feeling and go on with my life. But it’s never really resolved in my mind. And I don’t think it ever can be.
More Notes from the Cheap Seats
Michael Young signed a 5 year, $80 million extension with the Texas Rangers this week. That might sound like a lot of money for a player you don’t know. But, Young is one of the best kept secrets in baseball. The only reason I can think of why he isn’t a superstar is that the Rangers have been awful during his tenure, but that’s been due to terrible pitching. Young has had 200 hits in each of the past 4 years and has hit .316 during that time. Even better, he has played nearly every day. For a shortstop, his production is exceptional. Better during these past 4 years than the legendary Jeter. Wish he could have come to Boston.
Unlike the other 3 major sports, baseball is renowned for having out of shape and drunk fans who think they can do better than the players on the field. Something about the pace and appearance of the game makes it look easier than it is (trust me, the things those men can do…only the best of the best can even see a 90 mph slider, let alone hit it into the left-center field gap). One player who adds to that illusion is the Cardinals’ David Eckstein, the littlest pain in his opponents’ butt in the Majors. At 5’7″, he looks more like a little leaguer compared to the other giants on the diamond. And it doesn’t help that his throwing motion makes it look like he can barely lift the 5 ounce baseball. But, the guy can play and he can hit. He is a .283 career hitter and was the 2006 World Series MVP. If you get to watch him play, it’s easy to appreciate how much he brings to his team. Plus, it seems pretty unlikely to me that he’s on anything stronger than protein shakes. He hit 2 home runs last year. It’s just fun to know there’s still room in one sport for the little guy.
On the other end of the “decent guy-raging jackass” spectrum is Gary Sheffield. Made absurdly easy to dislike during 3 years with the Yankees, he’s still a misanthropic narcissist despite playing for the feel-good Detroit Tigers. He has a mystical power to leave you feeling dirty and in a foul mood after each and every interview. Though his name has been connected to steroids for years, this spring he somehow managed to run his mouth off about the current investigation, calling it a “witch hunt.” And only weeks ago, he ripped Joe Torre, the one Yankee it’s impossible to hate. He’s always angry and always blaming everyone else for his problems, all the while earning over $13 million per year at age 38, with a contract for 3 more years. Poor, poor Gary. He’s a bigger whiner than Paul O’Neil in his heyday, and here’s hoping he gets “BALCO” chants every time he steps to the plate all the way through 2009.
