From Issues of the Day four years ago. Please recall the furor over the thought big league baseball was infested by drug abusing "roid heads". What has come from the hearings? Absolutely nothing.

With the season for baseball just around the corner I felt this piece we had done of Major League Baseball's before to end the abuse of performance enhancing drugs in the game. The Congress had assured us of action as well. Has the situation improved? You be the judge.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, was the only congressman who had thoroughly done his homework. The rest were a disgrace today during the congressional steroids in baseball hearings.

As with anything in Washington, the Clemens drug hearing today was a sorry sight divided along party lines. The Democrats attacked Clemens and defended his accuser Brian McNamee while the Republicans defended Clemens and attacked McNamee. Not much was made of the testimony of Clemens' friends Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knaublauch.

Lost in this whole matter are the following questions:

1. Should congress be involved in the steroids mess baseball finds itself in?

2. Do performance enhancing drugs work and work well?

3. Are kids, including girls, at progressively younger ages, using drugs they think will help them become somewhat more proficient in their respective sport? In some instances are coaches, supporters, and friends and, yes, even parents complicit in getting kids these drugs?

4. Is there a gym where weight lifting is taking place that these drugs are not available? Is it true performance drugs are as easy as marijuana, bread and milk to obtain?

5. Are there enhancers available in health shops which may have questionable long term effects being sold legally?

Lots of questions, but the hearings did nothing about answering them. This is after the House Committee on Oversight has held multiple hearings, used countless investigators, aids and lawyers to seek out information.

Do we have a problem which affects a large segment of our society? You bet we do. Is it something that requires legal action on the part of the federal government? I’d say yes because the transport of the drugs is across state and international boundaries.

First, dealing with drugs of all types begins in the home. Indestructible teens cannot be expected to make wise choices without good supervision, education, and example.

We are experiencing in society and schools children being reared by parents ill-equipped to raise children. Some were children themselves when they had their babies and others we brought up in a permissive atmosphere where everything was geared to immediate gratification.

Our schools provide some of the leadership lacking in the home. However when there is no reinforcement in the home all the well-intended efforts of teachers and others the child may see as a role models are wasted.

By the time these children are in middle school level they already have self-esteem problems because they know viscerally they have been shortchanged. Drugs become an instant fix.

Some drift into sports and related areas. This can be both a blessing or curse, sometimes both simultaneously.

We now have a culture in sports that says win at all costs. Add to that the pressure applied to the young jock as he/she rises to higher levels of competition and we have a circumstance ripe for those pushing instant success through chemistry.

Please consider this: Young athletes fall into basically three categories. First is the youngster who is exploring his/her limits and enjoys serious competition for the pure pleasure of it. Second is the child pushed into sports for the parent to live vicariously through the child’s success. That child feels serious pressure from the home to achieve yet more and more. Failure is not an option. Finally is the child who uses competition as an escape from an otherwise unhappy life.

That child reaches the high school level where winning and losing takes on an even greater importance.

Depending on the sport the young person is competing in the pressure can come from not only the coaches but teachers, fellow students, parents, friends, virtually everyone in that person’s circle.

Some kids turn to drugs as an escape and to be able to handle the pressure placed on them. Alcohol and marijuana are the most likely medication they chose to deal and cope. Add to that prescription drugs from the home and the world is OK again, for a while. Sooner or later (usually sooner) the drugs and booze take their toll and the playing career gives in to the extracurricular activity.

Another group, especially those who have some physical skills begins to excel and life is good for them. Very often this translates into a good attitude which attracts to that youngster positive feedback from those around them. It often leads to success in school and their social life.

As they go through high school the thought of college begins to weigh on the student/athlete. There are lots of myths about athletic scholarships just waiting for the high school star. The fact of the matter only a few of the most outstanding will ever get anything along the lines of a sports scholarship. The overwhelming percentage of very good college players are not on any type of scholarship.

This is one of the places performance drugs may play a role.

