Ryan Braun Makes a Kind of HistoryDave Zirin on February 24, 2012
http://www.thenation.com/blog/166441/follow-urine-ryan-braun-makes-kind-history
Something historic happened this week in the world of sports and, for once, I'm not talking about Jeremy Lin. Milwaukee Brewers slugger, and reigning National League Most Valuable Player Ryan Braun, appealed and beat a looming 50 game suspension for failing a steroid test. This marks the first time in history that a baseball player has successfully challenged a steroid-related penalty.
"I am very pleased and relieved by today's decision," Braun said in a statement. "It is the first step in restoring my good name and reputation. We were able to get through this because I am innocent and the truth is on our side…..We provided complete cooperation throughout, despite the highly unusual circumstances. I have been an open book, willing to share details from every aspect of my life as part of this investigation, because I have nothing to hide. I have passed over 25 drug tests in my career, including at least three in the past year.
Braun beat the suspension because of a bizarre set of circumstances surrounding his drug test that seems like the plot of an awful movie that could be called “Brotherhood of the Traveling Urine Sample." As ESPN reported, “... the collector, after getting Braun's sample, was supposed to take the sample to a FedEx Office for shipping. But the source said the collector thought the FedEx Office was closed because it was late on a Saturday and felt the sample wouldn't get shipped until Monday. As has occurred in some other instances, the collector took the sample home and kept it in a cool place, in his basement at his residence in Wisconsin.”
Yes, the reigning National League MVP and arguably the highest profile player to ever test positive for steroids, had his good name destroyed and it was all based around a piss test left in a cold, Wisconsin basement. As Barry Petchesky of Deadspin wrote, “If the procedure is so f--ked up that some dude can keep a jar of Ryan Braun's pee in his fridge over the weekend, then maybe Major League Baseball should worry less about Ryan Braun's appeal and more about a chain of custody that relies on a courier knowing the hours of his local Kinkos.”
The response to Braun's acquittal by Major League Baseball and their testers, the US Anti-Doping Agency, has been nothing short of spiteful. MLB’s official comment was, "While we have always respected that process, Major League Baseball vehemently disagrees with the decision.” Behind the scenes, they have been described as “enraged” with the arbitrator’s decision.
The USADA CEO Travis Tygert said, "It's frankly unreal. And it's a kick in the gut to clean athletes... To have this sort of technicality of all technicalities let a player off ... it's just a sad day for all the clean players and those that abide by the rules within professional baseball.”
It’s not just Major League Baseball and their professional urine brigade that's up in arms. Reporters like Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News have made clear that, aqcuittal or not, Ryan Braun has not cleared his name. “Understand something: The overturning of Braun’s 50-game suspension doesn’t mean Braun is clean, no matter what he says or how many times he says it or what he expects reasonable people to believe. He wasn’t exonerated. He was acquitted. There’s a difference."
But as Sports Illustrated’s Joe Sheehan also wrote, quite logically, “This, by the way, is how it's supposed to work. If the penalty is 50 games and millions of $, the process better be PRISTINE.”
The remarkable lack of grace being shown by Major League Baseball is stunning. It’s understandable why the USADA is upset. Their entire for-profit business model is built around finding and rooting out the players who, as Tygert said, aren’t “clean.” Imagine if police officers were only paid per-arrest and you get a picture of why the USADA already is viewed with suspicion by players and the union.
Baseball executives are sour they didn’t get to lower the hammer and are saying that Braun was only found not guilty because of a “technicality.” But as Gabe Feldman from the Tulane Sports Law Center wrote, “Chain of custody a ‘technicality’? It's critical to fair drug policy, and is mentioned 33 times in the MLB drug policy.”
Major League Baseball is more upset because they need scalps to justify to congress, sportswriters, and the minority of fans that care, that they are serious about cleaning up the game and drug testing isn’t mere window dressing. As the baseball writers dean, Peter Gammons wrote, after Braun had already been convicted in the press, “ ….what the Braun test result tells is that the Commissioner's Office and the players don't care if it's the MVP or a 4A utility infielder, they want a level playing field. Thus, in a sense, this speaks for the sincerity of the program, that it doesn't protect the faces of the sport or anyone's favorites, that Ryan Braun gets no different treatment than some kid in the Dominican Summer League."
Very noble. Yet amidst all the steroid hysteria, is a person, Ryan Braun, who actually has rights. In baseball commissioner Bud Selig’s worldview, that means he has the right to shoot himself up with painkillers, chew tobacco, and drink himself blind, but no right to use even prescribed steroids. If that’s the kind of world the union wants to collectively bargain, then that’s their choice. It’s a choice with which I disagree. This is just the cultural sanctioning of a war on drugs mentality that’s been great for the prison industry, but awful for the rest of us. I can certainly understand why players want the right to not feel like they need to take steroids to compete with the guy in the next locker. But Braun also has the right to not have his urine stored in a basement. He has the right to not have had the test results revealed before his appeal. He has the right to some dignity through this process. We don’t know at end whether Ryan Braun is “dirty.” But we know that baseball and their drug testing system has deep flaws which should be seen as intolerable not just to Ryan Braun and Major League players, but to all of us.
Dave Zirin is the author of “The John Carlos Story” (Haymarket) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label Steroids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steroids. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Thursday, February 10, 2011
LegalSteroids.com
Thanks to Maxim.com for the following...
http://legalsteroids.com/
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Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Doping on Deer Antler
Ever since the release of his book Juiced, The Konformist has been a champion of Jose Canseco’s tales of steroids in baseball, tales that have been proven to be pretty much 100 percent correct. The interest we've had on the issues of steroids was based on one assumption: that steroids are not only dangerous to the athletes who take them, they create a climate where other athletes are pressured to take steroids to remain competitive, thus risking the health of others. Certainly this is the case in the two cryptosports of bodybuilding and professional wrestling: it is alleged that Vince McMahon pressured wrestlers to roid up under fear of economic punishment.
There is another view on the issue of PEDs (performance enhanced drugs) that isn't commonly presented and isn't politically correct, but has its advocates. That view is athletes are adults, they control their own bodies, and they should be allowed to put whatever they want into them. If others feel pressured to take PEDs to compete, that's their problem, athletic competition is tough business.
Given the general political bent of The Konformist, such a view should have been given more support than it has in the past. And it appears there is a surprisingly high percentage of the public that agrees with it. Indeed, there seems to be some acceptance of doping in the NFL by the public. Perhaps that is because, considering the violent state of professional football, the feigned concerned over the dangers of PEDs by NFL officials seems as unconvincing and hypocritical as their supposed sudden passion over violent hits. In any case, now that the shock of the Steroid Era of baseball has worn off, perhaps it is time to take seriously what may turn out to be not only the natural evolution of the debate, but the more mature viewpoint: athletes dope up, deal with it.
A recent news story gives some strong support for this viewpoint: the shocking revelations that many NFL players (including future first ballot Hall of Famer Ray Lewis) have been breaking the NFL drug testing rules by taking a supplement that contains deer antler. The story was broken January 19th by Yahoo-owned ThePostGame.com, but there's a pretty good chance that even the most obsessed sports fan missed this report. For once, the most cynical explanation isn't the truth: the story wasn't buried by the korporate sports media over profits during the NFL's gold rush to the Super Bowl. The real reason the story has been underreported is because nobody really cares.
The lack of concern over the deer antler non-scandal is due to the fact users were not attempting to break NFL doping rules. In fact, the opposite appears to be true: the usage of “The Ultimate Spray” was inspired by attempts to avoid taking steroids and other illegal muscle builders. The maker of the antler spray even named itself Sports With Alternatives To Steroids (S.W.A.T.S.) emphasizing this concept. Their spray is not only 100% legal in the USA, it requires no doctor's prescription. When interviewed by ThePostGame.com, Oakland Raiders head coach Hue Jackson and Cincinnati Bengals safety Roy Williams seemed unaware of any drug violations involved with the product. When asked, Williams bluntly declared: “I use the spray all the time. Two to three times a day. My body felt good after using it. I did feel a difference.”
Unfortunately, deer antler contains IGF-1, a protein similar to HGH, and it's listed as a banned substance by both the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and the NFL. This despite ThePostGame.com noting: "Deer velvet antler has been a staple of Chinese medicine for 2,000 years and is known in Eastern cultures for improving everything from overall health to sleep to athletic performance to sexual energy..." Mitch Ross, owner of S.W.A.T.S., declared: “It’s not synthetic. You have to understand it’s coming from a God-made animal. No athlete has tested positive for IGF-1 from my spray.”
(Ross' claim of no positive drug tests caused by their spray is in dispute. David Vobora, a St. Louis Rams linebacker who failed a 2009 test, alleges "The Ultimate Spray" is the true culprit in a lawsuit. While claims of doping violations caused by OTC supplements should be met with the skepticism that "My dog ate my homework" induces, it certainly seems like a plausible explanation in this case.)
The response of the WADA is dismissive of this defense. Jonathan Danaceau, director of the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Lab, pronounced the establishment line: “It’s considered performance-enhancing. It’s similar to HGH in that it aids in recovery. It helps build tissue, and strengthen tissue – more than you can ever do by training alone. Any preparation that is not naturally occurring is banned. Taking IGF-1 through deer antler is banned as well.”
So both sides are in complete agreement: deer antler is a powerful supplement for athletic training. ThePostGame.com even cites a study that provides ample evidence on how powerful it is:
The author of the study, Craig Broeder, former head of the Exercise Science program at East Tennessee State University, said it is under review by the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. Broeder tested the effects of velvet antler supplements on aerobic, anaerobic, and strength performance. He included 32 men who had a history of at least four years of strength training. Subjects were divided into two groups in a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study where they performed high intensity resistance training over 10 weeks. Half of the subjects were given 3,000mg of deer antler per day, with the other half receiving a sugar pill.
The results of the study showed several health benefits, including a reduction of body fat, an increase in body strength relative to body weight, and improvements in aerobic capacity. Most surprisingly, Broeder said, the athletes improved their cardiovascular performance without doing any cardiovascular activity.
“These aren’t the guys that want to get up on the treadmill and run,” Broeder said. “They’re big guys. Yet, they significantly increased their aerobic capacity on deer antler velvet.”
This isn't a completely new story: before they became baseball pariahs, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both admitted to taking the then OTC steroid-like supplement androstenedione, a controversy that was a mere blip in 1998's summer of baseball love. What is unusual about the deer antler controversy is that WADA doesn't even try to argue (as was done with andro) it's a dangerous substance, instead that being a performance enhancer is bad enough, with or without any negative effects.
That being the case, it appears a cynical view to the sports doping hysteria is pretty accurate, that the goal is really to control athletes with threats and punishment, rather than to protect them. The fact that all drug-testing policies have pretty much been brought from the top down rather than initiated by the athletes themselves is consistent with that view.
Should athletes be allowed to dope their bodies however they want? Or perhaps should they be allowed to use without punishment any drug or supplement that is OTC, with federally regulated drugs okay under a doctor's supervision? As politically correct as it is to point out, there are many benefits to the usage of steroids, HGH and other PEDs in controlled doses, which is why they continue to have legal legitimate uses. Certainly abuses will continue, but there's nothing new here. At least with a doctor who has a license to lose there would be some form of accountability. Again, bodybuilding and pro wrestling make strong cases against laissez-faire athletic drug policies, but perhaps it is time to at least include such views in the frame of the debate.
NFL Orders Raiders Head Coach Hue Jackson To End Ties With Company Linked To Banned Substance
Wednesday, January 19 2011
Eric Adelson
http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201101/tpg-exclusive-nfl-orders-raiders-head-coach-hue-jackson-end-ties-company-linked-bann
DeerVelvetInformation.org
SWATSTeam.com
There is another view on the issue of PEDs (performance enhanced drugs) that isn't commonly presented and isn't politically correct, but has its advocates. That view is athletes are adults, they control their own bodies, and they should be allowed to put whatever they want into them. If others feel pressured to take PEDs to compete, that's their problem, athletic competition is tough business.
Given the general political bent of The Konformist, such a view should have been given more support than it has in the past. And it appears there is a surprisingly high percentage of the public that agrees with it. Indeed, there seems to be some acceptance of doping in the NFL by the public. Perhaps that is because, considering the violent state of professional football, the feigned concerned over the dangers of PEDs by NFL officials seems as unconvincing and hypocritical as their supposed sudden passion over violent hits. In any case, now that the shock of the Steroid Era of baseball has worn off, perhaps it is time to take seriously what may turn out to be not only the natural evolution of the debate, but the more mature viewpoint: athletes dope up, deal with it.
A recent news story gives some strong support for this viewpoint: the shocking revelations that many NFL players (including future first ballot Hall of Famer Ray Lewis) have been breaking the NFL drug testing rules by taking a supplement that contains deer antler. The story was broken January 19th by Yahoo-owned ThePostGame.com, but there's a pretty good chance that even the most obsessed sports fan missed this report. For once, the most cynical explanation isn't the truth: the story wasn't buried by the korporate sports media over profits during the NFL's gold rush to the Super Bowl. The real reason the story has been underreported is because nobody really cares.
The lack of concern over the deer antler non-scandal is due to the fact users were not attempting to break NFL doping rules. In fact, the opposite appears to be true: the usage of “The Ultimate Spray” was inspired by attempts to avoid taking steroids and other illegal muscle builders. The maker of the antler spray even named itself Sports With Alternatives To Steroids (S.W.A.T.S.) emphasizing this concept. Their spray is not only 100% legal in the USA, it requires no doctor's prescription. When interviewed by ThePostGame.com, Oakland Raiders head coach Hue Jackson and Cincinnati Bengals safety Roy Williams seemed unaware of any drug violations involved with the product. When asked, Williams bluntly declared: “I use the spray all the time. Two to three times a day. My body felt good after using it. I did feel a difference.”
