MLB Steroid Melodrama

[coyoteshockeyfan]

New link.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=1936592

 

[CaptTurbo]

You'd have to be blind not to have realised this. The guy has shriveled up he looks sickly now.

 

[Djaughe]

It really kinda surprises me that the giambi brothers would just blindly take whatever was given them. Well maybe not...no one has ever argued that baseball players are rocket scientists.

 

[thirty-two]

You'd have to be blind not to have realised this. The guy has shriveled up he looks sickly now.

do you have any pics of before and afters?

ive seen pics of bonds as a rookie and bonds now and it's like WHOA

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I'm wondering why Bonds and Giambi have received the majority of the flak in this case when other obvious steroid abusers like Sheffield, McGwire, and Eric Gagne are basically let off the hook.

 

[Lefty]

If the Yankees void Giambi's contract would the Diamondbacks look to sign Jason to an incentive contract?

 

[Ryanwb]

If the Yankees void Giambi's contract would the Diamondbacks look to sign Jason to an incentive contract?

Why? He ain't no good if he ain't juiced up!

 

[sly fly]

I'm wondering why Bonds and Giambi have received the majority of the flak in this case when other obvious steroid abusers like Sheffield, McGwire, and Eric Gagne are basically let off the hook.

Don't forget Kevin Brown, Erubial Durazo, or the Devil "Benito Santiago".

Just to name a few...

(Looks like Marion Joes is next on the hit list.)

All of these "athletes" can go to hell.

 

[Ryanwb]

I really never understood the benefit of a pitcher using steriods.... Muscle strength is not nearly as important as proper mechanics and flexability. Look at David Wells.....

 

[sly fly]

I really never understood the benefit of a pitcher using steriods.... Muscle strength is not nearly as important as proper mechanics and flexability. Look at David Wells.....

Kevin Brown had all the signs...

Big head.
Bulging forearms.
Bad attitude.
Injury-riddled.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I really never understood the benefit of a pitcher using steriods.... Muscle strength is not nearly as important as proper mechanics and flexability. Look at David Wells.....

I'm no doctor, but what I heard was that if you gain muscle strength in the arms and shoulders and such, it would help briefly but would cause recurring injury problems because steroids do damage on ligaments and tendons. The stress of throwing a pitch would essentially cause recurring damage to the tendons and ligaments that would be weakened due to the oversized arm muscles in the arm.

Therefore, pitchers use steroid to help bulk up through the trunks of their their bodies as well as through their legs, which are just as important as arm strength to velocity. And since the legs and abdomens go through less stress during a delivery, the ligaments and tendons are less likely to get damaged.

Hope that makes sense.

EDIT - While we're naming names, let's not forget other obvious 'roiders such as Sammy Sosa and Julio Franco and less obvious ones like Nomar Garciaparra and Jack Wilson.

 

[AZZenny]

I actually heard Leo Mazzone on radio a few years ago say that pitchers introduced steroids to baseball. The primary medical use of andro-steroids is rapid muscle recovery from damage, such as burns or rhabdomyolosis. That is the way they build bulk, in fact - they permit greatly increased workload (and frequency) because the tissues can regenerate so much faster. Without them, really hard, daily weight lifting or running breaks down the muscles, but steroids (and HGH) cut the needed rest time down dramatically.

Mazzone said pitchers started using them to permit rapid recovery from the tremendous muscle wear and tear from pitching, not to bulk up. However, I suspect the second part of that which followed was allowing stronger leg and trunk muscles, too.

 

[Dback Jon]

McCain calls on baseball to 'restore the integrity'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John McCain demanded immediate action by representatives of major league baseball's players and owners to tighten the sport's drug-testing policy "to restore the integrity of baseball" or face possible congressional action.

"I warned them a long time ago that we needed to fix this problem," McCain told reporters Saturday after attending the Army-Navy football game with President Bush. "It's time for them to sit down together and act. And that's what they should do. If not, clearly, we have to act legislatively, which we don't want to do."

Expressing dismay about recurring reports of steroid abuse by some of baseball's top stars, the Arizona senator threatened to legislate stricter rules if the sport fails to police itself.

"I'll introduce legislation in January, but I hope I don't have to do that," he said, speaking to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base.

Michael Weiner, the union's general counsel, said the status of steroids will be discussed at the union's annual executive board meeting, which starts Monday in Phoenix.

