Steroids

Dad, tell me a baseball story. Sure, son. Once upon a time, there was a player named Babe Ruth who hit lots of home runs and - What was he on, Dad? Anabolic steroids like Ken Caminiti? Andro like Mark McGwire? Human growth hormone? Well, that's the thing, son. Ballplayers didn't take steroids back then. Get out! So how did they get ripped, Dad? How did they get arms the size of dock pilings and shoulders like a defensive tackle so they could hit all those homers? Actually, the Babe was sort of pudgy at 210 pounds.

Bud Selig said he would rather have root-canal surgery than deal with the controversy stirred by Game of Shadows, the new book about Barry Bonds reportedly using steroids. Fay Vincent said there should be an investigation into allegations that Bonds used steroids for years. And you wonder why baseball has image problems? While Selig, the current commissioner, looks for the nearest plot of sand to bury his head in, Vincent, the former commissioner, sounds a note of clarity. It's a shame Vincent isn't still in charge.

A federal panel waited five months before announcing its finding that steroids can halve the death rate from the pneumonia that is the leading killer of people with AIDS.The panel withheld the announcement until Oct. 10 apparently because members could not agree on how to word their statement. Some feared disclosure could jeopardize publication in medical journals.Even now, many doctors say they have not been informed of it.The disease, pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, attacks people whose immune systems are debilitated.

A Bel Air chiropractor was convicted in Harford Circuit Court last week of possessing steroids and was given a two-year suspended prison sentence.Brian L. Regan, 33, of the 1700 block of Ross Road in Forest Hill pleaded not guilty to the statement of facts in the plea arrangement that guaranteed him no prison time.Judge William O. Carr placed the defendant on two years of supervised probation, fined him $5,000, and ordered him to perform 500 hours of community service. Dr. Regan was also ordered by the judge to submit to six random urinalysis tests during the probationary period.

Neither Donald Hooton nor Denise Garibaldi imagined that their words would make this much of a difference. In March, the father from Plano, Texas, and the mother from Petaluma, Calif., told a roomful of congressmen, Major League Baseball players and officials about their sons, how they're convinced that their steroid abuse led them to their deaths by suicide. Eight months later, baseball put the punch into a steroids policy that had been long overdue. Congress, Bud Selig and even Donald Fehr have gotten their share of credit for the agreement reached Tuesday.

WITH the start of the baseball season just days away, you would think the recent brouhaha about steroids would begin to fade. The onset of games has distracted fans from a cocaine controversy, labor woes and many other issues bogging down baseball over the years, much to the relief of the commissioner and his surrogates. But the steroids controversy is unlike any other the sport has experienced. Baseball actually needs it to linger into the season and, perversely, continue to make scurrilous headlines.

Last week, we asked readers to comment on the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in sports. Here are some of their responses: Numbers not credible Baseball is a game of numbers, more so than any other sport. The average baseball fan can quote numbers such as the record for home runs, his favorite player's slugging percentage, etc. Steroid use has placed the credibility of those numbers and the players that achieved them in jeopardy. From now on, when a player shows up at spring training suddenly 20 pounds larger and much more muscular, he will immediately have his "winter nutrition and workout system" questioned, especially if his offensive production increases to any extent.

WASHINGTON -Former Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada issued a tearful apology at a news conference in Houston yesterday, hours after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of misleading Congress regarding his knowledge of steroid use in major league baseball. "I made a mistake, and now I know how serious a mistake I made," Tejada said, according to the Houston Chronicle. "I take responsibility, and I'm very sorry for what happened." Tejada took no questions during the news conference at Minute Maid Park.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - In a clubhouse where one year ago, Steve Bechler took a dietary supplement that led to his death, Orioles right fielder Jay Gibbons wore an expression that told the story of baseball that won't go away this spring: Agony mixed with a little dread, frustration and anger. "We should be talking about Opening Day," he said. Instead, as it turned out, the Orioles' annual meeting with a representative from the Major League Baseball Players Association took place on the very day Congress held another hearing in Washington on steroids.

IN THE LONG, winding tale of Barry Bonds and steroids, we have reached the part where Bonds plays dumb. A lot dumber than he is. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, he effectively told a grand jury a year ago that he used steroids in 2003, but didn't know they were steroids. In other words, he smoked but didn't inhale. When Bill Clinton claimed the latter a decade ago regarding rumors about his marijuana use years earlier, much of the country rolled its eyes at the slippery escape from a full admission.