Unfortunately, deer antler contains IGF-1, a protein similar to HGH, and it's listed as a banned substance by both the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and the NFL. This despite ThePostGame.com noting: "Deer velvet antler has been a staple of Chinese medicine for 2,000 years and is known in Eastern cultures for improving everything from overall health to sleep to athletic performance to sexual energy..." Mitch Ross, owner of S.W.A.T.S., declared: “It’s not synthetic. You have to understand it’s coming from a God-made animal. No athlete has tested positive for IGF-1 from my spray.”
(Ross' claim of no positive drug tests caused by their spray is in dispute. David Vobora, a St. Louis Rams linebacker who failed a 2009 test, alleges "The Ultimate Spray" is the true culprit in a lawsuit. While claims of doping violations caused by OTC supplements should be met with the skepticism that "My dog ate my homework" induces, it certainly seems like a plausible explanation in this case.)
The response of the WADA is dismissive of this defense. Jonathan Danaceau, director of the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Lab, pronounced the establishment line: “It’s considered performance-enhancing. It’s similar to HGH in that it aids in recovery. It helps build tissue, and strengthen tissue – more than you can ever do by training alone. Any preparation that is not naturally occurring is banned. Taking IGF-1 through deer antler is banned as well.”
So both sides are in complete agreement: deer antler is a powerful supplement for athletic training. ThePostGame.com even cites a study that provides ample evidence on how powerful it is:
The author of the study, Craig Broeder, former head of the Exercise Science program at East Tennessee State University, said it is under review by the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. Broeder tested the effects of velvet antler supplements on aerobic, anaerobic, and strength performance. He included 32 men who had a history of at least four years of strength training. Subjects were divided into two groups in a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study where they performed high intensity resistance training over 10 weeks. Half of the subjects were given 3,000mg of deer antler per day, with the other half receiving a sugar pill.
The results of the study showed several health benefits, including a reduction of body fat, an increase in body strength relative to body weight, and improvements in aerobic capacity. Most surprisingly, Broeder said, the athletes improved their cardiovascular performance without doing any cardiovascular activity.
“These aren’t the guys that want to get up on the treadmill and run,” Broeder said. “They’re big guys. Yet, they significantly increased their aerobic capacity on deer antler velvet.”
This isn't a completely new story: before they became baseball pariahs, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both admitted to taking the then OTC steroid-like supplement androstenedione, a controversy that was a mere blip in 1998's summer of baseball love. What is unusual about the deer antler controversy is that WADA doesn't even try to argue (as was done with andro) it's a dangerous substance, instead that being a performance enhancer is bad enough, with or without any negative effects.
That being the case, it appears a cynical view to the sports doping hysteria is pretty accurate, that the goal is really to control athletes with threats and punishment, rather than to protect them. The fact that all drug-testing policies have pretty much been brought from the top down rather than initiated by the athletes themselves is consistent with that view.
Should athletes be allowed to dope their bodies however they want? Or perhaps should they be allowed to use without punishment any drug or supplement that is OTC, with federally regulated drugs okay under a doctor's supervision? As politically correct as it is to point out, there are many benefits to the usage of steroids, HGH and other PEDs in controlled doses, which is why they continue to have legal legitimate uses. Certainly abuses will continue, but there's nothing new here. At least with a doctor who has a license to lose there would be some form of accountability. Again, bodybuilding and pro wrestling make strong cases against laissez-faire athletic drug policies, but perhaps it is time to at least include such views in the frame of the debate.
NFL Orders Raiders Head Coach Hue Jackson To End Ties With Company Linked To Banned Substance
Wednesday, January 19 2011
Eric Adelson
http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201101/tpg-exclusive-nfl-orders-raiders-head-coach-hue-jackson-end-ties-company-linked-bann
DeerVelvetInformation.org
SWATSTeam.com
Saturday, January 16, 2010
McGwire admits steroid use
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/baseball/mlb/01/11/mcgwire.steroids/Monday January 11, 2010
McGwire admits steroid use
Story Highlights
Mark McGwire says he took steroids during much of his 16-year career
McGwire says he took them during his 70-home run season of 1998
McGwire is entering his first season as St. Louis Cardinals hitting coach
Mark McGwire hit 583 home runs in his career, including a then-record 70 in 1998.
Mark McGwire has admitted taking steroids in 1998 when he broke Roger Maris' home run record.
"I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize," McGwire said in his statement. "I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 off season and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the nineties, including during the 1998 season. I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.
"I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn't take any and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry. Baseball is really different now -- it's been cleaned up. The Commissioner and the Players Association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did."
McGwire is entering his first season as the hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, and his return to baseball prompted his admission. "It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected," McGwire said. That echoes the phrase he used repeatedly during a Congressional inquiry into steroids in baseball in 2005, when he stonewalled questions about whether he had ever used steroids by saying, "I'm not here to talk about the past."
McGwire then went into seclusion for several years before being hired at the end of last season as the Cardinals' new hitting coach.
"On behalf of the entire Cardinals organization, I believe Mark McGwire today did the right thing by telling the truth and openly acknowledging his past mistakes," said Bill DeWitt, the Cardinals Chairman. "No one condones what Mark did more than 10 years ago, but we hired him as our hitting coach because we know there are many contributions that Mark can and will make to our team and to this game."
McGwire played 16 seasons in the majors with Oakland and St. Louis. He retired after the 2001 season having hit 583 home runs, which still ranks tied for eighth in major league history. His 10.61 at bats/home run is the best ever.
Tony La Russa, the Cardinals manager who hired McGwire as hitting coach and who managed McGwire with both the A's and the Cardinals, told MLB Network he did not feel duped by his former slugger, adding, "It's not excusable, it's a mistake but the perception of Mark when he played was he's a really solid individual and a great teammate and I think that will be restored."
La Russa said he first found out when McGwire spoke to him Monday morning.
Commissioner Bud Selig said he was "pleased" by McGwire's admission, adding, "This statement of contrition I believe will make Mark's re-entry into the game much smoother and easier."
Steroids have been banned in baseball since 1991, but it wasn't until 2003 that baseball began random survey testing of players that was meant to remain anonymous. Testing with punishment was not instituted until the following year. McGwire's admission is the latest in a series of drug revelations that have plagued baseball in the past 12 months, beginning with a report in Sports Illustrated last February that Alex Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003. In May, it was announced that Manny Ramirez of the Dodgers had failed a drug test and was suspended for 50 games. In June, Sammy Sosa, who had been McGwire's companion during their unforgettable chase of Maris' home run record in 1998, was revealed to have been on that 2003 list of failed tests, and in July Ramirez and Red Sox slugger David Ortiz were named from that list as well.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Beast of the Month - June 2009
Beast of the Month - June 2009Alex Rodriguez
Steroid-Fueled Baseball Star
"I yam an anti-Christ..."
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"
"Jose Canseco Smirking Smugly At Nation"
Recent article title found at Onion.com
Is Jose Canseco ever wrong? Seriously, give this man a Pulitzer. In April, he speculated the reason Manny Ramirez (a two-time World Series champion for the Boston Red Sox and current Los Angeles Dodger superstar) didn't receive a monster contract offer during the off-season was because the owner's knew he was a steroid juicer. More than likely, Canseco guessed, Manny was on the 2003 list of players who tested positive for doping, a list of names likely already leaked to MLB owners. On this score, Canseco said he was 90 percent sure.
For his wacky conspiracy theorizing, Canseco was once again lambasted in the media, the same way he has been repeatedly treated over the last four years since his book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, was released. Since then, not one claim by him has been proven false, and many of his claims, even those sounding most luridly outlandish at first, have been proven true. Despite his track record, one sportswriter dismissed Jose C as "ridiculous and irresponsible" for engaging in "pseudo-slanderous steroid chatter" over Ramirez.
But what do you know? Barely a month after Canseco made his reckless hunch, Manny was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for a banned substance. While he wasn't actually caught taking steroids, the drug he did test positive for, human chorionic gonadotropin, is popular among roiders for stopping the side effects of ending a cycle. (You know, little things like lower sperm count and shrunken testicles.) Maybe there's another explanation for why Ramirez was taking a female fertility drug, but that he is indeed a drug doper as Canseco had suspected seems to fit Occam's Razor the best.
Of course, the whole steroid scandal may have jumped the shark with the Ramirez revelation. At this point, is anybody shocked when a ballplayer is revealed as a drug cheater? This is, after all, the third time since 2005 The Konformist has focused Beast of the Month on the subject, which means we've covered this more in our 13-year history than we have Israel's brutal treatment of Palestinians and Lebanon. Yes, baseball is America's game (well, really it's football, and anyone who claims otherwise is kidding themselves) and yes, the steroid scandal has tarnished the game's legacy, but at this point, we've got more important things to do, like investigate Wall Street mass thievery, remind people there are still bloody pointless wars being fought in the Middle East and search YouTube for videos of Lady Gaga. So consider this BOTM a kiss-off to the whole "professional baseball players cheat" moral outrage as we get onto better things.
But before we jump off the whole steroid scandal bandwagon, The Konformist needs to get one last jab in, to a guy really deserving it. After all, part of the reason the steroid outing of the best player on baseball's second most famous franchise received such a ho-hum response is because the best player on baseball's most famous franchise (Alex Rodriguez, The Konformist Beast of the Month) had been outed as a fraud only months before.
For those who don't follow baseball, Rodriguez, better known as A-Rod, is not only the best player on the New York Yankees, he is arguably the best player in baseball, period. (Only Manny and Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals come close.) He has already won 3 MVP titles, this despite not winning in 2001 and 2002, when he hit 52 and 57 home runs. In 2006, he was the only non-pitcher still active to make Sports Illustrated's Alltime All-Star Team. (Fellow Yankees Roger Clemens and reliever Mariano Rivera also made the team.) It is suspected by many that Barry Bonds, the man formerly viewed as the best player in baseball, was snubbed from the team thanks to the evidence against him as a steroid cheat.
Indeed, the conventional wisdom until last year was that A-Rod was going to be the hero who saved the game by restoring the integrity of the numbers. He ended last season with 553 career home runs, 13th all time. He is second to only Ken Griffey Jr. among current players, and Griffey (perhaps the only modern slugger without any steroid suspicion due to his non-muscled physique) appears soon to be headed to retirement. That left A-Rod with the best chance of surpassing Bonds' career total of 762* round-trippers, something he could conceivably do in four great seasons. After that, balance would be returned to the universe, as the most sacred record in American sports would not be held by a doping phony.
Even without the recent revelations, the "A-Rod as Christ savior" storyline had its problems. For all his talent, he's never been particularly loved by the public or, perhaps more importantly, his fellow teammates. He isn't a surly SOB like Bonds, but his well-noted narcissistic self-absorption (on full display on the April 2009 cover of Details where he was seen kissing his own image in a mirror) has made him a magnet for haters. As for his contributions to teams, here are some curious facts: in 2001, after he left the Seattle Mariners for a ten-year, $252 million payout with the Texas Rangers, the Mariners won an astounding 116 games. His Rangers, meanwhile, finished in last place the three seasons he was there. Since he has moved to the Yankees in 2004, meanwhile, they have yet to even appear in a World Series despite all their well-paid talent, while their nemesis in Boston broke the Bambino curse with two titles, starting coincidentally the year he started playing in the Big Apple.
Okay, maybe the bad luck of the Rangers and Yankees isn't his entire fault. (Although his notorious showing in post-season play, which has earned him like Bonds before the insulting nickname of "Mr. April-September" from some, certainly hasn't helped.) Still, entering his sixth year in NY pinstripes, he wasn't even half as loved by fans or fellow Yankees as fellow teammate Derek Jeter. This was underscored in manager Joe Torre's recently published book The Yankee Years, where he reveals A-Rod was derisively termed as "A-Fraud" by teammates annoyed by his shallow insincerity. His 2007 demand to renegotiate his record contract to an even larger ten-year, $275 million didn't help.
Torre's tell-all bio was only the second recent book to dish dirt on A-Rod. The first came out last year, when Canseco released his sequel to Juiced, titled Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball. The big bombshell in the tome: Canseco claims in the latter half of the 1990s, A-Rod asked for help in finding a trainer that would supply steroids. He refused to name the trainer (referring to him only as "Max") and when pressed on Nightline over his refusal to provide corroborating evidence, Canseco replied: "Let's see how Alex reacts. Let's see if they call me a liar again. How's that for ya? Let's see if all of a sudden they're gonna call me a liar again."
Surprise, surprise. As he was lambasted earlier this year over his Manny hypothesis, Canseco, despite his history of truth-telling, was indeed shredded in the press as a liar again in 2008 over the claim. In this case, it didn't help Jose that he has an admitted beef with A-Rod, claiming Rodriguez had an affair with Canseco's then wife. (Apparently A-Rod's affairs don't merely include cheating with wives of teammates: late last year, his wife Cynthia filed for divorce after a rumored adulterous affair between A-Rod and Madonna became top tabloid news.) His allegations did get some backing last year when former reliever John Rocker claimed MLB commissioner Bud Selig knew he failed a drug test for steroids in 2000, and doctors for both management and the players' association advised him and three other Texas Rangers - among them Alex Rodriguez - on how to use steroids. Of course, when the one person who helps confirm your story is a notorious pariah like the racist Rocker, it tends to undercut, rather than enhance, credibility.