"We were going to do that before the events of this week," he said.

Lawyers for the commissioner's office and the union have met several times to discuss Selig's repeated calls for more frequent testing and harsher penalties for steroid use.

"I expect them to continue shortly after the board meeting, but that was also already scheduled," Weiner said.

The long-simmering steroid allegations hit the headlines this week with reports of grand jury testimony in San Francisco that linked to steroid abuse such stars as single-season home run champion Barry Bonds, and New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi.

The San Francisco Chronicle was able to review sealed transcripts containing the testimony of Bonds, Giambi and Gary Sheffield.

"I don't care about Mr. Bonds or Mr. Sheffield or anybody else," McCain said. "What I care about are high school athletes who are tempted to use steroids because they think that's the only way they can make it in the major leagues."

In an interview televised Friday night on ABC's 20/20, the head of a nutritional supplements lab implicated in the story added the names of top track and football stars to those he said had used illegal substances. Victor Conte, head of Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, said he didn't know whether Bonds, who plays for the San Francisco Giants, had used steroids.

McCain said he watched that interview, "and it's very clear that there was a number of people involved in this."

He demanded quick action by Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, and the players' union head, Don Fehr, to solve the problem.

"To restore the integrity of baseball, Commissioner Selig and Don Fehr must meet immediately -- not merely by spring training as the commissioner has promised -- and agree to implement a drug-testing policy that is at least as stringent as the one observed by the minor league program," McCain said in a Friday statement.

McCain added in a Washington Post interview that "I'll give them until January, and then I'll introduce legislation."

It is unclear how much support such a proposal would have in Congress -- the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., complained last year that McCain's idea would rewrite baseball's collective bargaining agreement.

Selig said he is committed to ridding baseball of performance-enhancing substances and is demanding that the players' association to adopt a stronger testing policy modeled after the minor leagues' more stringent program.

"The use of these substances continues to raise issues regarding the game's integrity and raises serious concerns about the health and well-being of our players," Selig said.

The current policy was adopted in September 2002 and runs until December 2006.

 

[Stronso]

Go John - take care of it

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Yawn.

 

[AZZenny]

Lets add some penalties to the owners, too. Didn't the Yankees forbid Giambi from having his personal trainer in the clubhouse a year ago? Teams know, owners know. If the Yankees try to dump Giambi they should have to dump Sheffield, too, but his numbers are still up, so they don't want to.

Bracket or asterisk all power numbers for the past 7-8 years (sorry Mark); mandatory unannounced year-round non-random monthly testing for anything they CAN test for, including expanding hat sizes; pretty severe penalties (1 positive test= 1 month suspension, 2= 1 season, 3=five years); AND - I think this is a key piece - if more than 5% of a team's 40 man roster test positive in a year, the team gets a monster fine - a million or two per player affected - that goes straight to the old player retirement/medical care fund. If ownership loses the services of the players plus have to pay a big public fine, the incentives to reward or ignore cheaters will change.

 

[Dback Jon]

Lets add some penalties to the owners, too. Didn't the Yankees forbid Giambi from having his personal trainer in the clubhouse a year ago? Teams know, owners know. If the Yankees try to dump Giambi they should have to dump Sheffield, too, but his numbers are still up, so they don't want to.

Bracket or asterisk all power numbers for the past 7-8 years (sorry Mark); mandatory unannounced year-round non-random monthly testing for anything they CAN test for, including expanding hat sizes; pretty severe penalties (1 positive test= 1 month suspension, 2= 1 season, 3=five years); AND - I think this is a key piece - if more than 5% of a team's 40 man roster test positive in a year, the team gets a monster fine - a million or two per player affected - that goes straight to the old player retirement/medical care fund. If ownership loses the services of the players plus have to pay a big public fine, the incentives to reward or ignore cheaters will change.

Good ideas - random drug testing is a must

 

[Gee!]

New Steroid Policy

Steroid scandal creates urgency

Mark Gonzales
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 13, 2005 12:00 AM

Diamondbacks left fielder Luis Gonzalez said he wasn't surprised at the quickness by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association to institute a tougher steroid testing policy.

Baseball, a sport known for its deliberate way of handling issues, such as Pete Rose's reinstatement and the instability of the Montreal franchise, sensed the urgency this time.

"After the incident with BALCO, it's good to get things addressed," Gonzalez said. "Now there's going to be no questions. Everyone will be playing on the same even field."

