Steroids Era Is Over? Shame On You, Bud

By Jay Mariotti
http://www.fanhouse.com/
January 12, 2009

Bud Selig's epitaph deserves to read thusly: Once a car dealer, always a car dealer. He's a flim-flam baseball commissioner who should be angry as hell after hearing Mark McGwire's delusional tale yet, somehow, insists it was all warmth and fuzz. Oh, the folly of Big Mac claiming he used steroids and human growth hormone only to recover from injuries -- and never, ever to build strength -- and that years of juicing had no influence on inflating his power numbers or giving him a competitive advantage.


Bud Selig

But Hocus Pocus Bud, the man who stuck his head in the sand when steroids whispers first surfaced in the mid-1990s, actually is trying to use the latest performance-enhancing black eye to make himself and his regime look good. Know how he responded to the first official confirmation that the Summer of Swat was a scam in 1998, that McGwire was doing steroids right under our noses when we were declaring him an American hero?

Selig thinks it means The Steroids Era is over, by God.

I think the man should resign immediately on multiple counts of ignorance, arrogance and continuing his shameful attempt to dupe the public about dope.

"The use of steroids and amphetamines among today's players has greatly subsided and is virtually nonexistent, as our testing results have shown," Selig said. "The so-called steroid era -- a reference that is resented by the many players who played in that era and never touched the substances -- is clearly a thing of the past, and Mark's admission is another step in the right direction.''

Uh, can we test the commissioner for drugs? Clearly, he's on something.

The fittingly named Steroids Era -- capital S and capital E, Bud -- is not even remotely close to being in the past tense. In fact, it sadly is just beginning, with chemists concocting new forms of juice and masking agents as we speak. As long as baseball doesn't have a reliable test for HGH, a breakthrough that might be years away, Selig is grossly irresponsible to plant any suggestion that his sport is clean.

He's a fool to think the numbers he cites -- two positive tests out of 3,722 samples during the 2009 major league season -- are a reliable gauge. First of all, given the suspiciously complicit stance of the commissioner and owners in turning their heads to steroids while records were broken and millions were raked in, I have no reason to believe Selig's numbers are accurate. Secondly, there are players using HGH right now, and we'd be naive to think otherwise when the sport has been rife with steroids use for so long. And if anyone buys into Selig's blind insistence that baseball has become super-tough on banned substances, consider that MLB granted a whopping 108 exemptions last season to players who supposedly have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder -- allowing them to use amphetamines, a performance-enhancing drug. That translates to about 9 percent of approximately 1,200 major-league players being granted exemptions when the national average, in the same basic age group, is around 4.5 percent. You mean to say big-league clubhouses have twice the number of ADD cases as the rest of American society?

Finally, until the names of 103 dirty players from The Steroids Era are revealed, Selig cannot declare an end to The Steroids Era. Alex Rodriguez came from that list. David Ortiz came from that list. Sammy Sosa, McGwire's partner in 1998 crime, reportedly is on that list. Now, what about the others, Bud? You just want us to forget about them so the grand, old game can resume graciously and you can retire -- hopefully much sooner than later -- with peace of mind?

Idiots, we are not. We see right through this man.

"I think the jury is still out on that issue and that the self-serving statements by Bud Selig do nothing to increase confidence," Dick Pound, former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told the Associated Press. "What has emerged in the whole baseball mess is that drug use is widespread and that even the best players are involved -- and still MLB is whistling past the graveyard. If you notice, McGwire talks about steroids and HGH. MLB does not even test for HGH. These MLB positions are not indicators of a real attempt to solve the drug use problem in baseball."

What I want from Selig is fist-pounding, a demand that McGwire be more honest in confronting his steroids past, a reminder that star slugger Manny Ramirez was suspended 50 games last season after records were obtained that he used a female fertility. Instead, Bud Light tries to restore his legacy when it was shot a long time ago. From now until eternity, Selig will be recalled as The Steroids Commissioner, the owners-friendly boss who let The Steroids Era be used as a springboard for his boys to increase revenues. Then, after all the money had been made and the TV contracts secured, Selig tried to save face by appointing Sen. George Mitchell to make examples of all the steroids-using pawns who jacked up the power numbers. It really is one of the all-time American business scams.


Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco

And again, I find myself thanking the most unlikely of sources for lambasting Selig. As a human being, Jose Canseco is a sad sack. But as a voice of The Steroids Era, no one has more credibility and has been more accurate in calling out alleged users in advance and seeing his predictions come true.

"I think eventually, Bud Selig has to resign. This is far from over," Canseco told ESPN Radio on Tuesday. "There's a list out there of [103] players. The last five to eight years, there may have been some players elected to the Hall of Fame that were on that list. Nonetheless, if that list is not divulged, there will continuously be players who are inducted into the Hall of Fame who will probably be on that list."

Canseco for Commissioner!

Hey, he's more honest than Selig on the subject.

