August 8: More Steroid Talk?

Frankly, it is beginning to get old. Steroids pop up in most conversations these days surrounding baseball. Players vehemently deny their use, only to turn up on reports of positive tests or, worse yet, testing positive today. But is there any benefit to discussing this day in and day out, trying to determine who is guilty and who isn't?

In the long run, I think this entire era of baseball, from the mid-1990's to now, will be marred by the scandalous accusations swirling around about the use of performance enhancers. To be truthful, many of these are available over the counter, and only became banned recently (such as Andro). Others, though, have been taking anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH), breaking the law while doing so without prescription.

Will we ever determine who really took these enhancers? Show me one player that will admit to using them, and I can show you ten that will deny it completely. The most recent public involvement involved two players that were freinds on the Boston Red Sox, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Ramirez, actually returning from a suspension received for testing positive for a PED to cure other "performance" issues, was found to be on the now-infamous 2003 positive results list. Ortiz was on the same list.

Ramirez's career has an intriguing twist to it. His frist three seasons in Cleveland, he averaged 30 home runs; not a bad number, but not a prolific home run hitter. Then he doesn't hit less that 33 for the next nine years, with years of 45 twice, 44, 43, and 41 among others. Critics may point to his combined 37 home runs last year, after the extensive testing was implemented in 2007 (when he hit 20 home runs in 130 games). But he failed a test in 2009! He was still doing some form of PED, hoping to get past the testing.

Ortiz has an even more meteoric rise. For instance, compare his final season in Minnesota (2002) with his first season in Boston (2003):

412 AB, .272/.339/.500, 20 HR, 52 runs, 75 RBI
448 AB, .288/.369/.592, 31 HR, 79 runs, 101 RBI

The teams are different, and the players provided different hitting scenarios, but his numbers greatly increased. In fact, the Twins released Ortiz because his defense at first was downright bad, and hios hitting did not make him a great DH candidate. Suddenly, he goes to Boston, and increases his output each season, going from 31 to 41 to 47 to 54 home runs in four seasons. It just so happens, he tested positive for PEDs in 2003, his first season in Boston. In 2007, when testing was being thrown around, his power numbers dropped to 35 home runs, with a "poor" 23 home runs in an injury-shortened 2008. Injury-shortened from lack of steroids to promote healing and recovery? We'll never know...

Why will we not know? Because, like Alex Rodriguez before him, he did not pay attention to what he was taking, and can't tell if it would cause him to test positive or not. But he did not take steroids! Can we believe that? Rafael Palmiero lied to Congress, knowing he had failed a test, only to get punished for it later. Roger Clemens claimed people "misremembered." Mark McGuire wanted to sign more autographs and talk about the future, not the past. Sammy Sosa forgot English. More and more we can expect these names to leak out, and players to do the same old song and dance about not knowing what they were taking, but it was not steroids. Who are we to believe? The answer is no one, and that is why this entire era of players will be forever plagued as the Steroid Era.