Baseball is fighting back against steroid use with its expected announcement today of a tougher policy that could call for suspensions for first-time offenders and more frequent testing. The MLBPA worked with MLB officials in finalizing a new policy.

"I've always been in favor of any kind of testing," Gonzalez said. "It's good to get this out in the open and start the season on a positive note."

The announcement of a new policy could come today at the quarterly owners' meetings in North Scottsdale by Commissioner Bud Selig, who has pushed for more stringent laws in the wake of the BALCO investigation involving some of the game's top sluggers.

"It would be wonderful once it's done, but I don't want to pre-empt any announcement on this," MLB CEO Bob DuPuy said after Wednesday's executive council meeting.

The amending of the drug-testing policy is one of the biggest developments in the often-strained relationship between the owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association, which agreed to random testing in 2003.

Other sports and medical experts smirked or blasted the effectiveness of that policy, in which first-time offenders weren't suspended.

Their claims were validated when random tests showed that more than 5 percent of samples revealed positive tests for steroids, therefore requiring mandatory testing last season under terms of the Basic Agreement.

But calls for a tougher plan became louder after BALCO grand jury testimony leaked last month that the New York Yankees' Jason Giambi admitted using steroids and human growth hormone and that Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield claimed they unknowingly used a cream now detected as a synthetic steroid.

Selig has called for a policy similar to what is used in the minor leagues, which calls for a 15-game suspension for first-time offenders and a permanent suspension for a five-time violator, as well as testing for drugs such as cocaine and marijuana.

In addition, the minor league policy states that players can be tested for up to four times at random - including the off-season.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0113testing0113.html

 

[Djaughe]

 

[Dback Jon]

Bout time - next up - amphitimenes.

 

[Kolo]

I wonder if the Vegas odds on the Giants winning the World Series just went down.

 

[azdad1978]

 

[Dback Jon]

I wonder if the Vegas odds on the Giants winning the World Series just went down.

Probably.....them and the Cubs

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Bout time - next up - amphitimenes.

Not going to happen. Uppers have about the same place in baseball as they do in truck driving.

 

[Lefty]

Canseco injected steroids in McGwire's butt

Got this from the Daily News. If true, this puts a big black eye on the sport.


Jose: You're out!

In explosive tell-all, Canseco dishes on steroid users

BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER


You've never seen Jose Canseco like this: huddled in a bathroom stall at the Oakland Coliseum, jabbing a hypodermic needle into Mark McGwire's bare behind.


Or McGwire and a young Jason Giambi heading into the men's room to inject each other with the anabolic steroids that would turn them from lanky lads into musclebound behemoths.


Bad boy Canseco alleges those and other mind-bending scenes in a soon-to-be released tome that is already shaking the world of baseball.


In "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big," Canseco claims he personally injected some of the biggest names in baseball - including All-Stars Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez, among others - with performance-enhancing drugs.


But if the book is a confessional, Canseco isn't seeking redemption. "Juiced" is a love letter to the clear liquids that turned him from struggling skinny prospect to one of the biggest names in the game.


The implausibly buff slugger admitted to doping several years ago, but in the book he claims he was almost solely responsible for spreading steroids throughout the game in the 1990s. The book, which is still being edited, is scheduled for release Feb. 21.


Canseco, who played for seven big league teams in a 17-year career - including a brief stint with the Yankees in 2000 - expresses no regrets in the book. In fact, he predicts steroids and human growth hormone will eventually be decriminalized and help people lead longer, healthier and sexier lives.


Giambi's agent, Arn Tellem, questioned Canseco's credibility:


"This book, which attacks baseball and many of its players, was written to make a quick buck by a guy desperate for attention, who has appeared on more police blotters then line-up cards in recent years, has no runs, no hits and is all errors," Tellem told the Daily News.


Baseball insiders have known for months that Canseco was working on the tell-all book, which is published by Regan Books.


Among his many bombshells, Canseco claims:



McGwire introduced Giambi to performance-enhancing drugs and the three of them used to shoot steroids together. Canseco says players on the A's talked openly about injecting in the bathroom stalls, and the clubhouse was an abuser's paradise.


During the great home run race of 1998, a reporter's accidental discovery of androstenedione in McGwire's locker, may not have been an accident. Canseco says he believes McGwire put the bottle of the steroid "pre-cursor" in his locker so it would be found, thus creating a smokescreen for his extensive use of illegal steroids. Andro, recently criminalized, was legal at the time.