Reality check #1 says, for example, foot speed is a gift from the creator and part of the gene pool. Good coaching and hard work may refine the natural skill but it CANNOT create it. You’ve got it or you don’t. The same is true with a “live” arm. (We’ll stick with baseball because this is the sport under examination today.) The pitcher can either throw the heck out of the ball or can’t. Good coaching, work and mechanics may refine it a little but it’s either there or it isn’t.

Physical development may come sooner for some. However by late in the high school years the preponderance of players will have reached their peak. That’s where the rub comes in. How do I get better, stronger, faster (running and throwing), improve the all-important hand/eye coordination, and speed up reaction time? Vision is another critical area for hitters. There’s an old adage that “you can’t hit what you can’t see”.

So what’s a kid to do?

Good nutrition, lots of conditioning and plenty of sleep and there’s only very limited improvement.

Let me ask YOU a question? Do you think performance drugs can help player improve in baseball? The honest answer is yes it can. For some only a limited improvement will be achieved depending on how the drugs are used. But average players become above average. Good players become very good. Very good players become outstanding.

A JV second-baseman becomes a varsity player. A varsity player becomes all conference, etc.

On the college and professional level it’s no different. You’re already familiar with Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds (and maybe Roger Clemens). Let me give you another example you may not have heard about.

Dan Naulty played his college baseball at Cal. State Fullerton, a college with a good baseball reputation. They’ve won the NCAA World Series. Naulty pitched for them in the early 1990s and was drafted in the 14th round of the Major League draft in June of 1992 and signed by the Minnesota Twins by June 10th.

He made his MLB debut against the Tigers on opening day in 1996.

At Cal State Fullerton the 6’6” Naulty weighed about 180, very thin by most standards. In the minor leagues he struggled through his first two years because of limited velocity on his fastball. When he reached Fort Meyers in the Florida State League (High-A), he was introduced to steroids by some of the players there. He muscled up and within a short time a mid-80s fastball became a 95+ heater. His strikeouts to innings pitched put him on the fast track to The Show (as the minor leaguers refer to the big leagues). He moved from A+ through AA and AAA to Minnesota in two seasons.

He pitched well for the Twins from 1996 to 1998. After the 1998 season he was traded to the NY Yankees for a minor league prospect.

Before spring training with the Yankees he had some health side effects caused by the steroids. His doctor warned him he needed to stop and he did. In the meantime he and his wife had a religious epiphany. Today he is studying for his doctorate in Bible Studies.

During the early days of spring training the Yankee coaches feared he may be injured because his velocity was less than ordinary. After struggling through the year as a mop-up pitcher (one who only comes in when the game is out of hand) he was traded to the Dodgers. He never appeared in a Major League game for them and he was sent to the minors and could not regain his fastballs. No steroids, no velocity. The Dodgers released him early in 2000 and he was picked up by Kansas City and cut after pitching only two innings for their AAA team.

I heard an interview with Naulty a year or so ago. He was working as a counselor for troubled kids. He acknowledges he was a cheater and may well have cheated some players out of an opportunity to play big league ball because they were honest and didn’t use steroids.

We’re all familiar with the stories about Jose Canseco and now Chuck Knoblauch. The diminutive 2nd baseman suddenly developed power in 1995 and was a regular user until his career ended in 2002.

The point here is steroids work. They accomplish the desired effect to make players perform at a higher level. They become a little faster, throw a little faster, swing a little harder and it even aids vision. Cheating pays especially when the gods of the baseball turn a blind eye to it.

Just like the peccadilloes of the president with a slippery pant zipper changed the morality of oral sex not being sex was not lost on teenagers, the improvement in performance contained in a little syringe is well known to them.

If thousands of young people’s livers, testes and other organs in their bodies were being damaged by some virus or some other cause we’d call it an epidemic. We prohibit kids from using alcohol and marijuana. Steps need to be taken to stop the spread of steroid use among young people.

The role models in the big leagues and their employers owe a debt to those who support them in such a luxurious way to not use illegal substances while playing baseball.

I opened this rant asking five questions. The answers to questions 2 through 5 are obvious. Number 1 would be great if we could get an adult or two in congress to act in the best interest of our young people.

Ciao…….Moe Lauzier