The stink of the McGwire case hardly ends there. You may be wondering, as I am, why Big Mac didn't do a mass news conference Monday, instead hand-picking a succession of media outlets that included an unusually soft Bob Costas on -- ha, ha, ha -- the MLB Network. As the New York Times reported, McGwire's appearances were carefully designed by former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who runs a crisis-management company and recently was hired by the hopeless Bowl Championship Series to spin a more favorable public perception. Costas, an exemplary journalist who knows better, should have removed himself from the McGwire interview. Why? As the Times pointed out, half of Fleischer's company is owned by IMG. Guess who represents Costas?

IMG.

In the end, it looks like McGwire is being protected by the big baseball/media machine, which is trying to facilitate his return to the game as St. Louis Cardinals hitting coach. As Selig said, "I am pleased that Mark McGwire has confronted his use of performance-enhancing substances as a player. Being truthful is always the correct course of action ... This statement of contrition, I believe, will make Mark's re-entry into the game much smoother and easier.''

Why would the commissioner embrace him and want to make his life easier? If Selig truly cared about the integrity of the game, he would excoriate McGwire for trashing the Summer of Swat and symbolizing the ills that soiled the game. He says he wished he'd never played in The Steroids Era. Make no mistake, Mark McGwire WAS The Steroids Era. And make no mistake, Bud Selig -- once a car dealer, always a car dealer -- IS The Steroids Commissioner.

Pitchers and catchers report in a few weeks. Which means, let the juicing begin!


Juicy details just give us ’roid rage

By Dan Shaughnessy
Boston Globe Columnist
http://www.boston.com/sports/
January 13, 2010

It makes you want to throw up your hands and say, “They’re all dirty!’’

The fallout from Mark McGwire’s carefully scripted Monday confession (Ari Fleischer!) serves only to raise more questions and bolster the theory that everybody’s dirty.

In this image from video, Mark McGwire pauses during an interview with Bob Costas on MLB Network on Monday, Jan. 11, 2010. McGwire admitted earlier Monday he used steroids when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998. McGwire said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade.
(AP Photo/MLB Network)

Why wouldn’t a guy cheat? Steroids made McGwire rich and famous. The performance-enhancing drugs probably will cost him Cooperstown, but ’roids got McGwire where he wanted to go. Is there a Triple A ballplayer who’d say no to artificial help if it would elevate him to the big leagues? Is there a fringe big leaguer who’d resist an opportunity to become a full-blown star with a long-term contract?

Woe is the big league ballplayer who never cheated with PEDs. These days, they are all presumed guilty and it’s virtually impossible to prove innocence from the scourge of the Juice Era.

A lot of unfortunate remarks have been spilled since McGwire went public with his sins.

Start with Big Mac. Does anyone believe him when he says he did not do this to gain strength? Does he expect us to nod and agree when he says that he would have been just as good without the stuff? Sorry. The “I just did it to get back on the field’’ defense is the juicer’s version of “the dog ate my homework.’’ Nobody is buying.

If this junk didn’t help McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998, why was he compelled to apologize to members of the Maris family Monday?

Please, let’s have no more baseball players telling us that steroids don’t help with hand-eye coordination. That’s not the point. Professional hitters are able to square up the baseball. They don’t need the juice for that. The steroids help with bat speed, power, and confidence. Oh, and they also help a player recover from injuries - you know, to get back on the field.

We all cringe when Bud Selig says that the steroid era “is clearly a thing of the past.’’

Bud sounds like Neville Chamberlain before World War II. It’s nice that there’s testing in place, but can we ever believe that the testers will be ahead of the cheaters? There’s no testing for HGH. Players always figure out a way to beat the system. It was particularly easy when there was no testing (thank you very much, Messrs. Fehr and Orza), but even with testing in place, ballplayers will scheme to get an edge. Ask Manny Ramirez, one of the few dopes who got caught in the “testing era.’’

Tony La Russa needs to stop enabling McGwire. Barrister Tony is simply too smart to believe the things that come out of his own mouth. Tony helps no one when he says he didn’t know anything about this until Monday. He parrots the “he just did it to get back on the field’’ defense. La Russa comes off like childish Red Sox owner John Henry chiding those who question David Ortiz because “David says he didn’t do it.’’

Meanwhile, 120 years of hardball history is officially in the dumper. Take a look at the all-time home run list. In the top 15 we have Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Manny. All cheaters. It’s the same with guys on the mound from the “steroid era.’’ Anybody still think Roger Clemens was able to throw 95 miles per hour in his mid-40s because of his workout regimen?

Which brings us to the Hall of Fame ballot. What is a voter to do? Baseball asks writers to factor “character’’ and “integrity’’ when considering candidates. Cooperstown won’t have Joe Jackson and Pete Rose because of gambling scandals. McGwire has yet to receive 25 percent of votes even though he has 583 homers.

He has been held out of the Hall because of steroids and that’s not likely to change. So what happens when Bonds’s name appears on the ballot? A-Rod? Clemens? Sosa? Are they all out, or will the voting membership eventually bend on cheaters because there are so many of them and, well, it was “the Steroid Era’’?

The Steroid Era. This is the only way baseball can move forward, make itself feel better.

If everything can be wrapped up in “the Steroid Era,’’ we don’t have to blow up the record book and start over.