Some Major League Baseball owners welcomed or condoned steroid use because they believed a power surge would bring back fans after the disastrous 1994-95 work stoppage.


The Players Association condoned steroid use because a home run barrage would mean bigger salaries for members and union leaders.


President Bush, who was the Rangers' general managing partner in the early '90s, must have known that some of his players were using steroids but chose not to address the issue. White House spokesman Ken Lisaius declined to comment on Canseco's book, but noted that Bush had urged players, coaches and owners to work together to rid sports of steroids during the 2004 State of the Union address.


Both baseball and the media routinely vilified black and Latin players who misbehaved while they shielded white stars - especially McGwire - who engaged in similar conduct.


Canseco had sex with hundreds of women - most players, he says, cheat on their wives - but clears the air about his most famous relationship: Canseco says he never had sex with Madonna, although he did spend a night making out with the Material Girl in her Manhattan apartment.


Steroids played no role in the injuries that plagued Canseco's career and that he would not have even become a big-league player if it weren't for performance-enhancing drugs.

Reaction was swift from the accused. McGwire, Canseco's biggest target who has long denied steroid use, said in a statement: "I have always told the truth and I am saddened that I continue to face this line of questioning. With regard to this book, I am reserving comment until I have the chance to review its contents myself."


Added Tellem: "It only confirms what the great baseball writer Peter Gammons said when he called Jose Canseco one of the three greatest wastes of baseball talent between 1980 and 2000."


White House spokesman Lisaius noted that President Bush is an outpsoken critic of steroid use. "The president's position on steroids has been clear for some time," Lisaius said.


Canseco told Sports Illustrated in 2002 that he suspected 80% of players were using steroids, a figure widely dismissed within the game. In 2003, an anonymous survey, introduced as the first step in baseball's first anti-steroids program, found that 5% to 7% of player tests were positive.


In "Juiced," however, Canseco sticks to the 80% estimate, a figure that critics will be sure to attack.


Canseco's bombshell comes just as Major League Baseball, hoping to move past the BALCO steroid-trafficking investigation, prepares to put a new, tougher anti-steroid policy in place.


MLB and the Players Association initiated discussions on a stricter program last March, after U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) threatened congressional intervention at a Senate hearing on steroids. But the discussions didn't gain momentum until the San Francisco Chronicle reported in December that Giambi and Barry Bonds had admitted steroid use to the grand jury investigating the BALCO scandal. Now, instead of moving forward, MLB officials figure to spend much of spring training responding to the charges in Canseco's book.


MLB and union reps declined to comment on Canseco's charges, but one baseball official privately dismissed the book, which contains many other revelations about players' lives and Canseco's own, as "nonsense."


No owner, the baseball official said on condition of anonymity, ever encouraged a player to take illegal drugs to improve performance. Commissioner Bud Selig, the source added, pushed the union to agree to drug testing for several years before the first anti-steroid policy was approved in 2002.


Canseco claims he began counseling Rodriguez, Palmeiro and Gonzalez on steroid use in 1992, after he was traded by the A's to Texas. He says he eventually injected his three teammates with the illegal substances.


Rodriguez's agent, Scott Boras, who did not represent the player in 1992, said he has not seen the book and declined to comment. Gonzalez's agent, Alan Nero, also declined to comment until he's read the book. Palmeiro's agent, Pat Rooney, did not return calls from the Daily News.


The baseball source said he believes Canseco's allegations won't withstand scrutiny. "History," the source said, "will determine that this is nonsense."


Yanks say they'll read book for Giambi dirt


Yankee officials say they will be reading Jose Canseco's tell-all book closely to find out what they can about disgraced slugger Jason Giambi.


In the book, which team officials have not seen, Canseco says Giambi badly abused performance-enhancing drugs, and one high-ranking Yankee source said the team will be adding revelations from the book to its Giambi file. Yankee GM Brian Cashman has said the team expects a healthy Giambi to report to spring training, but the source said the team reserves the right to legally challenge his contract.


"All options are still open," the source said Friday.


Yankee brass discussed voiding their contract with Giambi, who is owed $82 million, when it was reported last year that he admitted to using steroids before a federal grand jury in the BALCO case. Team lawyers decided it would be nearly impossible to break the contract, but if any new information helps their case they may move ahead with a challenge.