SMACK in the middle of the World Series, the names Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi have come up in a federal grand jury investigation of a drug company that may be the source of a new steroid.
There is no indication that the panel was looking to upstage the World Series, but that was the impact. If not for the grotesque muff of a fly ball by Jose Cruz Jr. in the postseason, Bonds and the Giants could very well have been playing against Giambi and the Yankees in Game 3 last night.
Giambi says he visited the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or Balco, to learn about the vitamins they manufacture, and he says his subpoena is "no big deal."
He played first base and went 0 for 2 in the Yankees' 6-1 victory over the the Marlins last night. Sometime later this fall he will tell investigators what he knows about Balco.
The television ratings are huge for baseball's postseason, but there has been a downside. A few Yankees and Red Sox players made fools of themselves during the recent series, and now Jeff Nelson and Karim Garcia of the Yankees will have to return to Boston to answer questions about the bullpen stomping of a member of the Fenway Park grounds crew. The hot-stove league threatens to become the subpoena league.
But baseball may be close to serious testing for performance-enhancing drugs. If a trial testing program this past season produces a 5 percent positive rate, "Then we will have the greatest drug-testing program in all of sports," said Rob Manfred, the vice president for labor of Major League Baseball.
This means that the future health of baseball players depends on reaching the 5 percent level. Failure would be good. The program went into effect this spring in an agreement between Major League Baseball and the players association. Up to now, baseball has avoided all this dreary business of testing and suspensions by not having any standards regarding steroids or certain other performance-enhancing drugs.
We have two kinds of athletes — hothouse and free-range — with no certified way to tell the difference. While Mark McGwire was breaking the home-run record with 70 in 1998, he acknowledged that he had used androstenedione, which is comparable to a steroid.
Andro — as it is called — is not illegal in baseball, but it is in so-called Olympic sports as well as in pro football. McGwire later said he gave it up because he did not want to be seen as setting an example for young people, who are nevertheless gobbling up anything that will make their muscles grow bigger.
Since McGwire's breakthrough season, there has been anecdotal awareness of baseball players who came to spring training considerably larger than the past September. Some are left with prominent facial bones and permanent marks from acne and other suggestions of steroid usage. The latest visual impression is that some who bulked up for a few years have since slimmed down.
Major League Baseball has not acted on andro, leaving the impression that it did not want to meddle with the contemporary game of mucho home runs and mucho strikeouts.
Baseball had enough trouble early this season when Sammy Sosa's bat broke, revealing an illegal use of cork filler. Sosa, one of baseball's most appealing figures, has said his "mistake" was in corking a bat for batting-practice home run displays.
• Bulked-up power hitters and power pitchers could be a far deeper problem. The players association has zealously avoided testing, but last spring, a young Baltimore pitcher, Steve Bechler, died of heatstroke after taking a large dosage of a diuretic that contained ephedra.
Now there is testing, including 240 players for a second time at random. "We'll know in a couple of weeks," Manfred said.
Baseball cannot be happy with very large sluggers like Giambi and Bonds being linked to Balco, the laboratory in the Bay Area that may be a source of the powerful new steroid, tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG.
"The players are witnesses, not targets," Manfred said. "There are some funny things about this. It may be about taxes rather than drugs. We really have to know more about this."
An estimated 40 athletes have been called before a federal grand jury in San Francisco to investigate Balco. Track and field athletes have reportedly used the new drug and were liable to be detected because that very suspect sport at least has rules and testing.
Many doctors say steroids are likely to have dire impact on athletes after their playing days are over.
"I think everybody is concerned about the health and welfare of the players," said Joe Torre, the Yankees manager. "They'll work it out."
Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. Baseball has good reason to be leery about sending its best players to the Summer Games because of the advanced testing in the Olympic movement. The gold medal would not be worth having a few stars busted for steroids. Baseball would not want steroids to intrude on a happy moment. But now, near the end of an exciting postseason, the shadow of steroids has fallen over baseball.