Despite this, it appears Canseco is once again vindicated. In February, Sports Illustrated reported that A-Rod was one of the 104 players who tested positive for steroids. As the controversy became the talk of the news cycle, A-Rod finally fessed up and admitted, yes, he was a steroid cheat. The mea culpa came with a convenient asterisk, as A-Rod insisted he only did it from 2001-3 while with the Rangers, meaning he denied any usage after steroid use had penalties attached. In any case, his apology, especially the one he sent publicly to his teammates, was widely deemed as insincere.
Even with this limited hangout by A-Rod, outrage became the order of the day. No longer was "A-Fraud" enough of a put-down of the dude by his critics: "A-Roid" or (with even greater ingenuity, courtesy of a NY Post cover) "A-Hole" became the new insults. On David Letterman, a top ten joke list featuring messages left on A-Rod's answering machine included this knee-slapper: "Could you find a steroid that keeps you from choking in the playoffs?"
The SI report become the first shot of reporter Selena Roberts' A-Rod bio, the third book to talk smack about Rodriguez. Roberts claims A-Rod started his steroid regimen in high school, and that he has continued it during the Yankee years. She also made claims of another A-Rod cheating scandal: that A-Rod would tip buddies on other teams the pitch they were facing late in blowout games. According to Roberts, the quid quo pro deal allowed players in the pitch-tipping scandal to pad their stats in at-bats for games already decided, at the expense of late-inning pitchers. While the scheme wouldn't change the winner of the game, it certainly qualifies as an attack on the integrity of the game, perhaps even more so than steroids, and a betrayal of pitching teammates almost on par with sleeping with their wives.
(Adding insult to his injured reputation, a Yahoo! Sports article from August 2008 reported the next generation of Bill James wannabees had statistically uncovered a sabermetrics to measure clutch hitting, and A-Rod, as critics had long insisted, was indeed a pressure-situation choker.)
Fortunately for A-Rod, a cyst on his hip forced him to miss the first full month of the season. (Cynics note that a common side-effect of steroid usage is cysts developing at injection point.) By the time of his May 8th return, A-Rod outrage had dipped and been superseded by the Manny dope scandal, and hitting a home run on the first pitch certainly aided him in forgiveness. Come October, maybe A-Rod can finally earn the love (and the $275 million) he has long craved from fans by finally delivering in the playoffs, and the forgiveness that comes with it. Based on his track record, however, The Konformist is betting against him once again.
In the end, A-Rod is merely just another scapegoat in sports, a face for the public to focus wrath. And that's why we expect this to be the last steroid-related athlete BOTM we do, even if another great baseball superstar is eventually shockingly uncovered as a secret doper. But that doesn't mean we'll stop covering this issue: as The Konformist and Jose Canseco long have pointed out, the owners and the league itself have long sanctioned the steroid era with their covert consent. The tale of John Rocker, that the commissioner himself knew he failed a 2000 test and that management advised him on how to properly juice, provides ample evidence of just how complicit they are. Indeed, the evidence suggests that even as Bud Selig was personally promoting the "A-Rod as baseball savior" myth, he already knew via the 2003 tests that Rodriguez was a cheater. Meanwhile, as Nation magazine writer Dave Zirin has noted, owners "have yet to have to face any kind of Congressional subcommittee, grand jury or operatic media melodrama for their role in cheapening the sport." If they ever are, no doubt The Konformist will be there ready to point fingers again where they deserve.
In any case, we salute Alex Rodriguez as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Al!!!
Sources:
Blum, Ronald. "A-Rod Says He Expects Questions on Drugs." Associated Press 20 February 2008 <http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCj65bmE8AEQ7MvFQrBVYXwwJp9QD8UUAVI80>.
Brinson, Will. "Jose Canseco Says '90 Percent Chance' Manny Ramirez Is on 'The List'." MLB FanHouse 6 April 2009 <http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2009/04/06/jose-canseco-says-90-chance-manny-ramirez-is-on-steroids-list>.
Canseco, Jose. Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.
Canseco, Jose. Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
"Details on A-Rod's Alleged Pitch-Tipping Scheme in Texas." Sports Illustrated 30 April 2009 <http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/04/30/roberts.qa>.
Escherich, Katie. "Exclusive: Jose Canseco Says 'The Truth Hurts'." ABC News 26 March 2008 <http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=4528387>.
Harris, Beth and Blum, Rondald. "Ramirez Suspended 50 Games for Drug Violation." Yahoo! Sports 7 May 2009 <http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AozPbdpnRxDcG.ttoQ3gr6URvLYF?slug=ap-dodgers-ramirez-drugs>.
"Jose Canseco Smirking Smugly At Nation." The Onion 12 February 2009 <http://www.theonion.com/content/from_print/jose_canseco_smirking_smugly>.
Passan, Jeff. A-Rod Is a $300 Million Migraine." Yahoo! Sports 31 August 2008 <http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AqYZcgXmuHwg3tDIHBh5_VYRvLYF?slug=jp-arod083108>.
Roberts, Selena. A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009.
Roberts, Selena and Epstein, David. "Sources Tell SI Alex Rodriguez Tested Positive for Steroids in 2003." Sports Illustrated 7 February 2009 <http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/02/07/alex-rodriguez-steroids/index.html>.
Streeter, Kurt. "Manny Ramirez Blindsided Everyone but Jose Canseco." Los Angeles Times 7 May 2009 <http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-streeter-manny8-2009may08,0,5943246.story>.
Torre, Joe and Verducci, Tom. The Yankee Years. New York: Doubleday, 2009.
Verducci, Tom. "Alltime All-Star Team." Sports Illustrated 3 October 2006 <http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/magazine/10/03/bb.allstar1009/index.html>.
Zirin, Dave. "A-Rod, Anabolic Agonist Sports." The Nation 9 February 2009 <http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090223/zirin>.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
American Icon
From Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Icon-Clemens-Steroids-Americas/dp/0307271803/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242132392&sr=8-1
American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America's Pastime (Hardcover)
by Teri Thompson (Author), Nathaniel Vinton (Author), Michael O'Keeffe (Author), Christian Red (Author)
List Price: $26.95
It was an epic downfall. In twenty-four seasons pitcher Roger Clemens put together one of the greatest careers baseball has ever seen. Seven Cy Young Awards, two World Series championships, and 354 victories made him a lock for the Hall of Fame. But on December 13, 2007, the Mitchell Report laid waste to all that. Accusations that Clemens relied on steroids and human growth hormone provided and administered by his former trainer, Brian McNamee, have put Clemens in the crosshairs of a Justice Department investigation.
Why did this happen? How did it happen? Who made the decisions that altered some lives and ruined others? How did a devastating culture of drugs, lies, sex, and cheating fester and grow throughout Major League Baseball's clubhouses? The answers are in these extraordinary pages.
American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime is about much more than the downfall of a superstar. While the fascinating portrait of Clemens is certainly at the center of the action, the book takes us outside the white lines and inside the lives and dealings of sports executives, trainers, congressmen, lawyers, drug dealers, groupies, a porn star, and even a murderer—all of whom have ties to this saga. Four superb investigative journalists have spent years uncovering the truth, and at the heart of their investigation is a behind-the-scenes portrait of the maneuvering and strategies in the legal war between Clemens and his accuser, McNamee.
This compelling story is the strongest examination yet of the rise of illegal drugs in America’s favorite sport, the gym-rat culture in Texas that has played such an important role in spreading those drugs, and the way Congress has dealt with the entire issue. Andy Pettitte, Jose Canseco, Alex Rodriguez, and Chuck Knoblauch are just a few of the other players whose moving and sometimes disturbing stories are illuminated here as well. The New York Daily News Sports Investigative Team has written the definitive book on corruption and the steroids era in Major League Baseball. In doing so, they have managed to dig beneath the disillusion and disappointment to give us a stirring look at heroes who all too often live unheroic shadow lives.
About the Author
Michael O’Keeffe, Christian Red, Teri Thompson, and Nathaniel Vinton (shown left to right) are the New York Daily News Sports Investigative Team, which has been at the forefront of the issue of performance-enhancing drugs since the team’s inception in 2000. One of the only investigative units of its kind in American sports journalism, the I-Team has won more than a dozen major awards for its work.
Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Knopf (May 12, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307271803
ISBN-13: 978-0307271808
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Home Runs and Hypocrisy
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090525/zirin
Home Runs and Hypocrisy: The Shaming of Manny Ramirez
By Dave Zirin
You would think that Manny Ramirez was caught fighting pit bulls alongside Martha Stewart.
ESPN's Bill Simmons says that he is "confronting my worst nightmare." Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports believes that it is time to talk about "lifetime bans." Boston Globe writer Tony Massarotti says, "everyone is guilty until proven innocent."
The sports radio and comment boards have been cesspools of racism. It's always easy to hate, especially someone who plays a game for a living and makes millions of dollars.
All I know is this: thanks to Major League Baseball's hypocritical, idiotic and altogether morally bankrupt steroid policy, the sport will be without one of its premier attractions for fifty games, someone I would pay to watch at batting practice. Yes, Manny Ramirez, the finest right-handed hitter of his generation, has been sent to the showers and forced to surrender $7.7 million in salary after testing positive for what was initially called a "performance-enhancing substance."
The decision ends a stretch where the former World Series MVP was reviving baseball in Los Angeles, leading the Dodgers to a 21-8 start and a record thirteen straight wins at home to open the season. Los Angeles, a town built on artifice and home to hordes of performance-enhanced entertainers, not to mention led by a performance-enhanced governor, now demands purity of its athletes. This is not a column that aims to "defend" Manny Ramirez, but condemn Major League Baseball's steroid idiocy. Besides, the quizzically quirky Ramirez is not at this point defending himself. Ramirez will not appeal the suspension and apologized, issuing a brief statement, which read in part: "I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me." But MLB, in a typically classy move, has leaked to the press that Ramirez tested positive for the female fertility drug HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin. Steroid specialists have fanned out across the airwaves explaining that HCG is used to increase testosterone levels, usually after a heavy steroid cycle.
Former AL MVP, author of Juiced, and admitted steroid user Jose Canseco, who pleaded guilty last November to a misdemeanor of trying to bring HCG across the Mexican border illegally, also weighed in: "It could be that a player used it because he used steroids and went cold-turkey and needed HCG to get his [testoterone] levels back to normal."
The use of a "female fertility drug" also has sports radio hosts in a pubescent tizzy asking if "Manny is a mommy" and ESPN's Jayson Stark making an "octo-mom" joke.
From the juvenile to the pious, President Obama's press flack Robert Gibbs took time out from explaining why torturers are above the law to tell us, "It's a tragedy, it's a shame." There is a tragedy and a shame afoot, but it is not rooted in the choices of one player. It's in a baseball culture that continues to think embarrassing individual players and feeding on the resentment of fans is the best path to cleaning up the sport. Manny has now joined Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and many others as permanently stained with a scarlet S. No Hall of Fame, no old timers' games and a life as a cautionary tale.
Meanwhile we all get taken to the cleaners. We have billionaire owners making scapegoats of millionaire players to soothe our anxieties about the game and our lives. Meanwhile these same owners sit like pashas in a baseball palace that could be called the House That Steroids Built.
The man who wrote Juiced knows when a cycle has run its course. Canseco said that he believes the coverage on steroids in baseball has become "overkill" and the spotlight should now be on MLB and the players association. He called it "a complete conspiracy." He's absolutely correct. Baseball owners love conspiracies. For more than twenty years they have conspired to attain public funds for ballparks. In 2008, they collectively conspired not to sign the best hitter in the game, Barry Bonds. Now they are committed to the project of keeping the focus on the players, and off of themselves. We shouldn't let them. If Manny Ramirez is guilty of anything, it's being caught in between baseball's clubhouse culture and public sanctimony.
During the baseball's Summer of Love in 1998, when Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs and Sammy Sosa smacked 66, the money came pouring in. No one cared that McGwire and Sosa looked like a pair of defensive tackles. Soon publicly funded stadiums were included in budgets for Washington, DC, New York City and Minnesota. The home run became the most marketable baseball item since peanuts and crackerjacks and no one wanted to look behind the curtain. It was sports. It was entertainment. It was an escape. Then came 2001, when Barry Bonds hit 73, and all of a sudden we were supposed to be collectively sick at the thought of a home run. As baseball writer Adrian Burgos (Playing America's Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line) said, "What continues to fascinate me is how MLB leadership is willing to allow individual players to take the full brunt of the collective failure of leadership. Today, pundits have ranted in at times rabid tones about the players who make millions for their role while those who make the hundred of millions (and even have billion- dollar stadiums constructed for them on the public dole) continue to profit. How many stadiums have been built since then and at what cost? All the wealth that has been accumulated at that level is in my mind just as, if not more, offensive, since the owners act as if they were not enablers and co-dependents as their players shot up, ingested and otherwise partook in performance-enhancing drugs."
We should always remember that former Texas Rangers owner George W. Bush made steroid persecution a recurring theme of his time in office, as long as owners were spared the spotlight. The hypocrisy should shame owners toward contrition--but they will happily crack some golden eggs, as long as it means that the goose that laid them lives. Even though come contract time, it's all about the numbers on your stat page, and not the number of clean tests. As baseball fan and poet Martin Espada told me, "Baseball is the Main Street of sports. (Think Cooperstown.) It's full of history and nostalgia, and paved with the bricks of hypocrisy. Now it's the rhetoric of the 'Drug War,' handed down from the Nixon White House forty years ago to MLB and ESPN today."
