Baseball’s Bungling on the Steroid Problem

The biggest outrage in sports isn't that the Baltimore Oriole's Rafael Palmeiro had a positive steroid test for Stanozolol, as bad as that is. No, REAL OUTRAGE is that Major League Baseball doesn't care.

Stanozolol, a drug that builds muscle, helps hitters knock a baseball silly, and allows 40-year-old men like Palmeiro to stay in the game he loves. It is also a potent anabolic steroid that could hardly be taken by accident as Palmeiro seemingly wants his fans and the Hall of Fame voters to believe.

But again, for me, Palmeiro is a minor player in this story. More egregious is that Major League Baseball has let him off with a 10-day suspension.

Ten days? How about two years? Five years? Lifetime suspension? Pete Rose was ejected forever from baseball's good graces for gambling. And Palmeiro and others like him get only ten days?

This is my hunch &#0151 baseball knows it has a problem. A big one. But cheating at the point of pill popping and injections is so deeply entrenched that if baseball started handing out two-year suspensions and Hall of Fame exclusions, the game would be over. And their game is really all about, of course, money, fans, and idol-worship.

In the first half of my life, I participated in track and field as a discus thrower. I was good enough to be an All-American, second-ranked thrower in the country, and invited to the Olympic Trials. Mostly, it was surmised, I threw against men on steroids. It was not like anybody was hiding his usage. Commented a friend at the Trials in 1980: “If we had peed in a cup today [for urine test samples], you would have won.” Undoubtedly hyperbolic, but he made his point. As it was, I placed 18th.

A few years ago, according to U.S. News and World Report, a million Americans, half of them teenagers, used bodybuilding drugs. I would suggest that usage has only increased. Our youngsters are dreaming of the major leagues.

But my, what a price. Looking for that winning edge? First and foremost, know that you are cheating and gaining an unfair advantage over those who play by the rules. Beyond that, try this list on for size. Steroids can:

&#8226 Shrink your testicals, or, in young boys, PAINFULLY enlarge your sex organs;

&#8226 Play deadly havoc with your liver and kidneys;

&#8226 Cause severe acne;

&#8226 Induce premature baldness;

&#8226 Yellow your skin and eyes;

&#8226 Cause the development of female-type breasts;

&#8226 And give you Hitler's personality.

A bum way to start the next school year, don't you think? Females can anticipate these possibilities:

&#8226 Permanent deepening of the voice;

&#8226 Shrinking breasts;

&#8226 Irregular menstrual periods;

&#8226 Swelling of private organs;

&#8226 And loss of hair from the scalp probably to be found growing elsewhere &#0151 like the face.

Believe me, I have witnessed much of the above; it is not pretty &#0151 even when accompanied by faster times, higher jumps, and 20-inch biceps.

The worst result isn't bodily, however. Beware of character damage.

Again, steroids are against the rules. Inject them, and you cheat. Cheat long enough, display enough illegitimate ribbons and medals, and you quit living with a lie &#0151 you become one. Bodily dysfunction is unattractive, but a walking deception is disgraceful.

I trained in college with one of the best coaches around: a National Strength Coach of the Year and an award-winning body builder. He taught me much about weightlifting and discipline. Together, we amassed muscle.

But he was into steroids. And he eventually, in shame, went to prison. The accusations were that he not only took them; he arranged for athletes to get them, too.

The NCAA was not amused. Neither was the court system.

He often walked by me as I was weightlifting and remarked, half-mocking and half-proud: “And Matt'll be able to say, 'I did it without!'”

Without steroids, he meant, without cheating, and without crucifying my honor. Evidently, I was a rare enough instance in his weight room to warrant comment.

I have wondered if he ever said to himself behind bars, “I wish I had done it without!”

I had a few good meets in college, comprising some “best” moments. The worst moment? Realizing I was exiting the University of Kansas just 18 inches short of the school record. A school record, by the way, set by a man who years later publicly admitted his use of steroids.

That record haunts me. I wince when I go back and see it hanging on the wall of Allen Field House in Lawrence, Kansas.

Nonetheless, today when my mind's eye focuses on that wall, I recall a line in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons. Sir Thomas More is talking to Richard Rich at More's trumped up treason trial. Rich has just perjured himself in order to betray More and has been rewarded for his treachery by being appointed Attorney-General in Wales.

Thomas More, now sentenced to die, pauses at the trial, looks into Rich's face with hurt and slowly says, “Wales? Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world …. But for Wales!”

Athletic interpretation: It profits an athlete nothing to give his/her integrity for the whole world … but for bigger muscles? Three thousand hits? Five hundred home runs? The Hall of Fame?

The world watches Major League Baseball and Rafael Palmeiro. And what does it see? A measly ten-day suspension and faked moral outrage.

(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)