This way, the Red Sox championship of 2004 doesn’t have to be tainted, even though the ultimate message becomes “our cheaters were better than your cheaters.’’

Seventy-three homers in a season? Don’t worry about it. It happened during the Steroid Era.

Very tidy. But what if the era never ended? What if the Steroid Era morphed into the HGH Era? What if it’s just the Cheating Era, which extends to infinity?

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.


Despite admitting steroid use, Mark McGwire is no better than Barry Bonds

By Mike Lupica
The Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/index.html
Wednesday, January 13th 2010, 4:00 AM



Finley/AP

Mark McGwire may have come clean about using steroids, but he is no better than Barry Bonds.

If Mark McGwire can get back into the good graces of baseball then so can Barry Bonds. Maybe the only difference is that Bonds is much too proud - or defiant - to cry and beg for forgiveness the way McGwire did. Even though it is still a little murky what McGwire was asking to be forgiven for.

Bonds told his nuanced story to a grand jury in the BALCO case. All this time later, that testimony has the feds trying to make a case against him it now seems they will never make. McGwire told a different kind of story, even more nuanced, to the country on Monday, through a series of hand-picked reporters. And was no more believable than Bonds was in that grand jury room in San Francisco. And is no better.

If McGwire is no longer an enemy of the state in baseball, neither is Bonds.

Bonds shouldn't have to cry, because if his "confession" is going to be as ridiculous as McGwire's was, then what is the point, really? To see Bonds humble himself the way McGwire did, all the way to his seat in the living room with Bob Costas?

This isn't meant to forgive Bonds on steroids anymore than you forgive McGwire, who apparently thought going to the needle was almost some kind of religious experience, like going to Lourdes. They both knew what they were doing and why they were doing it.

But McGwire doesn't get off the hook, and leave Bonds hanging on one of his own, because people like him more. Or because Cardinals manager Tony La Russa - who starts to come across as some unindicted coconspirator with McGwire - wants to rewrite his personal history as much as Mc-Gwire does.

Nobody is defending what Bonds did with his own drug use, ever. But Bonds didn't start the "steroid era." McGwire is the one who did that. He doesn't get cleared now because of a crying jag that started to make you think he was watching some kind of all-day "Old Yeller" movie marathon.

The guy sure did do a lot of crying, before he ever got to Costas. It was reported in the St. Louis paper that he cried on the phone. It was reported in USA Today by Mel Antonen that he cried on the phone. Tim Kurkjian reported that McGwire cried on the phone with him. Everybody who watched the Costas interview saw what happened there. But the question that doesn't go away is why he was so broken up if all he was doing was taking "low dosages" of steroids to heal.

Only that's not what was reported by this newspaper's I-Team five years ago. At the time, the I-Team reported that McGwire's laundry list of hard-core steroids wasn't so tremendously different from Bonds':

One-half cc of testosterone cypionate every three days.

One cc of testosterone enanthate per week.

The veterinary steroids Equipoise and Winstrol V, one quarter cc every three days, injected in the buttocks.

Now he says he did this for "health reasons." Well, yeah, maybe if he just fell out of a second-story window. He says that he has been wanting to come clean since 2005. But when ESPN's Bob Ley asked him why he didn't talk to Sen. George Mitchell, Mc-Gwire blamed it on his lawyers, said he was retired, said nobody else was talking, anyway. So he kept this terrible secret bottled up inside him for three more years.

Is this the best McGwire could do with Ari Fleischer, the former George W. Bush press secretary, calling the shots as his crisis - and stage - manager? Is this the best version they could come up with, that Mc-Gwire did this for only faster recovery and those home runs were the result of a shorter batting stroke?

Here is a question that somebody needed to ask McGwire on Monday:

If you can't recall what you were taking, how come you know you were taking a low dosage?

Another good question he didn't have to answer while choking back tears:

Who supplied you?

Another question:

We're supposed to believe you took steroids for years and can't recall the actual names of the specific drugs?

This is all no better than Alex Rodriguez saying he didn't know what he was taking, he didn't know what it did for him, he let his "cousin" inject him - but he did all that for three years in Texas. But you know what? Ari Fleischer, crisis manager, and client McGwire actually used A-Rod's version of things as some kind of blueprint for success on Monday.

Act contrite and they won't really care whether you're telling a fish tale or not. But why not, here is the mission statement of Ari Fleischer Sports Communications:

"The way the press treats athletes and sports executives has become increasingly adversarial and conflict-driven. Athletes who are trained to give it all and leave it all on the field now face a public and media that demand more...

"Ari Fleischer Sports Communications can help you handle the bad news and take advantage of the good."

It's unclear from the mission statement of Mr. Fleischer - who must think if he could sell Bush he could sell anything - if he thinks the demand for "more" includes the truth.

But all is now forgiven as far as baseball is concerned, even though it is already pretty clear that the majority of people who watched McGwire the other night thought he doesn't come close to clearing the fences anymore, not with material like this.

You know Barry Bonds won't beg, and he won't cry. He might not ever apologize. Or tell the truth himself, since he is still facing a perjury rap. But McGwire is no better than him. Maybe Bonds just needed to play for an enabler like La Russa.