He is absolutely correct. We are supposed to tsk-tsk at players who are supposed to "just say no" to their addictions to fitness and monster stats, when their success at the park is our addiction as well. We also have yet to truly take owners to task for their addictions to public money and send them to detox.
Dave Zirin is the author of “A People’s History of Sports in the United States” (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Home Runs and Hypocrisy: The Shaming of Manny Ramirez
By Dave Zirin
You would think that Manny Ramirez was caught fighting pit bulls alongside Martha Stewart.
ESPN's Bill Simmons says that he is "confronting my worst nightmare." Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports believes that it is time to talk about "lifetime bans." Boston Globe writer Tony Massarotti says, "everyone is guilty until proven innocent."
The sports radio and comment boards have been cesspools of racism. It's always easy to hate, especially someone who plays a game for a living and makes millions of dollars.
All I know is this: thanks to Major League Baseball's hypocritical, idiotic and altogether morally bankrupt steroid policy, the sport will be without one of its premier attractions for fifty games, someone I would pay to watch at batting practice. Yes, Manny Ramirez, the finest right-handed hitter of his generation, has been sent to the showers and forced to surrender $7.7 million in salary after testing positive for what was initially called a "performance-enhancing substance."
The decision ends a stretch where the former World Series MVP was reviving baseball in Los Angeles, leading the Dodgers to a 21-8 start and a record thirteen straight wins at home to open the season. Los Angeles, a town built on artifice and home to hordes of performance-enhanced entertainers, not to mention led by a performance-enhanced governor, now demands purity of its athletes. This is not a column that aims to "defend" Manny Ramirez, but condemn Major League Baseball's steroid idiocy. Besides, the quizzically quirky Ramirez is not at this point defending himself. Ramirez will not appeal the suspension and apologized, issuing a brief statement, which read in part: "I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me." But MLB, in a typically classy move, has leaked to the press that Ramirez tested positive for the female fertility drug HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin. Steroid specialists have fanned out across the airwaves explaining that HCG is used to increase testosterone levels, usually after a heavy steroid cycle.
Former AL MVP, author of Juiced, and admitted steroid user Jose Canseco, who pleaded guilty last November to a misdemeanor of trying to bring HCG across the Mexican border illegally, also weighed in: "It could be that a player used it because he used steroids and went cold-turkey and needed HCG to get his [testoterone] levels back to normal."
The use of a "female fertility drug" also has sports radio hosts in a pubescent tizzy asking if "Manny is a mommy" and ESPN's Jayson Stark making an "octo-mom" joke.
From the juvenile to the pious, President Obama's press flack Robert Gibbs took time out from explaining why torturers are above the law to tell us, "It's a tragedy, it's a shame." There is a tragedy and a shame afoot, but it is not rooted in the choices of one player. It's in a baseball culture that continues to think embarrassing individual players and feeding on the resentment of fans is the best path to cleaning up the sport. Manny has now joined Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and many others as permanently stained with a scarlet S. No Hall of Fame, no old timers' games and a life as a cautionary tale.
Meanwhile we all get taken to the cleaners. We have billionaire owners making scapegoats of millionaire players to soothe our anxieties about the game and our lives. Meanwhile these same owners sit like pashas in a baseball palace that could be called the House That Steroids Built.
The man who wrote Juiced knows when a cycle has run its course. Canseco said that he believes the coverage on steroids in baseball has become "overkill" and the spotlight should now be on MLB and the players association. He called it "a complete conspiracy." He's absolutely correct. Baseball owners love conspiracies. For more than twenty years they have conspired to attain public funds for ballparks. In 2008, they collectively conspired not to sign the best hitter in the game, Barry Bonds. Now they are committed to the project of keeping the focus on the players, and off of themselves. We shouldn't let them. If Manny Ramirez is guilty of anything, it's being caught in between baseball's clubhouse culture and public sanctimony.
During the baseball's Summer of Love in 1998, when Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs and Sammy Sosa smacked 66, the money came pouring in. No one cared that McGwire and Sosa looked like a pair of defensive tackles. Soon publicly funded stadiums were included in budgets for Washington, DC, New York City and Minnesota. The home run became the most marketable baseball item since peanuts and crackerjacks and no one wanted to look behind the curtain. It was sports. It was entertainment. It was an escape. Then came 2001, when Barry Bonds hit 73, and all of a sudden we were supposed to be collectively sick at the thought of a home run. As baseball writer Adrian Burgos (Playing America's Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line) said, "What continues to fascinate me is how MLB leadership is willing to allow individual players to take the full brunt of the collective failure of leadership. Today, pundits have ranted in at times rabid tones about the players who make millions for their role while those who make the hundred of millions (and even have billion- dollar stadiums constructed for them on the public dole) continue to profit. How many stadiums have been built since then and at what cost? All the wealth that has been accumulated at that level is in my mind just as, if not more, offensive, since the owners act as if they were not enablers and co-dependents as their players shot up, ingested and otherwise partook in performance-enhancing drugs."
We should always remember that former Texas Rangers owner George W. Bush made steroid persecution a recurring theme of his time in office, as long as owners were spared the spotlight. The hypocrisy should shame owners toward contrition--but they will happily crack some golden eggs, as long as it means that the goose that laid them lives. Even though come contract time, it's all about the numbers on your stat page, and not the number of clean tests. As baseball fan and poet Martin Espada told me, "Baseball is the Main Street of sports. (Think Cooperstown.) It's full of history and nostalgia, and paved with the bricks of hypocrisy. Now it's the rhetoric of the 'Drug War,' handed down from the Nixon White House forty years ago to MLB and ESPN today."
He is absolutely correct. We are supposed to tsk-tsk at players who are supposed to "just say no" to their addictions to fitness and monster stats, when their success at the park is our addiction as well. We also have yet to truly take owners to task for their addictions to public money and send them to detox.
Dave Zirin is the author of “A People’s History of Sports in the United States” (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Is Jose Canseco Ever Wrong?
http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2009/04/06/jose-canseco-says-90-chance-manny-ramirez-is-on-steroids-list/
Jose Canseco Says '90 Percent Chance' Manny Ramirez Is on 'The List'
Posted Apr 06, 2009
By Will Brinson
Filed Under: Dodgers, MLB Media Watch, MLB Rumors
Jose Canseco is well past the "naming names" stage of his steroid accusations. However, as ridiculous and irresponsible as Canseco seems with his chatter about this player and that player, he has, for the most part, been correct.
And the latest player that's the target of Canseco's pseudo-slanderous steroid chatter is Manny Ramirez, which is a most shocking revelation (although no more shocking than when Canseco accused Alex Rodriguez).
Canseco spoke to at the Brovard Auditorium on the USC campus recently and the Los Angeles Times' Kurt Streeter caught up with him afterwards, specifically interested about why Canseco stated that Ramirez's "name is most likely, 90 percent" on the list of players who used steroids.
Canseco asked questions as to the status of Ramirez receiving a long-term contract and why owners were so hesitant to sign him as "evidence" as to why Ramirez used steroids, but admitted he had "no way of knowing" whether Ramirez was guilty of using PEDs.
And that, in my mind, makes this allegation seem pretty silly: Ramirez didn't get a long-term deal because there was no chance of receiving the money he wanted over the course of a long-term contract. Additionally, he's 36, so it's not like every team out there should have been scrambling to lock him up in a 12-year uber-deal anyway. Oh, and perhaps Canseco missed it, but the economy collapsed while Ramirez was trying to get paid.
Manny, by the way, laughed off Canseco's allegations when Streeter followed up on the discussion, stating that, ""I got no comment, nothing to say about that. What can I say? I don't even know the guy."
In other words: Yes, Canseco has been right before, and plenty of times. Yes, he broke open the steroid scandal. But in this case, it just seems like he's in the same desperate corner of his, swinging wildly with names in the hopes that another name in a sea full of guilty players manages to stick on the wall and he can score a tiny extension on his 15 minutes in the spotlight.
Jose Canseco Says '90 Percent Chance' Manny Ramirez Is on 'The List'
Posted Apr 06, 2009
By Will Brinson
Filed Under: Dodgers, MLB Media Watch, MLB Rumors
Jose Canseco is well past the "naming names" stage of his steroid accusations. However, as ridiculous and irresponsible as Canseco seems with his chatter about this player and that player, he has, for the most part, been correct.
And the latest player that's the target of Canseco's pseudo-slanderous steroid chatter is Manny Ramirez, which is a most shocking revelation (although no more shocking than when Canseco accused Alex Rodriguez).
Canseco spoke to at the Brovard Auditorium on the USC campus recently and the Los Angeles Times' Kurt Streeter caught up with him afterwards, specifically interested about why Canseco stated that Ramirez's "name is most likely, 90 percent" on the list of players who used steroids.
Canseco asked questions as to the status of Ramirez receiving a long-term contract and why owners were so hesitant to sign him as "evidence" as to why Ramirez used steroids, but admitted he had "no way of knowing" whether Ramirez was guilty of using PEDs.
And that, in my mind, makes this allegation seem pretty silly: Ramirez didn't get a long-term deal because there was no chance of receiving the money he wanted over the course of a long-term contract. Additionally, he's 36, so it's not like every team out there should have been scrambling to lock him up in a 12-year uber-deal anyway. Oh, and perhaps Canseco missed it, but the economy collapsed while Ramirez was trying to get paid.
Manny, by the way, laughed off Canseco's allegations when Streeter followed up on the discussion, stating that, ""I got no comment, nothing to say about that. What can I say? I don't even know the guy."
In other words: Yes, Canseco has been right before, and plenty of times. Yes, he broke open the steroid scandal. But in this case, it just seems like he's in the same desperate corner of his, swinging wildly with names in the hopes that another name in a sea full of guilty players manages to stick on the wall and he can score a tiny extension on his 15 minutes in the spotlight.
Ramirez suspended 50 games for drug violation
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AozPbdpnRxDcG.ttoQ3gr6URvLYF?slug=ap-dodgers-ramirez-drugs
Ramirez suspended 50 games for drug violation
By BETH HARRIS and RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writers
5-7-9
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Manny Ramirez joined a growing lineup of All-Stars linked to drugs Thursday, with the dreadlocked slugger banished for 50 games by a sport that cannot shake free from scandal.
The Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder was suspended by Major League Baseball for a drug violation, adding a further stamp to what will forever be known as the Steroids Era.
“It’s a dark day for baseball and certainly for this organization,” Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti told reporters on the field at Dodger Stadium. “This organization will never condone anything that isn’t clean.”
Ramirez said he did not take steroids and was given medication by a doctor that contained a banned substance. A person familiar with the details of the suspension said Ramirez used the female fertility drug HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the banned substance wasn’t announced.
“As tough as it is for us, it’s pretty tough for Manny, too,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. “I know he’s the one that did the wrong thing and nobody is trying to cover that up, but it’s still something that I know he’s sorry about.”
HCG is popular among steroid users because it can mitigate the side effects of ending a cycle of the drugs. The body may stop producing testosterone when users go off steroids, which can cause sperm counts to decrease and testicles to shrink.
Ramirez’s suspension was based not on a spring training urine test result but rather evidence obtained afterward, a second person familiar with the suspension said, speaking on condition of anonymity because those details were not released. MLB had concluded the spring test was positive, but the person said the players’ association would have challenged the result because of “testing issues.”
Ranked 17th on the career home run list with 533, Ramirez became the most prominent baseball player to be penalized for drugs. His ban came three months after Alex Rodriguez admitted using steroids, and at a time when Barry Bonds is under federal indictment and Roger Clemens is being investigated by a federal grand jury to determine whether he lied when he told Congress he never used steroids or human growth hormone. And Miguel Tejada was sentenced in March to one year of probation after pleading guilty in federal court to misleading Congress about the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
No matter which way baseball turns, the legitimacy of many of its recent home run and pitching records is being questioned. Sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa have been tainted by steroid allegations, Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for a banned drug and Jose Canseco said he used them.
In every case, players once believed to be locks for the Hall of Fame may now be locked out.
“You can’t have arguably the greatest pitcher of our era, arguably the two greatest players of our era and now another very, very good player be under this cloud of suspicion and not feel like it has ruined it for everybody,” Atlanta star Chipper Jones said.
“But what are you going to do? You can’t be born in a different era. It is the Steroid Era,” he said.
Colletti and Torre said they found out about Ramirez’s suspension during an early morning phone call from team owner Frank McCourt. Both said they were surprised and saddened at the news.
Torre spoke to the rest of the team during a closed-door meeting before batting practice.
“The mood was sad in the clubhouse,” he said. “You can’t have someone who’s as much of an impact player and personality as Manny missing without it affecting people.”
The 36-year-old Ramirez tried to make amends right away, telling the Dodgers and fans he was sorry for “this whole situation.”
“Recently, I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me,” Ramirez said in a statement issued by the players’ union.
“Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons.”
Baseball added HCG to its list of banned substances last year.
His suspension was first reported by the Los Angeles Times on its Web site.
While Ramirez had little to say, Canseco was quick to explain why someone might use HCG.
“It could be that a player used it because he used steroids and went cold-turkey and needed HCG to get his levels back to normal. I had to use it when I quit steroids cold-turkey,” Canseco, who pleaded guilty last November to a misdemeanor of trying to bring HCG across the Mexican border into the United States illegally, told the AP. “I had to go to a doctor to get it and get my levels back.”
