Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Rays/MLB

Caught in a trap suspicious minds

By JOHN ROMANO
Published May 12, 2006

Woke up this morning feeling the side effects of steroids.

I could sense an obvious shrinkage in faith. And definite signs of damage to my trust. Not to mention a bitter taste of skepticism.

No doubt about it, steroids have left a rash on my soul.

Strange, isn't it? You know how steroids can change the physique of an athlete, but you never consider how it can alter your own perceptions.

Take Albert Pujols, for instance. Incredible player. Terrific role model. The most feared hitter in the majors, currently on a record home run pace.

So, do you suppose he's taking steroids?

So, you figure he's back on the juice?

Yup, this is the unintended fallout from steroids. Watching baseball try to clean its house the past few years has left a lot of us with cluttered minds.

You hear that Pujols is on a pace to hit 83 home runs, and you can't help but wonder if he has discovered more than just lightning in a bottle.

Naturally, it's an unfair leap. To both Pujols and us. He deserves the benefit of the doubt, and we should be able to enjoy a monster performance without wondering about its origins.

But that's no longer possible, is it? We have too much knowledge, and the memories are a little too fresh.

Remember, we were supposedly fools for not seeing the now-obvious clues of steroid use by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998. And weren't we all dupes for allowing Barry Bonds to go unchallenged in '01?

So if you can't raise your eyebrows at the latest power surge, you're probably using too much Botox.

Granted, the circumstances have changed. There is certainly an increase in media and fan scrutiny. And steroid testing is now a routine part of the game. And don't forget the high cost of being caught these days.

Yet none of that means steroids have been eradicated. Or that it is wrong to have a suspicious nature.

Drug tests will certainly make it harder for players to use steroids, but it doesn't make it impossible.

In case you've forgotten, the only reason we know about steroids in baseball is because of a shot putter's divorce and a track coach's vindictiveness. Otherwise, it might still be undetected.

It was track athlete C.J. Hunter who supposedly handed a syringe to coach Trevor Graham three years ago far from any major-league park. Hunter was the ex-husband of sprinter Marion Jones. Graham was her ex-coach.

The syringe contained steroids concocted in Victor Conte's BALCO labs. Up to that point, these steroids had gone undetected in drug tests. Graham knew Jones was working with BALCO. He was also unhappy about losing her business.

So Graham mailed the syringe to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

And, from there, baseball imploded.

With a sample of this synthetic steroid, lab workers knew what to look for in drug tests. BALCO officials were busted. Bonds and Giambi were implicated in BALCO records. Senators got involved, and McGwire, Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro were forever linked to steroids in a congressional inquiry.

Think about that.

Palmeiro and Sosa have been chased from the game. McGwire's Hall of Fame candidacy is in doubt. Bonds is being jeered from coast to coast. Four of the greatest home run hitters in history will forever be under suspicion.

And all because of a failed marriage.

So, you ask, what's my point?

Do you think Conte and his cohorts were the only people in the world to develop an undetectable designer steroid? Don't you suppose there is at least a chance that another synthetic drug has been discovered? That sprinters, weight lifters and, yes, baseball players are eluding detection today?

Maybe that sounds far-fetched to you. It does to me, too. But can we afford to dismiss it entirely?

That's where steroids have gotten us.

Giambi begins the season on a tear and is suddenly under suspicion again. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was asked by the New York Post if his slugger was clean. "I hope so," Cashman replied.

Pujols can't hit 18 home runs in his first 35 games without radio talk shows and Internet chat rooms - or newspaper columnists, for that matter - discussing the possibility of cheating.

For the record, there is no evidence Pujols has ever used steroids. His physique has not dramatically changed. He has had no suspicious associations.

We consider the possibility only because he is so good. And that, in retrospect, is the most damning development in this steroid scandal.

We see the very best, and imagine the very worst.

[Last modified May 12, 2006, 00:56:10]