Baseball slow to act on use of 'speed'

A kid with a dream, Bronson Arroyo was trying to break in with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1998 when one of the team's elder statesmen tipped him to one of the basics of Major League Baseball: amphetamine use.

''I remember talking to [Hall of Famer] Willie Stargell and guys like that," said Arroyo, now aBoston Red Sox starting pitcher with a World Series ring. ''Those guys always used stuff, black beauties or whatever they heard was coming up from Mexico or wherever."

Seven years later, baseball continues to wrestle with a decades-long dependence on amphetamines, dangerous stimulants many major leaguers illicitly obtain and use to combat fatigue and tedium in their daily quest for a competitive edge.

While government and baseball officials remain focused on the steroid abuse that has roiled the $4 billion pastime, amphetamines continue to circulate unfettered in major league clubhouses, according to players, other baseball figures, and medical authorities close to the sport. Amphetamines, also known as ''greenies" or ''beans," remain nearly as common as chewing tobacco 35 years after Jim Bouton's book, "Ball Four," exposed their influence in baseball and the federal government banned their use without a prescription.

"Everybody's always looking for an edge," said Arroyo, who was interviewed about the general problem of amphetamine use in the league, and did not address behavior by any specific current players. "Whether it's greenies or caffeine or whatever, players want a little something to get them going. It's been around as long as the game has been around."

Baseball owners and the players' union, in a joint legacy of inaction, have failed to curb amphetamine use even as they have agreed to ban 45 types of steroids and an array of other "drugs of abuse" such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, marijuana, and ephedra. Under the game's labor agreement, which the sides expanded in January amid pressure over the steroid scandal, major leaguers can be tested year-round for steroids. They can be tested for "reasonable cause" at any time for the other listed substances. But no player can be tested by Major League Baseball under any circumstance for amphetamines, which are commonly referred to as speed.

"It's another thing we need to clean up," said Sox center fielder Johnny Damon, the team's union representative, who acknowledged experimenting several times with ephedrine products whose effects are similar to those of amphetamines. The death of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler in 2003 prompted the Food and Drug Administration, in 2004, to ban ephedra supplements, which contain an herbal stimulant from which ephedrine is derived. Baseball banned ephedra in January in its agreement on steroid testing.

However, a federal judge Thursday struck down the FDA ban on ephedra, ruling in favor of a Utah company that challenged the ban. Nutraceutical claimed in its lawsuit that ephedra "has been safely consumed" for hundreds of years.

"The stuff's awful," Damon said. "Hopefully, nobody gets hurt before more people wake up to it."

Former Red Sox manager Joe Kerrigan, who pitched in the big leagues in the 1970s and also has been a pitching coach for the Sox, Montreal Expos, and Philadelphia Phillies, said baseball risks another drug crisis the longer it fails to rid the game of amphetamines.

"Amphetamines may be the next bomb that goes off in baseball," Kerrigan said. "We don't need anything else to soil the game. They should get ahead of the problem before it's too late."

Negotiators for baseball commissioner Bud Selig proposed banning amphetamines during the last round of labor talks on steroids. But union officials, who had taken the unusual step of reopening a contract that remains in effect until 2006, resisted, arguing they already had agreed to a major concession on steroid testing.

The sides agreed to review the issue, though owners won "the unilateral right" to reopen the agreement in 2006 to further negotiate a ban on amphetamines. The drug testing portion otherwise remains in force until 2008.

Meantime, baseball's amphetamine policy ostensibly remains, as it has for decades, "Don't ask, don't tell."

"What they're saying is, `It's a sleeping dog, let it lie,' " said Dr. Charles Yesalis, a professor of health and human development at Pennsylvania State University, who is writing a book about the history of amphetamines.

Selig disagreed.

"Do I believe amphetamines should be dealt with? Absolutely, yes I do," the commissioner said in an interview. "And I'm going to do it in a very aggressive manner."

No one disputes the presence of amphetamines in baseball.

"They have been around for a long, long time," Selig said. "But I have the same general health concerns about amphetamines that I have about steroids. We need to clean them up, too, no question about it."

A union official who asked not to be identified said negotiations over baseball's drug policy largely have focused on steroids, but the amphetamine issue is expected to come up in the next round of talks. Asked for further details of the union's position on amphetamines, communications director Greg Bouris said, "I don't think there's anything to add at this stage."

Survey sheds light
The prevalence of amphetamines in baseball is documented in a recent survey of players as well as a rich lode of firsthand accounts and anecdotal evidence. With 568 of the 700 major leaguers responding to a survey last month by USA Today and the Sports Xchange, 87.2 percent said amphetamine use exists in the big leagues and 35.3 percent said at least half the players use amphetamines.

Some major league baseball stars have been named in court with possible associations with amphetamines.

