Dave Albee: Steroids still lure for Marin kids
April 6, 2006, Marin Independence Journal
AS LITTLE LEAGUERS growing up, Eddie Wakefield, Chris Dittman, Cameron Gill, Nic Banaugh, Jono Grayson and many others used to mimic sluggers like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield when they took batting practice. They imitated their swings and batting stances and home run trots.
That's understandable. The home run is the single most identifiable and awesome achievement in sports and its records are practically sacred.
However, as high school and college baseball players now, these former Little Leaguers in Marin have a more guarded and skeptical perspective of their heroes than in their adolescent years. They have not lost their passion for baseball, but they have lost their age of innocence when it comes to the players they emulated and eyed as role models.
"You think less of them now that you're older," said Banaugh, now a pitcher and third baseman at Santa Rosa Junior College.
They have not lost total respect because they understand the degree at which major leaguers work out to stay in shape and appreciate how hard it is to hit a baseball any distance. But the steroid scandal of recent days, months and years - filled with speculation, accusations and innuendo - has created a negative impact, in the way Little Leaguers perceive the mighty and muscular players they looked up to once upon a time.
That's sad, but this is worse news. With all the awareness about the evils and health risks associated with steroid use, it has not yet produced such a positive backlash to end it. According to the ex-Little Leaguers contacted for this column, the fallout from the current steroid scandal has not necessarily procured athletes their age to cut back from using legal, over-the-counter performance-enhancing products, or perhaps illegal ones either.
"I don't see it stopping any time soon," said Jono Grayson, senior center fielder at Marin Catholic.
Basically, BALCO and the performance-enhancing drug culture found in all sports, not only baseball, has created a monster of new users.
"They do as much as they think they can to try to push the envelope," said Wakefield, a 17-year-old pitcher for Redwood High. "That's influenced by the major leagues. Do as much as you can without using the illegal stuff. É It's still pretty desirable to get as big as you can and do that legally."
Wakefield and others have noticed how friends, acquaintances and opponents have increased in size, presumed from taking products like creatine and protein shakes readily available at vitamin/supplement stores at the mall or through the Internet. However, there are suspicions that some high school and college athletes are seeking and using illegal performance-enhancing drugs if the legal options are not working for them.
"I can see some kids not being able to deal with it if you're doing it the right way and you're not seeing results," said Gill, a star three-sport athlete at Marin Catholic.
"If this is the case, then they're thinking, 'What can I do? I better start doing something (different),'" Wakefield said.
The point is this steroid phenomenon goes much deeper than Bonds, BALCO, baseball and any book. It's a societal problem, especially for thrill-seeking teenagers.
"It's not that big of a problem yet, but I'm sure it will be because it's illegal and it's the rebel thing to do," said Dittman, who plays for San Marin High.
The focus on steroid use has sharpened because of a book and investigation centered on Bonds. He has become the epicenter for criticism but Gill, for one, wants more proof of Bonds' alleged wrong-doings.
"I'm not going to bury a guy if I don't know the truth," Gill said.
That could take years because baseball's dealings with illegal steroid use could go back to the '90s and football's dabbling with performance-enhancing drugs stretches back long beyond that. Most professional sports leagues are slow to counter this with sterner drug-testing policies. Baseball, in particular, dragged its feet slower than its infields.
Perhaps if they realize the full scope and consequence on our youth, they would act faster and stronger. Baseball added stringent drug testing policies, yet still does not require a blood test to detect human growth hormone or other so-called designer drugs.
Thus, athletes will continue to look for an edge and at all levels for two reasons. First, high school and college athletes are naturally curious because they have heard that pro athletes are taking them with success and without any knowledge publicly of any damaging short-term effects. Second, high school and college athletes are
naturally competitive.
There's too much speculation and too little education.
"The chances of someone being better than you is high," Banaugh said. "The drive to take performance-enhancing drugs and protein drinks is there."
Grayson suspects more than half of male high school athletes he knows of in Marin drink protein shakes. Protein supplements can be hard on kidneys and could create the potential for a supplement mentality. In other words, one thing could lead to another that contains more health hazards. There are still no sufficient long-term studies on possible side effects.
What's obvious is these younger athletes do appear to be bigger than before.
Physically it's enhancing and mentally it's satisfying. It's an ego boost all the way around.
"They like the results they get and it attracts the ladies," Dittman said. "They like the attention they get."
But what's not so obvious is why young athletes are reaching for performance-enhancing drugs, as if grasping for straws.
"They weren't even the best players I've come up against," Wakefield said. "They were guys who were struggling a little and they get frustrated and they think 'the way to improve myself and look better is (performance-enhancing drugs).'"
What's troubling, however, is the stereotypical image of any athlete nowadays who increases his size and strength, even when he or she does it without any use of a supplement or performance-enhancing products. Even the dedicated athletes who spend more time in the weight room and conditioning their bodies naturally are being teased and taunted about using steroids.
It's just one big joke and the athletes who feel they're doing it the right way are not laughing.
"It's not fair," said Grayson, who said he was accused around school last year of taking steroids after gaining muscle weight.
"What I relate steroids to is laziness," Gill said. "You're not willing to put the work in."
To get the maximum benefit from creatine and protein shakes, it must be done with proper weight training and guidance. The problem is athletes are looking for the quick fix with the same results. So, if Plan A, done legally and following directions, isn't working out, there's fundamental temptation to examine Plan B, the radical route
that lacks supervision and inherits risks.
"It could be a like a segue to steroids," Grayson said.
It could make the decision easier at the very least to go to the dark side.
It's a complex problem and there is no easy resolution. The message baseball and other professional sports leagues and figures have issued is simple: Steroids are bad for you. Don't do them. That message, however, is not resonating by the look and sound of things at the high school and college level in Marin. It'll take more than public service announcements to influence our youth. Major League Baseball should be at the forefront of addressing the steroid stigma.
"They have to set the standard," Gill said. "If they get rid of it, anybody can get rid of it."
Otherwise, no matter how much it's read about in books and newspapers and magazines or seen on ESPN and other TV shows, the problem with steroids is a bigger problem on a larger scale than one might expect. Until the professional leagues adopt stricter drug-testing policies - like the Olympics - and professional athletes bring about the truth and a much greater comprehension of the perils - not the positives - of taking performance-enhancing drugs, our Little Leaguers of the future will have to examine their heroes in a different light.
Dittman, who was once captivated by what McGwire and Sosa did, is instead now fascinated by players like David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez of the Red Sox.
"There's no steroid thing about them," Dittman said. "I just like the way that they play."
Naturally.