Because MLB imposed the suspension as required by the drug agreement, the Dodgers cannot further discipline Ramirez. He is allowed to work out with the Dodgers but must be out of uniform when the stadium gates open for games.
Ramirez was not mentioned in the Mitchell Report, MLB’s official report on drug use, and there had not been whispers that he was among the sport’s juiced players.
“It’s kind of shocking that he got caught up in anything, honestly. Manny likes to play stupid, but he’s a pretty bright guy. And he’s definitely aware of a lot of things that he tries to act like he’s completely oblivious to,” said Cincinnati pitcher Bronson Arroyo, Ramirez’s former Boston teammate.
Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras, and the players’ association had gathered materials for a possible appeal to an arbitrator, but Ramirez decided not to file one because he didn’t want to risk missing significant time in the second half of the season, the person familiar with details of the suspension said. The union said merely that he waived his right to contest the suspension.
Reaction to Ramirez’s ban came swiftly, from major league clubhouses to the White House.
“It’s a tragedy. It’s a shame. My sense is, it’s a great embarrassment on Major League Baseball,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
The penalty left the best team in the majors without its driving force and free spirit for nearly one-third of the season.
Ramirez’s suspension began Thursday, a day after the Dodgers broke the modern major league record for a home winning streak, opening the season 13-0. Barring any postponements, he will be able to return to the Dodgers for the July 3 game at San Diego. Ramirez will lose $7,650,273 of his $25 million salary.
Rodriguez and Ramirez are the two highest-paid players in the majors. With this suspension, six of the top 17 home run hitters in history now have been covered by the cloud of performance-enhancing drugs.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig couldn’t comment on the suspension because of provisions of the management-union drug agreement, spokesman Rich Levin said.
Ramirez became the fourth player suspended this year under the major league program, following Philadelphia reliever J.C. Romero, Yankees pitcher Sergio Mitre and San Francisco pitcher Kelvin Pichardo.
The Dodgers began the 50-game stretch without Ramirez on Thursday night against Washington. Juan Pierre received loud applause when he was introduced as Ramirez’s replacement in the starting lineup, but there were scattered boos when he came to the plate for the first time.
Losing Ramirez to suspension could be a huge blow financially for the Dodgers. The slugger has been single-handedly responsible for increasing attendance, merchandise sales and interest in the team, besides helping it win the NL West after his late-season arrival in 2008.
Los Angeles even renamed a section of seats in left field at Dodger Stadium “Mannywood” in his honor. Hours after the suspension, the team removed a reference to those seats from its Web site.
Torre, however, insisted Ramirez is welcome anytime.
“The thing that was toughest for Manny is how he disappointed everybody,” he said. “He loved it here, and he loves how the fans get turned on by him. He was devastated.”
Associated Press Baseball Writer Ron Blum reported from New York, with AP Sports Writer Beth Harris in Los Angeles. AP Sports Writers Dan Gelston in Philadelphia, Joe Kay in Cincinnati, R.B. Fallstrom in St. Louis, Stephen Wilson in London and Steve Wine in Miami, National Writer Ben Walker in New York and AP Writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.
Ramirez suspended 50 games for drug violation
By BETH HARRIS and RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writers
5-7-9
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Manny Ramirez joined a growing lineup of All-Stars linked to drugs Thursday, with the dreadlocked slugger banished for 50 games by a sport that cannot shake free from scandal.
The Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder was suspended by Major League Baseball for a drug violation, adding a further stamp to what will forever be known as the Steroids Era.
“It’s a dark day for baseball and certainly for this organization,” Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti told reporters on the field at Dodger Stadium. “This organization will never condone anything that isn’t clean.”
Ramirez said he did not take steroids and was given medication by a doctor that contained a banned substance. A person familiar with the details of the suspension said Ramirez used the female fertility drug HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the banned substance wasn’t announced.
“As tough as it is for us, it’s pretty tough for Manny, too,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. “I know he’s the one that did the wrong thing and nobody is trying to cover that up, but it’s still something that I know he’s sorry about.”
HCG is popular among steroid users because it can mitigate the side effects of ending a cycle of the drugs. The body may stop producing testosterone when users go off steroids, which can cause sperm counts to decrease and testicles to shrink.
Ramirez’s suspension was based not on a spring training urine test result but rather evidence obtained afterward, a second person familiar with the suspension said, speaking on condition of anonymity because those details were not released. MLB had concluded the spring test was positive, but the person said the players’ association would have challenged the result because of “testing issues.”
Ranked 17th on the career home run list with 533, Ramirez became the most prominent baseball player to be penalized for drugs. His ban came three months after Alex Rodriguez admitted using steroids, and at a time when Barry Bonds is under federal indictment and Roger Clemens is being investigated by a federal grand jury to determine whether he lied when he told Congress he never used steroids or human growth hormone. And Miguel Tejada was sentenced in March to one year of probation after pleading guilty in federal court to misleading Congress about the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
No matter which way baseball turns, the legitimacy of many of its recent home run and pitching records is being questioned. Sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa have been tainted by steroid allegations, Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for a banned drug and Jose Canseco said he used them.
In every case, players once believed to be locks for the Hall of Fame may now be locked out.
“You can’t have arguably the greatest pitcher of our era, arguably the two greatest players of our era and now another very, very good player be under this cloud of suspicion and not feel like it has ruined it for everybody,” Atlanta star Chipper Jones said.
“But what are you going to do? You can’t be born in a different era. It is the Steroid Era,” he said.
Colletti and Torre said they found out about Ramirez’s suspension during an early morning phone call from team owner Frank McCourt. Both said they were surprised and saddened at the news.
Torre spoke to the rest of the team during a closed-door meeting before batting practice.
“The mood was sad in the clubhouse,” he said. “You can’t have someone who’s as much of an impact player and personality as Manny missing without it affecting people.”
The 36-year-old Ramirez tried to make amends right away, telling the Dodgers and fans he was sorry for “this whole situation.”
“Recently, I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me,” Ramirez said in a statement issued by the players’ union.
“Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons.”
Baseball added HCG to its list of banned substances last year.
His suspension was first reported by the Los Angeles Times on its Web site.
While Ramirez had little to say, Canseco was quick to explain why someone might use HCG.
“It could be that a player used it because he used steroids and went cold-turkey and needed HCG to get his levels back to normal. I had to use it when I quit steroids cold-turkey,” Canseco, who pleaded guilty last November to a misdemeanor of trying to bring HCG across the Mexican border into the United States illegally, told the AP. “I had to go to a doctor to get it and get my levels back.”
Because MLB imposed the suspension as required by the drug agreement, the Dodgers cannot further discipline Ramirez. He is allowed to work out with the Dodgers but must be out of uniform when the stadium gates open for games.
Ramirez was not mentioned in the Mitchell Report, MLB’s official report on drug use, and there had not been whispers that he was among the sport’s juiced players.
“It’s kind of shocking that he got caught up in anything, honestly. Manny likes to play stupid, but he’s a pretty bright guy. And he’s definitely aware of a lot of things that he tries to act like he’s completely oblivious to,” said Cincinnati pitcher Bronson Arroyo, Ramirez’s former Boston teammate.
Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras, and the players’ association had gathered materials for a possible appeal to an arbitrator, but Ramirez decided not to file one because he didn’t want to risk missing significant time in the second half of the season, the person familiar with details of the suspension said. The union said merely that he waived his right to contest the suspension.
Reaction to Ramirez’s ban came swiftly, from major league clubhouses to the White House.
“It’s a tragedy. It’s a shame. My sense is, it’s a great embarrassment on Major League Baseball,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
The penalty left the best team in the majors without its driving force and free spirit for nearly one-third of the season.
Ramirez’s suspension began Thursday, a day after the Dodgers broke the modern major league record for a home winning streak, opening the season 13-0. Barring any postponements, he will be able to return to the Dodgers for the July 3 game at San Diego. Ramirez will lose $7,650,273 of his $25 million salary.
Rodriguez and Ramirez are the two highest-paid players in the majors. With this suspension, six of the top 17 home run hitters in history now have been covered by the cloud of performance-enhancing drugs.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig couldn’t comment on the suspension because of provisions of the management-union drug agreement, spokesman Rich Levin said.
Ramirez became the fourth player suspended this year under the major league program, following Philadelphia reliever J.C. Romero, Yankees pitcher Sergio Mitre and San Francisco pitcher Kelvin Pichardo.
The Dodgers began the 50-game stretch without Ramirez on Thursday night against Washington. Juan Pierre received loud applause when he was introduced as Ramirez’s replacement in the starting lineup, but there were scattered boos when he came to the plate for the first time.
Losing Ramirez to suspension could be a huge blow financially for the Dodgers. The slugger has been single-handedly responsible for increasing attendance, merchandise sales and interest in the team, besides helping it win the NL West after his late-season arrival in 2008.
Los Angeles even renamed a section of seats in left field at Dodger Stadium “Mannywood” in his honor. Hours after the suspension, the team removed a reference to those seats from its Web site.
Torre, however, insisted Ramirez is welcome anytime.
“The thing that was toughest for Manny is how he disappointed everybody,” he said. “He loved it here, and he loves how the fans get turned on by him. He was devastated.”
Associated Press Baseball Writer Ron Blum reported from New York, with AP Sports Writer Beth Harris in Los Angeles. AP Sports Writers Dan Gelston in Philadelphia, Joe Kay in Cincinnati, R.B. Fallstrom in St. Louis, Stephen Wilson in London and Steve Wine in Miami, National Writer Ben Walker in New York and AP Writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Steroids fueled spectacular rise and fall
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4073575
April 17, 2009Steroids fueled spectacular rise and fall
By Kory Kozak
ESPN
The Story Of Tony Mandarich
Tony Mandarich discusses his steroid-fueled rise to top NFL prospect and his status as one of the biggest draft busts of all time
How could he not be great in the NFL? How could Tony Mandarich possibly be a bust?
I saw what might have been in 1988. I was an 18-year-old freshman defensive end at Rutgers. At that point, the Rutgers football slogan was "On the Rise" because we were always mediocre in those days. Our first game that season was against Michigan State, the 15th-ranked team in the country and defending Rose Bowl champ. They had an All-America tackle -- Tony Mandarich -- who was humiliating players every week.
He was 6-foot-6, 320 pounds. He was huge. He was a mutant. He was all-natural? Impossible.
I was all-natural, tipping the scales at about 230 and having already lost about 10 precious pounds in training camp.
Not a great matchup. You can imagine how that would have turned out. But it never happened. I was redshirted and wasn't going to see the field unless the seven or eight players in front of me were maimed.
And Mandarich, ultimately, was suspended. He sat out the first three games of the season after applying for the NFL draft.
During training camp, we studied Michigan State's offensive line on film. Watching the Rose Bowl, we saw Mandarich pancaking Tim Ryan from USC on one play, driving him out of the film frame on the next. It wasn't as if Ryan was terrible; the guy was a first-round pick of the Bears a year later.
Our reaction? Laughter. Not because Ryan was getting destroyed, but because we weren't. That wasn't going to be us because he wasn't playing.
We watched more film, and it wasn't only Ryan. We saw an All-America defensive end pinned to the ground by Mandarich, a linebacker from Wisconsin on skates 10 yards downfield, a defensive tackle from Ohio State curled up in the fetal position. The worst was the Iowa team captain who went for the trifecta: on skates for 10 yards, pinned to the ground and then curled up in the fetal position.
It didn't stop there.
Mandarich punched an Ohio State player during the coin toss and told him he "was going to die today." He drove a Northwestern player into the end zone, pancaked him and then told the player to "stay there."
Sometimes he was blocking two players at a time. Who does that? It was a no-brainer that Mandarich was the most dominant college offensive lineman ever. Maybe not the best, but definitely the most dominant.
How could he not make it in the NFL?
The Unnatural
Well, for starters, he was cheating.
He was chemically enhanced to the nth degree. He was the Six Million Dollar Man of steroids.
"I was taking Winstrol V, equipoise, Anadrol 50s, testosterone, Anavar, Dianabol," he told me dispassionately in an ESPN interview last month at the W Hotel, near his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Mandarich says he started using steroids in 1984, and was able to beat NCAA testing at the Rose and Gator bowls.
Twenty years after he was the second player taken in the 1989 NFL draft, Mandarich is 42 years old. He looks like a cross between Judas Priest's Rob Halford and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. He's still huge and looks as if he could still play. He told me he had been taking steroids since May 1984.
His older brother, John, who was playing at Kent State, turned Mandarich onto them. His usage escalated during his time at Michigan State. The rumors of steroids started to surface, but schools were not testing for steroids yet, and the NCAA tested only at bowl games. Mandarich kept beating the system. He cheated on the tests for the Rose and Gator bowls.
"I basically strapped something to my back a little -- it was actually a little doggie toy," Mandarich said in an interview that stretched longer than 2½ hours. "Hooked up a little hose to it … ran a tube underneath and put a piece of gum to cap the tube."
As a player, his legend was growing. So was his ego.
"You're not supposed to be as strong as I am. You're not supposed to be as fast as I am. You're not supposed to be as good as I am," Mandarich said in the midst of his steroid haze in 1989.
He dropped out of Michigan State after the Gator Bowl and moved to Los Angeles. It was where he wanted to be -- a big city with big-city media. He had big plans. He wanted to play football for six or seven years in the NFL, win Mr. Universe and then move on to the movies. He wanted to be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was hanging out with Guns N' Roses, and he had the tattoos to prove it.
