Steroids – Would You?

I had just finished reading an excerpt from American Icon by Teri Thompson, Nathaniel Vinton, Michael O’Keeffe, and Christian Red, based on the rise and fall of Roger Clemens, and I got to thinking….. If any of us found ourselves in the position that Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez found themselves in, would we succumb to the temptations of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED’s i. e. Steroids)? They were all at a crossroads within their own respective careers when they reportedly started using PED’s.

Soon thereafter I started thinking about the temptations of ballplayers on a whole different level than the guys I mentioned earlier. Kids who face many challenges that are different from the already established superstars in Major League Baseball. Kids who are fighting to be the next big thing and make it to the big leagues. I’m talking about the Single A level ballplayers, fresh out of high school or college and trying to make their way up the food chain within their organizations. What is the thought process of a young kid faced with these temptations as he takes bus ride after bus ride in the minor leagues wondering when and if he will ever make it to the Show? Especially in those times when abuse was running rampant in the major leagues.

“Clemens, Bonds, A-Rod: Why? "

Three superstars. Three automatic first ballot Hall of Famers. Three guys who just couldn’t accept those facts about themselves and needed more. Three guys who thought they were bulletproof and could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, without repercussions. Were they the only three guys who were juicing? Of course not, but these three guys were the headliners. They were already the best at what they did for a living long before the reported use of steroids had begun. Why did they do it? Lets examine…..

Growing up in Boston at the time like I was, Roger Clemens was “can’t miss TV" every time he took the mound. I remember trying to copy his windup and mannerisms(well, the best any 12 year old could! ) when I was pitching in Little League in Boston at the time. The Rocket was the man. Why would a future Hall of Famer like him all of a sudden decide to turn to the needle that deep into his career? To prove his former Red Sox GM Dan Duquette wrong, that’s why. When Duquette decided not to re-sign Clemens and he went and signed with Toronto, Duquette told the media that the Rocket was on the other side of the hill and on the decline at this point in his career. Clemens was seething on the inside at these comments and went out and dominated the league in his first year in Toronto. Then things started to unravel. He started off his next season very sluggishly and the team was losing. He needed an edge. He needed to prove Duquette was an idiot for the comments he had made. This was the season that Brian McNamee first injected Clemens with a needle in his “booty" as the Rocket called it. He didn’t realize it then, but this was the beginning of the end. In the short term, he went back to dominating, but it’s turned into a pretty sad story in terms of what’s happened with his life and his legacy in the game. He could never get Duquette’s comments out of his head. It ate at him. Especially when he started to realize after that one good year that Duquette might’ve been right. He had to find a way to prove him and any other doubters wrong.

Barry Bonds had it all. The ultimate combination of power, speed and the ability to hit for average. The Hall of Fame was waiting. Why did he feel the need to turn to the juice? Jealousy. It’s that simple. Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. were both considered the best all around players in the game at the time. Then what happened? Well, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa happened. What was McGwire’s line in his cameo on the television show Friends after his record breaking season? “Chicks dig the longball! “.. Well, Bonds couldn’t take being pushed off of the front page while McGwire and Sosa were juicing and dominating baseball with their tremendous power display that summer. Not to worrry Barry, you fixed all that. You went out and broke McGwire’s single season record for homeruns and you broke the great Hank Aaron’s all time record. You are now the King of the Homerun. Chick’s dig the longball, right Barry?

Alex Rodriguez is flat out the best, most gifted all around ballplayer I have ever watched play the game. You just knew this kid was Hall of Fame bound after just his first few years in the Bigs. So what made A-Rod turn into A-Roid after being in the league for seven years and dominating? Fear of failure. A-Rod signed the biggest free agent contract in the history of pro sports at the time, with the Texas Rangers. He was overcome with fear that he wouldn’t live up to the money he was now being paid. The majority of people out there will say that they can’t understand how someone as gifted and established as he was at the time, could be so insecure in his ability and have that much fear of failure that he would turn to steroids. His fear of not living up to the expectations of that mega-contract took him over.
(since his admittance of using from 2001-2003 there have been reports that he first tried steroids in high school)

So lets recap… Desire to prove someone wrong, jealousy, fear and insecurity… all human emotions that we all feel at one point or another in the span of our lives. For a minute, put yourselves in the positions of all three men. What would you do? Would you have considered using?

“The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round"

Life in minor league baseball can get really tough mentally. You keep thinking big, you keep telling yourself that each bus ride you take is for a reason. Another destination, another venue to display your talent and hopefully one day it all pays off and you’ll get your shot. Most don’t get their shot, and when you think about it, these kids on these bus rides were the best players in their towns and cities as they were growing up, bar none. Neighborhood baseball legends. These are the lucky ones who have been drafted by a Major League organization and yet most of them will never see a major league uniform. That is how hard it is to make it. Take a look at who you consider to be a “bum" or a weak link on your favorite MLB team of choice and take a minute to realize how talented he really is at the sport of baseball. The worst guys you see in the majors were so much better than everyone else on their high school or college teams as they’re growing up. Competition is so intense and skill sets of these guys can be so close that sometimes it just comes down to the tiniest little edge you can gain on your peers.

In reading Odd Man Out, authored by Matt McCarthy, there were so many funny stories about the life of a low level minor league ballplayer trying to fit in and trying to make it. Then McCarthy explained a situation that came up on a night out at a local chain restaurant while the team was on the road. McCarthy was in the Anaheim Angels organization. He was in A level ball, the starting point of most careers after you’ve been drafted. That night at the restaurant, McCarthy and a few teammates were just shooting the breeze, talking about girls and talking about how the season was going. Then the subject of “gaining an edge" came up. Keep in mind that these kids are either freshly out of High School or College. They are just beginning the journey in pro baseball. The subject of “standing out" came up. Separating yourself from the pack. I think you get where I’m going with this: Steroids came up. Think about it, so many kids with similar talents thinking, “how can I break free from the pack and make a name for myself? " How? McCarthy was adamantly against the use of steroids. He wouldn’t try them. McCarthy was performing better than one of his fellow pitchers on the squad who was actually juicing. McCarthy “washed out" after one year in the minors. He was cut. He had a bright future since he graduated from Yale. He enrolled in Harvard Medical School and is now an intern at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. He did it his way. He gave it his all, and in the end that wasn’t good enough. McCarthy was a rarity in terms of being an Ivy League graduate with something to fall back on if baseball didn’t work out. He played it clean, but what about the kids who don’t have their education to fall back on? The kids who only have baseball. Baseball is their Yale and they HAVE to make it. What do you do? Is working hard going to be enough? Especially when you see teammates and opponents at the same level of competition taking steroids. Teammates and opponents that if they weren’t on the juice, weren’t as good as you. Would you play it clean or would you want the edge?

Let me state my position clearly on this whole topic of steroids. I’m against them. 100% against them. But I understand the predicaments that these kids and these pro athletes find themselves in and I understand the temptations and why they do it. Do I wish sports, particularly the game I love most (baseball) were clean. Yes I do. Is it realistic to believe they will ever be clean or ever were? No . Chemicals, supplements and illegal substances have come so far and are as advanced as ever.. but don’t be naïve enough to think that back in the “good ole days" all they did was eat hotdogs and chug beer. There was something back then to give you an edge if you wanted it. Not as advanced and not as refined as today, but it’s all relative. Trust me, there was something.

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