redsoxyankees

by Paul C.
Pink's Picks Correspondent

    The last thing any baseball player wants to discuss in the "S" word.
     Anything that you might have recently accomplished in the major leagues can be shot down faster than a Chinook on day patrol with the mere mention of the "S" word.
     The word (we dare not speak it's name) used to be something much more separated from baseball. It wasn't even considered when sluggers were cranking baseball after baseball out of park across the country. Most people being under the assumption that it was MLB making stadiums more hitter-friendly, and in-turn, more fan appealing.
     But let's go back a few years to see how we got to where we are.
     With baseball in economic turmoil after a strike a few years back that threatened the sport itself, it was looking for a savior to fill park seats, restore owner confidence and try to make baseball the institution that it always was; right next to Mom and apple pie.
     What better to return interest to the game than a good-ol' fashioned regular season home-run derby.
     Enter Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.
     The former "Bash Brother" and the skinny kid playing for the White Sox back in the early 90's, would come together, after the stars aligned of course, to create some hope in the soon-to-be shipwreck known as baseball.
     I must confess, I have always been a Cardinals fan, but living south of Boston, the chance of me seeing a St Louis game on a regular basis was as possible as me growing a third nipple.
     So it was no suprise to myself that I would flip through my local paper, hoping and praying that I would see McGwire and his mammoth guns pound pitchers into the ground.
     Of course, I remember tuning in the night Markie hit number 62 to pass Roger Maris in the all-time single season home-run record. It was, as I thought, one of the greatest moments in baseball history and something not easily forgotten.

current as of 2/26/04

THE DOPING DEBACLE

Bonds, Sheffield, Giambi claimed involved, how did we get to this??

    Then came the questions, which were flying about how these two men could thoroughly and completely obliterate the single season HR record. A lot of critics conceded that the baseballs being used were "juiced" and MLB had a small investigation into it. It would be a mere distraction to what the real reason was.
     Then an admittance.
     McGwire, in front of world media, did concede that he used Androstenedione, an over-the-counter sports "enhancement" medicine that was sold in powder or pill form and had the same effect of a steroid.
     How quickly things changed after that.
     The contest that had captured the attention of the country started to become overshadowed by the very thing that was the cause of all the excitement in the first place. People wanted an asterisk next to whatever HR number McGwire ended up at (the same thing they did to Maris in the season-shortened 1961).
     Then came along Barry Bonds who was putting his own assault on McGwire's record 70 HR's in 1998. This time, however, people were obviously much more skeptical that Bonds must've had "help" in challenging this baseball mark.
     Turns out that people can be very smart at times.
     And recently, BALCO, or Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, headquarters in Burlingame, California was raided by the federal government and owner Victor Conte was arrested and taken into custody for illegally distributing steroids to professional athletes. Some of these athletes involved and testified in federal court included Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi.
     Another blow to the major leagues just as they began to emerge from the strike cloud that had loomed over in 1994 and also hung over as recently as 2002.
     Though Bonds, Sheffield and Giambi acknowledge that they purchased vitamins from BALCO, they insist they never bought steroids or any other illegal substances despite an overwhelming amount of evidence claiming they did.
     So now that teams are arriving in camp for the 2004 season, the question becomes "Where do we go now?"
     With baseball considering steriod testing on a regular basis, just as the NFL does, it looks like the majors have some work to do to get itself out of another debacle.
     But this I promise you. For every problem they find a way out of, baseball has a knack of finding a way to get involved in something else.

Please e-mail me with your comments at [email protected]

4 Apr 2005 00:05:00 UTC+0000

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