All the while, against the general rules of nature, Tony kept getting bigger, stronger and faster. He hosted his own combine at Michigan State that spring. The numbers were staggering:
Weight: 308 pounds
Bench press: 39 repetitions at 225 pounds
40-yard dash: 4.69 seconds.
The hype machine was at full throttle.
Sports Illustrated, memorably, put him on the cover, shirtless and massive. It called him "the best offensive line prospect ever." It bragged of his insane 15,000-calorie diet and his love for Axl Rose.
I put that SI cover on my dorm wall. Every lineman -- high school or college -- probably did the same. He was what all of us aspired to be: huge, cut and nasty on the football field. He was supposed to change offensive linemen forever. He was the anti-Reggie White, the guy who was built to block men like White and maybe even dominate them.
Before the 1989 draft, Sports Illustrated put Mandarich on the cover, shirtless and massive. They called him "the best offensive line prospect ever."
As the 1989 draft approached, Mandarich was the highest-rated player on the board. Higher than Troy Aikman. Higher than Barry Sanders. Higher than Deion Sanders and Derrick Thomas. It was on. He had serious clout. Mandarich could call his own shot. Everyone had bought in. Almost everyone.
The Kansas City Chiefs were courting Mandarich because they had one of the top five picks in the draft. General manager Carl Peterson and coach Marty Schottenheimer took him out to dinner. They asked him whether he was on steroids, Mandarich says. Fair question. Mandarich said he had never failed a drug test. Not exactly what the coach wanted to hear.
According to Mandarich, Schottenheimer looked him square in the eye and said, "I think you're lying."
"If you think I am lying," Mandarich said coolly, "then don't draft me."
His arrogance with NFL teams did not stop there.
"I had said even before the draft that I did not want to get drafted by the Packers," Mandarich said. "I didn't want to play in a small market. I called Green Bay a village. Some of the stuff I said, when I look back now, is just embarrassing."
Saying it, he truly sounds embarrassed, maybe even disgusted.
Needless to say, the Packers took Mandarich second overall, after the Cowboys took Aikman. Some experts thought Dallas was crazy for not taking Mandarich.
The Packers weren't planning to pay him the $1.1 million per year that he was demanding. So, Mandarich cranked up the hype again. He held out of Packers camp. Then he appeared on "Late Night with David Letterman."
Mandarich: "I want to fight Tyson."
Letterman: "Oh, geez … what kind of a guy does it take to sit here and say that?"
The Packers might lose Mandarich to boxing? They had to ante up. And they did.
A mythical monster
Green Bay had no idea what it was getting for its $4.4 million; Mandarich was the first offensive lineman to make seven figures a season.
Mandarich missed the entire training camp. He wasn't ready to play in the NFL's pass-first game. Michigan State threw the ball maybe 10 times a game in those days, and pass blocking was not Mandarich's strong suit.
But something else was happening, and it wasn't just steroids.
Mandarich had stopped taking steroids just before the combine for fear of getting caught by the NFL drug-testers. Those guys actually watch you fill the cup from point-blank range. No dog toys to save him there.
Mandarich was an utter disappointment in Green Bay, and he never made it on the field in the final season of a four-year, $4.4 million deal.
The bigger issue, according to Mandarich, was an addiction to painkillers. He was a junkie. By the time he arrived in Green Bay, he was hooked. As he ended his steroid usage, he started taking painkillers to get rid of the aches and pains from his intense weight training.
He wasn't messing around, either. He was main-lining them. Straight into the vein. Six or seven times a day. Even during practice.
"I was getting really paranoid about people finding out, so what I would do with that bottle and a syringe, I would put it in my jock strap," Mandarich said. "I'd say 'Hey, I've got to go to the bathroom,' lock myself in the bathroom, take a shot, and then come back out to practice and get ready for one-on-one pass drills with the defensive line, and I'm half in the bag."
He did this every day. Stadol, Fiorinal #3, Valium, Percodan, Percocet, Vicodin. The shots eventually became pills because they were easier to come by, and sometimes the pills were replaced by booze.
Mandarich created a monster built on lies. It was all torn down in a few months. He was the bust to end all busts. He never got on the field for the last year of his contract, 1992, and Mike Holmgren's new Green Bay regime elected to not re-sign him.
"I spent four years in Green Bay and never [had] a sober day," Mandarich said. "Every day I was ever in Green Bay I was not sober."
Mandarich went to his home in Traverse City, Mich., and became a full-time junkie -- and hid. His full-time job was to find ways to get more drugs by conning another doctor or faking another illness.
More lies.
Things got worse. Mandarich's older brother, John, was dying of cancer. John was his hero, having played for Kent State and then the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League. On the day John died in 1993, his little brother was in his truck, driving 400 miles to Green Bay from Traverse City to get more painkillers.
At that point, the drugs were more important to him than anything.
This was the time that Mandarich was supposed be in the prime of his career, taking on Reggie White and Bruce Smith on his way to the Hall of Fame, with yearly visits to Hawaii along the way. Instead, he was chasing down painkillers to get by until the next day. He was down to 260 pounds, pale, and looking nothing like the shirtless guy who was on the cover of SI.
"Fifty, 60, 70 painkillers a day," Mandarich said. "I would just drink more because it's easier to get alcohol. A lot of self-loathing … absolutely hated myself. I hated everything about me."
He could never live up to that monster he created.
Tony Mandarich, now 42, says he doesn't regret the mistakes he made because they "forced me to make corrections -- it was either make corrections or die for me."
Making it right
Rock bottom. He was there.
In March 1995, Mandarich checked himself into the Brighton Hospital Chemical Dependency and Mental Health Treatment Center in Brighton, Mich. Twelve steps. Time to pay the price for all those lies.
"How in the world do you make amends for the disaster you created in the NFL?" he said, sounding contrite. "And that you had wronged the fans, you had wronged the Packers, you embarrassed the sport. How do you right that wrong?"
Mandarich's way was to try to come back to the NFL, but this time do it right. Clean. Sober. No outrageous comments. Be happy to be there.
In 1996, Mandarich made it back to the NFL, playing three seasons with the Colts -- without the aid of steroids, he says.
Miraculously, Mandarich made it back to the NFL in 1996, playing for the Indianapolis Colts. He was huge once again, weighing in at around 320. But this time, he says, it was natural. No juice. For three more years, he was good, not great -- not pinning guys on their backs, not keeping stats of pancakes and guys he drove off the screen.
But he says he was clean. And Mandarich insists he has remained clean since.
Today he keeps a low profile in Arizona, with his wife and business partner, Char. They run an Internet marketing company and do photography and video work. In their home, there are few mementos from his football days. In one small room, his Michigan State Rose Bowl jersey and his Colts jersey hang on the wall.
Nothing from his years with the Packers. No other trophies. A few years ago, Mandarich took all the trophies he had from Michigan State and burned them.
"Got tired of them sitting in boxes," he explained.
That might have been as symbolic as anything he did. Clearly, that time in his life is well behind him.
He is promoting a new book, "My Dirty Little Secrets," published by Modern History Press. He said he wants to speak to NFL players about the dangers of steroid abuse and painkillers, another step in the 12-step circle of making amends.
He has become -- sincerely, it seems -- reflective.
"I don't regret any of the pills I took, or I don't regret the steroids I took," he said. "I don't regret the whiskey I drank, and I don't regret the mistakes I made, because all of those things coupled together tore me down and made me forced me to look at myself and forced me to make corrections -- it was either make corrections or die for me."
There is one eye-catching remnant of his chemically enhanced life. The infamous Sports Illustrated cover, the one that proclaimed him "The Incredible Bulk." He has a blown-up version in his garage.
It hangs just above a garbage can.
Kory Kozak is a producer for ESPN.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
A-Rod, Anabolic Agonist Sports
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090223/zirin
A-Rod, Anabolic Agonist Sports
By Dave Zirin
February 9, 2009
Should we pity Alex Rodriguez? The three-time MVP, owed $275 million over the next nine years, has been exposed as a steroid user, the latest in Major League Baseball's endless series of anabolic agonists. The creative minds at the New York Post summed up the mood of the moment with one blaring headline: "A-Fraud." ESPN senior writer Jayson Stark was no less overwrought; his headline proclaimed, "A- Rod Has Destroyed Game's History."
However, the list of frauds and history defamers extends far beyond the Yankee third baseman. Before we gather the torches and pitchforks, let us round up some of the real villains. When it comes to steroids, no one, as A-Rod's alleged paramour Madonna might say, is like a virgin. For instance, there's league commissioner Bud Selig, who touted A-Rod as the man who would replace the "unclean" Barry Bonds as the all-time leader in home runs. Then there is the Major League Baseball Players Association. Once arguably the most powerful union in the United States, the MLBPA has in its possession the infamous list of 104 players tested in 2003. That year a deal between the owners and the union was supposed to be based on anonymity and trust. If more than 5 percent of the players tested positive, more testing with suspensions would ensue. The union promised its members that it would destroy the list. Instead it inexplicably held onto the list long enough for the government to seize it for the BALCO investigations.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Steinbrenner family also have anabolic egg on their faces. They were depending on A-Rod to be the cherry atop the sundae of the new billion-dollar Yankee Stadium expected to open this year. Hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars have gone into this public works project, with specious promises of economic renewal. Now it may just set the stage for a season-long, agonizing fall from grace.
Finally, there are the owners-at-large, who have yet to have to face any kind of Congressional subcommittee, grand jury or operatic media melodrama for their role in cheapening the sport. Stark, in his piece blaming A-Rod for shredding the very fabric of baseball history, writes:
In baseball, we love our numbers. And we love our heroes. And that brings us to Alex Rodriguez, a man who has committed a crime he doesn't even understand: a crime against the once-proud history of his sport.
What Stark and his misguided minions ignore is that if we are upset about the way numbers and hallowed records have become cheapened over the past fifteen years, ownership is the problem--and it extends far beyond steroids.
Owners actually had a multifaceted strategy to try to make baseball more like beer-league softball--and it was about as subtle as a tabloid's back page. As legendary baseball writer Bob Klapisch said, "Somewhere someone decided that baseball needed more runs. It was made at a very fundamental level. And little by little, step by step, this became the new reality. There has been too much to write it off as coincidence."
The reasons for the home run boom extend far beyond the steroid dealer. The boom reverberates in every urban budget, every underfunded school and every library that closes early. In the past twenty years, more than fifteen publicly funded baseball parks have been built in the United States. They are supposed to be fan-friendly--that is, unless your child happens to go to a school whose shrinking budgets were paying the tab. The shorter fences at these parks are engineered to yield more home runs.
Then there are the balls and bats. Countless baseball insiders believe that the ball is now wound tighter than it was twenty years ago. As for the bats, as recently as fifteen years ago, players used untreated ash bats. Now the bats are maple and lacquered. That means the ball goes farther.
Then there is the strike zone. The area where a pitched ball can be called a strike has shrunk, in the words of retired pitcher Greg Maddux, to "the size of a postage stamp." The owners consciously engineered this trend toward the microscopic strike zone. When umpires refused to agree to a uniform strike zone, Major League Baseball crushed their union and instituted a machine to monitor their abilities. Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer said, "The loss of the high strike has changed the game more than any pill."
But an equally big reason home run numbers are up is that the game finally shed its nineteenth-century view of strength conditioning. The training standard until the 1990s was that if Joe "Ducky" Medwick didn't do it in the '30s, then it shouldn't be done. For example, it has been the conventional wisdom for most of baseball's history that weightlifting would destroy your swing. Many teams even fined or suspended players if they were caught pumping iron. Weightlifting is now as much a part of every team's regimen as shagging fly balls.
Alex Rodriguez is set to be the next former slugger torn to pieces by columnists, fans and the sports radio blabbocracy. They all need to crack open some Michael Phelps medicinal magic and relax. Rodriguez may not deserve your pity, but he hardly deserves your scorn. Reserve that for the owners, political leaders and Bud the commissioner--who robbed our cities blind and distracted us with dingers so we wouldn't notice.
Dave Zirin is the author of Welcome to the Terrordome: the Pain Politics and Promise of Sports (Haymarket) and the forthcoming A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). and his writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, SportsIllustrated.com, New York Newsday and The Progressive. He is the host of XM Radio's Edge of Sports Radio.
Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
A-Rod, Anabolic Agonist Sports
By Dave Zirin
February 9, 2009
Should we pity Alex Rodriguez? The three-time MVP, owed $275 million over the next nine years, has been exposed as a steroid user, the latest in Major League Baseball's endless series of anabolic agonists. The creative minds at the New York Post summed up the mood of the moment with one blaring headline: "A-Fraud." ESPN senior writer Jayson Stark was no less overwrought; his headline proclaimed, "A- Rod Has Destroyed Game's History."
However, the list of frauds and history defamers extends far beyond the Yankee third baseman. Before we gather the torches and pitchforks, let us round up some of the real villains. When it comes to steroids, no one, as A-Rod's alleged paramour Madonna might say, is like a virgin. For instance, there's league commissioner Bud Selig, who touted A-Rod as the man who would replace the "unclean" Barry Bonds as the all-time leader in home runs. Then there is the Major League Baseball Players Association. Once arguably the most powerful union in the United States, the MLBPA has in its possession the infamous list of 104 players tested in 2003. That year a deal between the owners and the union was supposed to be based on anonymity and trust. If more than 5 percent of the players tested positive, more testing with suspensions would ensue. The union promised its members that it would destroy the list. Instead it inexplicably held onto the list long enough for the government to seize it for the BALCO investigations.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Steinbrenner family also have anabolic egg on their faces. They were depending on A-Rod to be the cherry atop the sundae of the new billion-dollar Yankee Stadium expected to open this year. Hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars have gone into this public works project, with specious promises of economic renewal. Now it may just set the stage for a season-long, agonizing fall from grace.