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There is no indication that the panel was looking to upstage the World Series, but that was the impact. If not for the grotesque muff of a fly ball by Jose Cruz Jr. in the postseason, Bonds and the Giants could very well have been playing against Giambi and the Yankees in Game 3 last night.
Giambi says he visited the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or Balco, to learn about the vitamins they manufacture, and he says his subpoena is "no big deal."
He played first base and went 0 for 2 in the Yankees' 6-1 victory over the the Marlins last night. Sometime later this fall he will tell investigators what he knows about Balco.
The television ratings are huge for baseball's postseason, but there has been a downside. A few Yankees and Red Sox players made fools of themselves during the recent series, and now Jeff Nelson and Karim Garcia of the Yankees will have to return to Boston to answer questions about the bullpen stomping of a member of the Fenway Park grounds crew. The hot-stove league threatens to become the subpoena league.
But baseball may be close to serious testing for performance-enhancing drugs. If a trial testing program this past season produces a 5 percent positive rate, "Then we will have the greatest drug-testing program in all of sports," said Rob Manfred, the vice president for labor of Major League Baseball.
This means that the future health of baseball players depends on reaching the 5 percent level. Failure would be good. The program went into effect this spring in an agreement between Major League Baseball and the players association. Up to now, baseball has avoided all this dreary business of testing and suspensions by not having any standards regarding steroids or certain other performance-enhancing drugs.
We have two kinds of athletes — hothouse and free-range — with no certified way to tell the difference. While Mark McGwire was breaking the home-run record with 70 in 1998, he acknowledged that he had used androstenedione, which is comparable to a steroid.
Andro — as it is called — is not illegal in baseball, but it is in so-called Olympic sports as well as in pro football. McGwire later said he gave it up because he did not want to be seen as setting an example for young people, who are nevertheless gobbling up anything that will make their muscles grow bigger.
Since McGwire's breakthrough season, there has been anecdotal awareness of baseball players who came to spring training considerably larger than the past September. Some are left with prominent facial bones and permanent marks from acne and other suggestions of steroid usage. The latest visual impression is that some who bulked up for a few years have since slimmed down.
Major League Baseball has not acted on andro, leaving the impression that it did not want to meddle with the contemporary game of mucho home runs and mucho strikeouts.
Baseball had enough trouble early this season when Sammy Sosa's bat broke, revealing an illegal use of cork filler. Sosa, one of baseball's most appealing figures, has said his "mistake" was in corking a bat for batting-practice home run displays.
• Bulked-up power hitters and power pitchers could be a far deeper problem. The players association has zealously avoided testing, but last spring, a young Baltimore pitcher, Steve Bechler, died of heatstroke after taking a large dosage of a diuretic that contained ephedra.
Now there is testing, including 240 players for a second time at random. "We'll know in a couple of weeks," Manfred said.
Baseball cannot be happy with very large sluggers like Giambi and Bonds being linked to Balco, the laboratory in the Bay Area that may be a source of the powerful new steroid, tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG.
"The players are witnesses, not targets," Manfred said. "There are some funny things about this. It may be about taxes rather than drugs. We really have to know more about this."
An estimated 40 athletes have been called before a federal grand jury in San Francisco to investigate Balco. Track and field athletes have reportedly used the new drug and were liable to be detected because that very suspect sport at least has rules and testing.
Many doctors say steroids are likely to have dire impact on athletes after their playing days are over.
"I think everybody is concerned about the health and welfare of the players," said Joe Torre, the Yankees manager. "They'll work it out."
Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. Baseball has good reason to be leery about sending its best players to the Summer Games because of the advanced testing in the Olympic movement. The gold medal would not be worth having a few stars busted for steroids. Baseball would not want steroids to intrude on a happy moment. But now, near the end of an exciting postseason, the shadow of steroids has fallen over baseball.
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