In the 1980s, for example, Stargell and teammate Bill Madlock were directly linked to the drug by teammates Dale Berra and Dave Parker during the infamous Pirates' drug scandal in which a team official was convicted of selling cocaine to major leaguers. Both Stargell and Madlock denied their teammates' allegations.

And many star players have, over the years, spoken out about the broad availability and abuse of the drug in baseball. Among them are Sox pitcher David Wells, former Sox slugger Mo Vaughn, 15-time All-Star Tony Gwynn, former National League MVP Chipper Jones, Mets star Mike Piazza, and Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee.

Gwynn has stood by his assertion in 2003 that amphetamine use in baseball is "rampant." And Wells buttressed Gwynn's analysis in his 2003 book, "Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches, and Baseball."

" `Greenies' have been around for eons in the world of baseball, and while they're still just as illegal as they were when Jim Bouton first wrote about them in `Ball Four,' they're still every bit as prevalent," Wells wrote. "Cheap and easy to find, these little buggers will open your eyes, and sharpen your focus, and get your blood moving on demand, over and over again, right through a full 162-game season."

Though Wells described his stimulant of choice as a six-pack of Diet Coke, he wrote, "As a pitcher, I won't ever object to a sleepy-eyed middle infielder beaning up to help me win."

Wells asserted that teammates often share their private cache of amphetamines.

"A lot of guys will buy themselves a season-long stockpile at one time," Wells wrote. "We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of pills. With that in mind, it really ain't hard to get connected. Stand in the middle of your clubhouse and walk 10 feet in any direction. Chances are you'll find what you need."

Wells, who declined to discuss amphetamines for this story, hardly endeared himself to people in the game with his disclosures. Many players have fiercely defended their private use of supplements and other substances, regardless of their legality.

"I'm sure that aggravated a lot of people," Sox manager Terry Francona said of Wells's disclosures.

Francona, who played 10 seasons in the majors, said he could not gauge the prevalence of amphetamines.

"This is an area where if you don't have an educated answer, you can put your foot in your mouth and embarrass people and hurt people," he said. "I'm not saying we have a bunch of angels, but I think too many people are giving opinions that are skewing the reality."

Discussion discouraged
Although trainers for major league teams are considered as knowledgeable about the substances players use, several declined to comment about amphetamine use.

"We've been asked [by Major League Baseball] to stay out of it," said Jamie Reed, medical director and head trainer of the Texas Rangers, who serves as president of the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society.

Numerous players also declined to discuss the prevalence of amphetamines in the sport, including several who rank among the most accessible to the media, such as Kevin Millar and Trot Nixon of the Sox. Nixon said the union asked players to refrain from discussing the matter.

But Dr. Bill Evans, director of the nutrition, metabolism, and exercise laboratory at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said several major league trainers have outlined the breadth of baseball's amphetamine problem to him.

"It's just astonishing to me that no one is addressing the issue that amphetamines are the most abused drug in baseball," Evans said, citing estimates from trainers that 50-60 percent of players are users.

He said the trainers described both position players and pitchers as users and cited relief pitchers in particular. Asked about amphetamine use among relievers, Arroyo said the job requires a special ability to excel at a high-pressure task on short notice.

"After you sit out there in the bullpen for two hours in the hot sun watching people eat peanuts and hot dogs, nobody wants to get up and face Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa with the bases loaded," Arroyo said, speaking generally and not about himself or any specific player. "If you don't have something going for you, you're not going to make it in the game."

Evans served 15 years as an adviser to the Boston Bruins and New England Patriots before he moved from Tufts University to Arkansas.

"It's a given that steroids are a big problem in football, and alcohol continues to be a huge issue with hockey," Evans said. "But the thing that has really struck me about baseball is the rampant use of amphetamines. Steroid use is not anywhere near as widespread."

Addictive cycle
Major League Baseball's medical adviser, Dr. Elliot Pellman, who recently became embroiled in a separate controversy when the New York Times reported that he had embellished his resume, indicated that baseball considers amphetamines so deeply rooted that any policy to ban them should stress education and reflect "sympathy that we may be suggesting making a significant cultural change."

Pellman said he shared the concern of trainers who told Evans that some players return home after the season addicted to amphetamines.

"But what I'm most worried about with amphetamines is that they can fuel a cycle of ups and downs," Pellman said, leading players to rely on "alcohol or sleep medications to help them calm down."

Medical specialists said those cycles can spawn a number of physical and psychological problems. Amphetamine users also risk hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, heatstroke, and anxiety disorders, among other conditions. As a result, the medical community has come to prescribe amphetamines for only a limited number of conditions, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy.

"On a danger scale, amphetamines are a hell of a lot higher than steroids," Yesalis said. "If I held a gun to your head and gave you a choice between ingesting a bottle of amphetamines or a bottle of steroids, you damn well better choose the steroids. If you chose the amphetamines, you'd be just as dead as if I put a bullet in your head."