Finally, there are the owners-at-large, who have yet to have to face any kind of Congressional subcommittee, grand jury or operatic media melodrama for their role in cheapening the sport. Stark, in his piece blaming A-Rod for shredding the very fabric of baseball history, writes:
In baseball, we love our numbers. And we love our heroes. And that brings us to Alex Rodriguez, a man who has committed a crime he doesn't even understand: a crime against the once-proud history of his sport.
What Stark and his misguided minions ignore is that if we are upset about the way numbers and hallowed records have become cheapened over the past fifteen years, ownership is the problem--and it extends far beyond steroids.
Owners actually had a multifaceted strategy to try to make baseball more like beer-league softball--and it was about as subtle as a tabloid's back page. As legendary baseball writer Bob Klapisch said, "Somewhere someone decided that baseball needed more runs. It was made at a very fundamental level. And little by little, step by step, this became the new reality. There has been too much to write it off as coincidence."
The reasons for the home run boom extend far beyond the steroid dealer. The boom reverberates in every urban budget, every underfunded school and every library that closes early. In the past twenty years, more than fifteen publicly funded baseball parks have been built in the United States. They are supposed to be fan-friendly--that is, unless your child happens to go to a school whose shrinking budgets were paying the tab. The shorter fences at these parks are engineered to yield more home runs.
Then there are the balls and bats. Countless baseball insiders believe that the ball is now wound tighter than it was twenty years ago. As for the bats, as recently as fifteen years ago, players used untreated ash bats. Now the bats are maple and lacquered. That means the ball goes farther.
Then there is the strike zone. The area where a pitched ball can be called a strike has shrunk, in the words of retired pitcher Greg Maddux, to "the size of a postage stamp." The owners consciously engineered this trend toward the microscopic strike zone. When umpires refused to agree to a uniform strike zone, Major League Baseball crushed their union and instituted a machine to monitor their abilities. Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer said, "The loss of the high strike has changed the game more than any pill."
But an equally big reason home run numbers are up is that the game finally shed its nineteenth-century view of strength conditioning. The training standard until the 1990s was that if Joe "Ducky" Medwick didn't do it in the '30s, then it shouldn't be done. For example, it has been the conventional wisdom for most of baseball's history that weightlifting would destroy your swing. Many teams even fined or suspended players if they were caught pumping iron. Weightlifting is now as much a part of every team's regimen as shagging fly balls.
Alex Rodriguez is set to be the next former slugger torn to pieces by columnists, fans and the sports radio blabbocracy. They all need to crack open some Michael Phelps medicinal magic and relax. Rodriguez may not deserve your pity, but he hardly deserves your scorn. Reserve that for the owners, political leaders and Bud the commissioner--who robbed our cities blind and distracted us with dingers so we wouldn't notice.
Dave Zirin is the author of Welcome to the Terrordome: the Pain Politics and Promise of Sports (Haymarket) and the forthcoming A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). and his writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, SportsIllustrated.com, New York Newsday and The Progressive. He is the host of XM Radio's Edge of Sports Radio.
Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
McGwire's Brother: "I Introduced Mark to Steroids"
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/baseball-insider/2009/01/mcgwires_brother_i_introduced.html
McGwire's Brother: "I Introduced Mark to Steroids"
By Cameron Smith
January 22, 2009
Occasionally, the blogosphere really does break the biggest news. That appears to be the case in the latest significant steroids development, where slugger Mark McGwire's younger brother, Jay, is now claiming that he introduced Mark to steroids in a memoir manuscript that he's shopping to publishers. In the details contained in the excerpts that have been leaked to the counter-cultural sports blog deadspin.com, Jay McGwire even claims that he was the first person to inject Mark with steroids, at least until a girlfriend took over the responsibility.
There are too many juicy excerpts to get into all of them, but here's our choice pick among them.
"I directed him to androstenedione testosterone booster, which is non-hormonal (which is why it can be sold legally and is not affected by the 2004 Anabolic Steroid Control Act) and works naturally with your body. "Andro" increases strength and aggression while promoting reduction of body fat and a leaner look to the physique....[U]sing andro allowed Mark to avoid all the potential adverse side effects that could occur from using anabolic steroids, such as water retention, hair loss, and liver, heart, or kidney stress. In addition, he wouldn't have cholesterol problems or testicular atrophy. And there were no problems with the law."
"Who knows what might have happened if I didn't get Mark involved with all the training, supplements, the right foods, steroids, and HGH. He would not have broken any records and the Congressional Hearings would have gone on without him. Maybe Barry Bonds wouldn't have ever gotten involved with the stuff, either. Mark McGwire might have gone silently into the night long before breaking Roger Maris' home run record. But that's just not the way it went down, so we'll never know. But at least I feel better about setting the record straight."
Also discussed: Mark McGwire's irascible 'roid rage and his pleading the fifth. It'll be interesting to see if anyone can drag more comments out of Jay McGwire, because something tells us this is the last we'll see of this book proposal.
McGwire's Brother: "I Introduced Mark to Steroids"
By Cameron Smith
January 22, 2009
Occasionally, the blogosphere really does break the biggest news. That appears to be the case in the latest significant steroids development, where slugger Mark McGwire's younger brother, Jay, is now claiming that he introduced Mark to steroids in a memoir manuscript that he's shopping to publishers. In the details contained in the excerpts that have been leaked to the counter-cultural sports blog deadspin.com, Jay McGwire even claims that he was the first person to inject Mark with steroids, at least until a girlfriend took over the responsibility.
There are too many juicy excerpts to get into all of them, but here's our choice pick among them.
"I directed him to androstenedione testosterone booster, which is non-hormonal (which is why it can be sold legally and is not affected by the 2004 Anabolic Steroid Control Act) and works naturally with your body. "Andro" increases strength and aggression while promoting reduction of body fat and a leaner look to the physique....[U]sing andro allowed Mark to avoid all the potential adverse side effects that could occur from using anabolic steroids, such as water retention, hair loss, and liver, heart, or kidney stress. In addition, he wouldn't have cholesterol problems or testicular atrophy. And there were no problems with the law."
"Who knows what might have happened if I didn't get Mark involved with all the training, supplements, the right foods, steroids, and HGH. He would not have broken any records and the Congressional Hearings would have gone on without him. Maybe Barry Bonds wouldn't have ever gotten involved with the stuff, either. Mark McGwire might have gone silently into the night long before breaking Roger Maris' home run record. But that's just not the way it went down, so we'll never know. But at least I feel better about setting the record straight."
Also discussed: Mark McGwire's irascible 'roid rage and his pleading the fifth. It'll be interesting to see if anyone can drag more comments out of Jay McGwire, because something tells us this is the last we'll see of this book proposal.
Steroids Dealer Testifies Before Grand Jury
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/sports/baseball/16drugs.html
January 16, 2009
Steroids Dealer Testifies Before Clemens Grand Jury in Perjury Investigation
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
WASHINGTON — Two blocks from the steps of the Capitol, where Barack Obama will be sworn in as president Tuesday, and four blocks from where Roger Clemens testified at a Congressional hearing last February, a federal grand jury met Thursday to hear evidence that could help lead to Clemens’s indictment.
The grand jury, in United States District Court, is investigating whether Clemens committed perjury when he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last Feb. 13 that he never used performance-enhancing drugs.
When Clemens and his chief accuser, Brian McNamee, testified that day, the proceedings were broadcast on national television and attended by reporters from around the country.
The scene was far different Thursday morning, with only a handful of reporters present in the courthouse when Daniel P. Butler, the deputy United States attorney overseeing the Clemens case, pushed himself in a wheelchair through the lobby. His destination was an elevator that took him to the third-floor room where the grand jury was meeting behind closed doors.
“I can’t say anything,” Butler told reporters.
Minutes later, Kirk Radomski, the convicted steroids dealer who led prosecutors to McNamee, arrived at the courthouse to testify before the grand jury. He wore a shiny black jacket with a gold zipper. He departed several hours later, escorted by a United States marshal and declining to answer questions. He did not appear to have a lawyer with him.
How much Radomski can contribute to the investigation is unclear, because he does not appear to have direct ties to Clemens. But Butler will be crucial to the proceedings.
Like the deputy United States attorneys in San Francisco who have presided over the major steroid cases in the last six years, Butler is not a political appointee. As such, he will presumably remain on the Clemens case regardless of whom the new administration selects to become the next United States attorney for the District of Columbia office.
Butler, who has been a prosecutor for more than 25 years, lost the use of his legs in 1977, when he was hit by a car while racing a bicycle. He later participated in the Paralympics as a swimmer and won a gold medal in the 50-meter butterfly at the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta.
In addition to investigating Clemens, Butler is also considering whether to seek an indictment of Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada on charges that he made false statements to investigators for the same House committee that heard Clemens’s testimony. According to a person briefed on the matter, a grand jury has been convened to begin hearing evidence regarding Tejada. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to jeopardize his access to sensitive information.
A lawyer for Tejada did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment. In a telephone interview Thursday evening, Butler declined comment on the matter.
Like Clemens, Tejada was referred to the Justice Department by the Oversight Committee on suspicion that he made false statements about his use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The committee said that in 2005, Tejada told investigators that he had never used steroids. At the time, the target of the committee investigators was not Tejada but his Baltimore Oriole teammate, Rafael Palmeiro, who at a nationally televised hearing in March of that year insisted he never used performance-enhancing drugs. He tested positive soon afterward.
What complicated matters for Tejada was the release of the report by George J. Mitchell in December of 2007. The report linked dozens of current and former players, including Tejada, to the use of such drugs.
According to the Mitchell report, one of Tejada’s former teammates with the Oakland A’s, Adam Piatt, told investigators for Mitchell that he had provided steroids to Tejada in March 2003. Pictures of canceled checks written to Piatt from Tejada for $3,100 and $3,200 were included in the Mitchell report.
Tejada was the American League’s most valuable player in 2002 with the Oakland A’s and signed a six-year, $72 million contract with Baltimore after the 2003 season. He was traded to the Astros the day before the Mitchell report was released.
As Thursday’s grand jury proceedings unfolded, McNamee and his lawyers were preparing to travel here for a Friday meeting with Butler, although McNamee is not yet expected to testify.
But McNamee was talking elsewhere, stating in a video interview with the Web site Sportsimproper.com that he believes Clemens will end up in prison for committing perjury. “I believe he’ll probably be wearing a uniform, but it will be one of those orange jump suits with a serial number on it,” McNamee said.
January 16, 2009
Steroids Dealer Testifies Before Clemens Grand Jury in Perjury Investigation
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
WASHINGTON — Two blocks from the steps of the Capitol, where Barack Obama will be sworn in as president Tuesday, and four blocks from where Roger Clemens testified at a Congressional hearing last February, a federal grand jury met Thursday to hear evidence that could help lead to Clemens’s indictment.
The grand jury, in United States District Court, is investigating whether Clemens committed perjury when he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last Feb. 13 that he never used performance-enhancing drugs.
When Clemens and his chief accuser, Brian McNamee, testified that day, the proceedings were broadcast on national television and attended by reporters from around the country.
The scene was far different Thursday morning, with only a handful of reporters present in the courthouse when Daniel P. Butler, the deputy United States attorney overseeing the Clemens case, pushed himself in a wheelchair through the lobby. His destination was an elevator that took him to the third-floor room where the grand jury was meeting behind closed doors.
“I can’t say anything,” Butler told reporters.
Minutes later, Kirk Radomski, the convicted steroids dealer who led prosecutors to McNamee, arrived at the courthouse to testify before the grand jury. He wore a shiny black jacket with a gold zipper. He departed several hours later, escorted by a United States marshal and declining to answer questions. He did not appear to have a lawyer with him.
How much Radomski can contribute to the investigation is unclear, because he does not appear to have direct ties to Clemens. But Butler will be crucial to the proceedings.
Like the deputy United States attorneys in San Francisco who have presided over the major steroid cases in the last six years, Butler is not a political appointee. As such, he will presumably remain on the Clemens case regardless of whom the new administration selects to become the next United States attorney for the District of Columbia office.
Butler, who has been a prosecutor for more than 25 years, lost the use of his legs in 1977, when he was hit by a car while racing a bicycle. He later participated in the Paralympics as a swimmer and won a gold medal in the 50-meter butterfly at the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta.
In addition to investigating Clemens, Butler is also considering whether to seek an indictment of Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada on charges that he made false statements to investigators for the same House committee that heard Clemens’s testimony. According to a person briefed on the matter, a grand jury has been convened to begin hearing evidence regarding Tejada. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to jeopardize his access to sensitive information.
A lawyer for Tejada did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment. In a telephone interview Thursday evening, Butler declined comment on the matter.
Like Clemens, Tejada was referred to the Justice Department by the Oversight Committee on suspicion that he made false statements about his use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The committee said that in 2005, Tejada told investigators that he had never used steroids. At the time, the target of the committee investigators was not Tejada but his Baltimore Oriole teammate, Rafael Palmeiro, who at a nationally televised hearing in March of that year insisted he never used performance-enhancing drugs. He tested positive soon afterward.
What complicated matters for Tejada was the release of the report by George J. Mitchell in December of 2007. The report linked dozens of current and former players, including Tejada, to the use of such drugs.
