This dose of news sounds an alarm
NEW YORK -- It's a story that never seems to go away.
Steroids. Steroids. Steroids.
If former Senator George Mitchell, who has been conducting an investigation backed by millions of dollars from Major League Baseball, has something, he'd better get it out there pronto. Because Barry Bonds is going to break Hank Aaron's all-time home run record very soon, and it will be in the books. Asterisk or no asterisk. It will count.
Maybe it won't be recognized by baseball purists, those who believe that anyone who has been found to use steroids or has come under suspicion should be stricken from public consciousness. But the fact is, he will have broken the record, and anything that comes to light thereafter will be after the fact.
I will say this. I think at some point in the next 10-12 months we're going to hear a whopper of an announcement from Mitchell, who already has had several months and several sources of information to work with -- from BALCO to interviews with suspected players, federal court documents that actually name players, the confiscation of clubhouse computers, and all sorts of medical information supplied by teams.
If this investigation yields little, I will be stunned. And I would have my suspicions that damaging information is being withheld from the public.
Of course, the Players Association is going to pull out all the stops to protect current and former players. Chief operating officer Gene Orza yesterday had no comment on the case of former New York Mets clubhouse worker Kirk Radomski, who pleaded guilty in federal court to supplying major league players with steroids and agreed to cooperate with investigators.
Radomski, who worked at Shea Stadium from 1985-95, had his house raided in 2005 by federal investigators working on a tip that he had been selling steroids to professional athletes for years out of his home. He has named athletes to whom he sold steroids.
Every time we see one of these stories -- and it appears we'll keep seeing them -- there is anticipation of the other shoe dropping. However, it rarely does. Some names trickle out -- such as Jason Grimsley purchasing human growth hormone -- but there's rarely a bombshell.
Reportedly, there are up to 23 names linked to Radomski, names of people who sent him checks that he deposited in his personal account from 2003-05. Will we ever see the names? One supposes at some point they will be leaked out. For now, it's amusing to read the comments of former players who were on the Mets during the years Radomski was their "clubbie."
Players are closer to the clubbies than they are to the manager. The clubbie takes care of every whim the player has. He is tipped and over-tipped for things like grabbing a burger and fries or pressing a jersey a certain way or finding the best sushi restaurant in town.
But as soon as the word "steroid" comes out, all of a sudden the guy becomes "someone I didn't know really well." Or, oh yeah, "I vaguely remember that guy." Nobody wants to go near him or remotely suggest that he had a relationship with that person.
Radomski was known as "Murdock" around Shea Stadium, apparently because he looked as buff as a WWE wrestler. You'd remember that guy pretty well. Yet all of the remarks concerning the guy were pretty vanilla.
Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan, a Met during that time, told The
Magadan also said, "He did his job in the clubhouse. You threw the jocks on the floor and he'd pick them up. He was good at what he did."
I don't know if Jose Canseco was correct that nearly 80 percent of major league players tried steroids in the '80s and beyond, but it sounds as if there was a rampant problem at one time, and Mitchell likely has heard some incredible stories.
Yet there are many people who couldn't care less about the topic. Every time we write about steroids, there are some folks who think it's a stale topic, their argument being that if everyone used them, then the playing field was level. What's the fuss?
That's an argument I have a lot of trouble with. The use of illegal drugs is a major issue that should not go unpunished or unrecognized when it comes to statistical achievement, which is the major basis for a player's performance.
There were a couple of Red Sox players yesterday who shrugged off the revelations and didn't care because it did not affect them. They even claimed it was the media overblowing it, which is amazing considering the guy reportedly has 23 names and just pleaded guilty.