The message has yet to resonate with many players. Though Arroyo did not acknowledge using amphetamines, he described the dangers of using them as similar to those of using caffeine.

"On a scale of 1 to 100, if steroids are 100, the other stuff people are taking is about a 7," Arroyo said. "It's like comparing crack [cocaine] to a cigarette. Chewing tobacco is a hundred times worse than anything guys have taken to get energy for a game."

Arroyo, like many players, has searched for the best way to gain an edge short of using illegal substances. Players often wash down their product of choice with coffee an hour or more before games.

"I always take something when I pitch, whatever I find was working from the start before," Arroyo said. "If I had a cup of coffee and two ginseng pills and pitched well, I'll have half a cup of coffee and two ginseng pills the next time. If I pitch bad, I might try something else, like half a soda with caffeine in it and something else. You've got to have an edge because you want to give your top performance."

Damon used products containing ephedrine "about five times," he said, "but then I heard how bad it was."

He said he also witnessed the toll that amphetamines and similar substances took on his teammates while he played for the Kansas City Royals from 1995-2000. He described symptoms that indicated players may have been on the verge of severe dehydration, if not heatstroke.

Many current and former players said the need for extra energy increases during the grind of a long season. The Sox traveled more than 41,000 miles over 183 days last year on their 162-game schedule before they spent October traveling to Anaheim, Calif., New York, and St. Louis for the playoffs.

"This game can wear you out," Damon said. "People need some help, but I tell myself not to give into that temptation."

Bouton's revelation
Amphetamines first became widely used during World War II, when they were distributed to American servicemen to counter fatigue. The troops found an additional benefit when they competed for military baseball and football teams.

"They found the amphetamines they were using to fly combat missions and fight on the ground were helpful in sports, too," Yesalis said. "When they came home as pros and college players, it spread from there."

Many baseball teams provided amphetamines to players in the 1950s, and though the practice stopped in the '60s, players continued to use the drugs. But it took Bouton's book about his season pitching for the Seattle Pilots in 1969 to expose the grip of amphetamines on the game.

"We don't get them from the trainer because greenies are against club policy, so we get them from players on other teams who have friends who are doctors or friends who know where to get greenies," Bouton wrote. "One of our lads is going to have a bunch of greenies mailed to him by some of the guys on the Red Sox."

Bouton described one teammate receiving a shipment of 500 amphetamine pills in midseason.

But Major League Baseball took no action to curb amphetamine use after Bouton's book, yielding instead to the government, which banned the drugs' use without a prescription. Under the Controlled Substance Act of 1970, amphetamines are a Schedule III drug, classified as having "a potential for abuse that may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence."

Amphetamines share the same classification as anabolic steroids, which were added to the Controlled Substances Act in 1991, and substances that contain limited amounts of opium and morphine.

"If baseball had done something about this years ago, they wouldn't have this problem today," Bouton said in an interview. "Because baseball can't prove it's clean, it's assumed to be dirty, and it has only its leadership to blame."

Effects debated While the medical community stands united on the dangers of amphetamines, some doctors and researchers disagree over whether the stimulants enhance performance. Pellman cited research, which has included a landmark 1960 study at Harvard's human performance lab, showing incremental gains among athletes using amphetamines.

"There is no doubt in my mind that amphetamines are performance enhancers," he said.

But Yesalis suggested the research has raised as many questions as it has answered.

"I can clearly tell you how anabolic steroids improve performance in baseball, but I can't make a strong case for amphetamines being performance enhancing," he said. "It's more of an enabler."

Several generations of players agreed. Bouton said he used amphetamines only once because they made him too jumpy.

"They never allow a player to compete above his natural ability," Bouton said. "They enable him to compete at his natural ability."

Union officials cited the disagreement among medical specialists in pushing to delay action on banning amphetamines. Because of the dispute, Pellman indicated, baseball officials may initially agree to classify amphetamines as a "drug of abuse," which means players would be tested for them only for "reasonable cause" rather than year-round at random. In any case, amphetamine use is expected to continue as long as players believe they can glean an edge from the drugs and baseball does not clamp down on them.

"If there was a pill that guaranteed a pitcher 20 wins but took five years off his life, we would take it," Bouton said. "The bottom line is, competitive athletes need to be protected from themselves."

The public also may need to be protected. Former Sox great Luis Tiant said he never used amphetamines because he feared they might give him a heart attack. But he worried that baseball may be sending young athletes a bad message about amphetamines.

"The one thing I don't like is giving kids the impression it's good for them," Tiant said. "Then the kids start using them and get hooked. That's the wrong thing to do." "We're talking about role models taking a very, very dangerous drug," Yesalis said. "Nobody can dispute that."