According to the Mitchell report, one of Tejada’s former teammates with the Oakland A’s, Adam Piatt, told investigators for Mitchell that he had provided steroids to Tejada in March 2003. Pictures of canceled checks written to Piatt from Tejada for $3,100 and $3,200 were included in the Mitchell report.
Tejada was the American League’s most valuable player in 2002 with the Oakland A’s and signed a six-year, $72 million contract with Baltimore after the 2003 season. He was traded to the Astros the day before the Mitchell report was released.
As Thursday’s grand jury proceedings unfolded, McNamee and his lawyers were preparing to travel here for a Friday meeting with Butler, although McNamee is not yet expected to testify.
But McNamee was talking elsewhere, stating in a video interview with the Web site Sportsimproper.com that he believes Clemens will end up in prison for committing perjury. “I believe he’ll probably be wearing a uniform, but it will be one of those orange jump suits with a serial number on it,” McNamee said.
Positive Drug Tests in Bonds Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/sports/baseball/05bonds.html
February 5, 2009
Positive Drug Tests in Bonds Case
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
The government’s perjury case against Barry Bonds gained vivid detail on Wednesday when more than 200 pages of evidence were unsealed. The pages included documents tying Bonds to four positive tests for steroids, calendars that prosecutors described as doping schedules, and a transcript of a recorded conversation in which Bonds’s former trainer is quoted as saying that he injected Bonds with performance-enhancing drugs.
Three urine samples that were sent for testing in 2000 and 2001 by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative showed the presence of anabolic steroids, according to the documents. A fourth test from a 2003 sample collected by Major League Baseball showed the presence of the designer steroid THG, the fertility drug clomid and a form of testosterone not naturally produced by the body.
When tested under Major League Baseball’s program, that sample came back negative for performance-enhancing drugs. But after the sample was seized in a 2004 raid by federal agents, it was retested by the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory, with a different and, for Bonds, potentially troublesome result.
Not all of the information provided in the unsealed documents is new. But the documents provide a more complete portrait of the evidence that federal prosecutors have gathered on Bonds since the investigation of Balco began in 2002. Bonds is scheduled to go on trial March 2 in San Francisco on charges that he committed perjury in 2003 when he told the grand jury investigating Balco that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
Bonds’s lawyers filed a motion two weeks ago to have much of the evidence in the case excluded, arguing that it could not be authenticated. As part of that motion, the defense lawyers filed the evidence in dispute under seal, not wishing for it to be revealed. But United States District Judge Susan Illston ordered that it be made public and has scheduled a hearing for Thursday about its admissibility.
“While it may seem damning now, the judge may exclude a lot of the evidence and it may never make it before the jury,” said Carl Tobias, a professor of law at the University of Richmond, in assessing the new information about the case. “But with all the attention being given to the case, the judge is going to have to be extra careful that the jury she seats has not been prejudiced by this information.”
Among the most intriguing sections in the unsealed documents is a description of what authorities said was a tape-recorded conversation, made in 2003, between Bonds’s former business manager, Steve Hoskins, and Bonds’s longtime trainer, Greg Anderson. Anderson spent more than a year in prison on contempt-of-court charges for refusing to testify before the grand jury investigating Bonds.
According to a summary of the tape and a partial transcript, Anderson told Hoskins that he had injected Bonds with performance-enhancing drugs and that they were not detectable under baseball’s drug-testing program at the time. Anderson also told Hoskins that he had advance notice of when the drug tests would be conducted.
“I’ll know like probably a week in advance, or two weeks in advance,” Anderson is quoted as telling Hoskins in the transcript. According to the documents, Hoskins was recording the conversation, which took place in the Giants’ clubhouse, because Bonds’s father, Bobby, did not believe his son was using steroids.
Hoskins and Bonds were childhood friends who became particularly close after Bonds returned to San Francisco to play for the Giants in 1993. The two had a falling out in 2003 and Hoskins later cooperated with federal authorities, telling them that Bonds flew into “roid rages.” In the partial transcript, Hoskins is quoted as asking Anderson if the drugs being given to Bonds were the same “that Marion Jones and them were using.”
“Yeah, same stuff, the same stuff that worked at the Olympics,” Anderson is quoted as saying.
And, Anderson added for emphasis, Olympians were tested every week. “So that’s why I know it works,” Anderson is quoted as saying. (Jones, an Olympic gold-medal winner, pleaded guilty in 2007 to making false statements about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and received a six-month prison sentence.)
Although the results of the three urine samples that Balco tested in 2000 and 2001 do not have Bonds’s name on them, prosecutors say they can be connected to handwritten notes seized at Balco and Anderson’s home in 2003. Those notes display the names of Bonds and other individuals and numbers that, prosecutors say, correlate to samples that Balco sent for drug testing. Prosecutors contend that the three tests show Bonds tested positive for two steroids — methenolone and nandrolone — in November 2000 and February 2001.
But in their 28-page motion to exclude evidence, Bonds’s lawyers said: “It appears that as to every proffered test result, the government can attempt to link Mr. Bonds to the sample in question only through purported hearsay statement of Anderson.”
In all, five pages of handwritten notes are attributed to Anderson, and in disputing them, the defense states: “The notes are barely comprehensible. Their author(s) are unknown as are the time and purpose of their preparation.”
The defense lawyers said the notes were indicative “of the government’s zeal to convict Mr. Bonds by any means at all.” They also said the doping calendars, which the prosecutors say Anderson created so he could monitor Bonds’s use of drugs, should not be admissible, either.
The fourth positive steroid test cited in the documents does not involve Anderson or his notes. Instead, it stems from the anonymous drug tests that were conducted by Major League Baseball in 2003, the first year of steroid testing on the major league level. There were no penalties for positive results, and not even the players were supposed to know how their tests came out.
Bonds’s urine sample did not produce a positive test under baseball’s guidelines. But in a raid in 2004, authorities seized the samples and test results of Bonds and the nine other players who had testified before the Balco grand jury. Two years later, the U.C.L.A. laboratory that retested Bonds’s sample concluded that it contained the designer steroid THG, known as “the clear”; clomid, an anti-estrogen drug used to stimulate natural testosterone levels; and the presence of testosterone not naturally made by the body.
Baseball did not test for THG in 2003 and did not begin testing for clomid until the 2007 season. Why Bonds did not test positive for testosterone in 2003 is not clear.
When Bonds testified before the Balco grand jury in 2003, he said that he had used the “clear” and the “cream,” a lotion with epitestosterone and testosterone, but did not believe they were performance-enhancing drugs. He said he believed the “clear” was flaxseed oil and that the “cream” was a balm for arthritis. He said he used the “cream” sparingly.
The New York Times reported last week that federal authorities had detected a steroid other than the “clear” and the “cream” in a urine sample from Bonds. The documents unsealed Wednesday said that testosterone had been detected in Bonds’s 2003 sample, but did not say whether the source was the “cream” or another anabolic steroid.
“You cannot tell from a urine analysis whether a person has used the cream or has been using other sources of testosterone, like gels, patches or injectables,” said Dr. Gary I. Wadler, an antidoping expert and member of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The documents also included a 2006 letter from Commissioner Bud Selig to Bonds notifying him of a first-time positive test for amphetamines, which does not result in a suspension. The test result does not appear to be directly related to the perjury case.
February 5, 2009
Positive Drug Tests in Bonds Case
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
The government’s perjury case against Barry Bonds gained vivid detail on Wednesday when more than 200 pages of evidence were unsealed. The pages included documents tying Bonds to four positive tests for steroids, calendars that prosecutors described as doping schedules, and a transcript of a recorded conversation in which Bonds’s former trainer is quoted as saying that he injected Bonds with performance-enhancing drugs.
Three urine samples that were sent for testing in 2000 and 2001 by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative showed the presence of anabolic steroids, according to the documents. A fourth test from a 2003 sample collected by Major League Baseball showed the presence of the designer steroid THG, the fertility drug clomid and a form of testosterone not naturally produced by the body.
When tested under Major League Baseball’s program, that sample came back negative for performance-enhancing drugs. But after the sample was seized in a 2004 raid by federal agents, it was retested by the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory, with a different and, for Bonds, potentially troublesome result.
Not all of the information provided in the unsealed documents is new. But the documents provide a more complete portrait of the evidence that federal prosecutors have gathered on Bonds since the investigation of Balco began in 2002. Bonds is scheduled to go on trial March 2 in San Francisco on charges that he committed perjury in 2003 when he told the grand jury investigating Balco that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
Bonds’s lawyers filed a motion two weeks ago to have much of the evidence in the case excluded, arguing that it could not be authenticated. As part of that motion, the defense lawyers filed the evidence in dispute under seal, not wishing for it to be revealed. But United States District Judge Susan Illston ordered that it be made public and has scheduled a hearing for Thursday about its admissibility.
“While it may seem damning now, the judge may exclude a lot of the evidence and it may never make it before the jury,” said Carl Tobias, a professor of law at the University of Richmond, in assessing the new information about the case. “But with all the attention being given to the case, the judge is going to have to be extra careful that the jury she seats has not been prejudiced by this information.”
Among the most intriguing sections in the unsealed documents is a description of what authorities said was a tape-recorded conversation, made in 2003, between Bonds’s former business manager, Steve Hoskins, and Bonds’s longtime trainer, Greg Anderson. Anderson spent more than a year in prison on contempt-of-court charges for refusing to testify before the grand jury investigating Bonds.
According to a summary of the tape and a partial transcript, Anderson told Hoskins that he had injected Bonds with performance-enhancing drugs and that they were not detectable under baseball’s drug-testing program at the time. Anderson also told Hoskins that he had advance notice of when the drug tests would be conducted.
“I’ll know like probably a week in advance, or two weeks in advance,” Anderson is quoted as telling Hoskins in the transcript. According to the documents, Hoskins was recording the conversation, which took place in the Giants’ clubhouse, because Bonds’s father, Bobby, did not believe his son was using steroids.
Hoskins and Bonds were childhood friends who became particularly close after Bonds returned to San Francisco to play for the Giants in 1993. The two had a falling out in 2003 and Hoskins later cooperated with federal authorities, telling them that Bonds flew into “roid rages.” In the partial transcript, Hoskins is quoted as asking Anderson if the drugs being given to Bonds were the same “that Marion Jones and them were using.”
“Yeah, same stuff, the same stuff that worked at the Olympics,” Anderson is quoted as saying.
And, Anderson added for emphasis, Olympians were tested every week. “So that’s why I know it works,” Anderson is quoted as saying. (Jones, an Olympic gold-medal winner, pleaded guilty in 2007 to making false statements about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and received a six-month prison sentence.)
Although the results of the three urine samples that Balco tested in 2000 and 2001 do not have Bonds’s name on them, prosecutors say they can be connected to handwritten notes seized at Balco and Anderson’s home in 2003. Those notes display the names of Bonds and other individuals and numbers that, prosecutors say, correlate to samples that Balco sent for drug testing. Prosecutors contend that the three tests show Bonds tested positive for two steroids — methenolone and nandrolone — in November 2000 and February 2001.
But in their 28-page motion to exclude evidence, Bonds’s lawyers said: “It appears that as to every proffered test result, the government can attempt to link Mr. Bonds to the sample in question only through purported hearsay statement of Anderson.”
In all, five pages of handwritten notes are attributed to Anderson, and in disputing them, the defense states: “The notes are barely comprehensible. Their author(s) are unknown as are the time and purpose of their preparation.”
The defense lawyers said the notes were indicative “of the government’s zeal to convict Mr. Bonds by any means at all.” They also said the doping calendars, which the prosecutors say Anderson created so he could monitor Bonds’s use of drugs, should not be admissible, either.
The fourth positive steroid test cited in the documents does not involve Anderson or his notes. Instead, it stems from the anonymous drug tests that were conducted by Major League Baseball in 2003, the first year of steroid testing on the major league level. There were no penalties for positive results, and not even the players were supposed to know how their tests came out.
Bonds’s urine sample did not produce a positive test under baseball’s guidelines. But in a raid in 2004, authorities seized the samples and test results of Bonds and the nine other players who had testified before the Balco grand jury. Two years later, the U.C.L.A. laboratory that retested Bonds’s sample concluded that it contained the designer steroid THG, known as “the clear”; clomid, an anti-estrogen drug used to stimulate natural testosterone levels; and the presence of testosterone not naturally made by the body.
Baseball did not test for THG in 2003 and did not begin testing for clomid until the 2007 season. Why Bonds did not test positive for testosterone in 2003 is not clear.
When Bonds testified before the Balco grand jury in 2003, he said that he had used the “clear” and the “cream,” a lotion with epitestosterone and testosterone, but did not believe they were performance-enhancing drugs. He said he believed the “clear” was flaxseed oil and that the “cream” was a balm for arthritis. He said he used the “cream” sparingly.
The New York Times reported last week that federal authorities had detected a steroid other than the “clear” and the “cream” in a urine sample from Bonds. The documents unsealed Wednesday said that testosterone had been detected in Bonds’s 2003 sample, but did not say whether the source was the “cream” or another anabolic steroid.
“You cannot tell from a urine analysis whether a person has used the cream or has been using other sources of testosterone, like gels, patches or injectables,” said Dr. Gary I. Wadler, an antidoping expert and member of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The documents also included a 2006 letter from Commissioner Bud Selig to Bonds notifying him of a first-time positive test for amphetamines, which does not result in a suspension. The test result does not appear to be directly related to the perjury case.
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