HGH fears put baseball in HR limbo, By: John P. Lopez
09/14/06
That deafening hush you hear is the complete lack of buzz over Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard's coming to town in pursuit of a monumental baseball milestone.
Yes, the asterisk remains. And come Friday, when the Astros begin a three-game series with the Phillies, for whom Howard has smashed 56 home runs this year, there will be nothing he can do to erase it.
The affable kid with a sweet, tight stroke is within striking distance of the revered and drug-free homer standards set by Babe Ruth (60) and Roger Maris (61).
But if there is the slightest murmur or rustle around Minute Maid Park beginning Friday, rest assured it will have more to do with "Picture Frame Night," dollar hot dogs or postgame fireworks.
Howard? Seems like a great kid. But outside of Philadelphia and a few pockets in the fantasy world of Seamhead Land, where baseball media purists cling to false hope that all is well, calling Howard a type of savior doesn't make him one.
As we say in Texas, put a dress on a pig, and it's still a pig. The stench of 1998 lingers.
Dwarfed by steroid fallout
Howard stands 6-5 and weighs 252 pounds. But his feats are going largely unnoticed on a national scale because as big a shadow as Howard casts, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds et al. cast longer, more damaging ones.
If you're a fan, pray that commissioner Bud Selig is listening to the nothingness surrounding Howard's terrific season. More, hope that major league players take notice and act swiftly. That's act, with a capital H-G-H.
In 1998, when McGwire and Sosa engaged in a riveting pursuit of Ruth and Maris, throngs of national media hopped from airport to airport following the story. I was one of them. And I was so blind to what it was I was really watching. A freak show.
Networks cut into programming. Politicians and Hollywood stars filled box seats.
We were all so gullible. Now, in the wake of baseball's steroid era, federal investigations and what the court of public opinion sees as damning evidence against all of those home run heroes, we are wiser for the wear.
Small steps forward
We know athletes are being tested for steroids, a step in the right direction. Baseball's adopting a tougher drug-testing policy was, and should have been, hailed by all.
But we also know that in baseball's designer-drug culture, testing rich athletes for steroids is more bark than bite. Human growth hormone, undetectable through urine testing, is the latest bane of the game, and until players are tested for it, feats like Howard's will be viewed skeptically.
Rumors of players turning to HGH have long been prevalent, and the June raid of former journeyman pitcher Jason Grimsley's home in connection with a shipment of HGH only reinforced doubt.
Nothing speaks louder than silence and apathy.
Howard by all accounts has nothing to hide, and the jump in the 26-year-old's home run production from the minor leagues to the majors should not raise eyebrows. But it does.
As much as Howard has been pumped and promoted as everything from the "anti-Bonds" to "Mr. Clean," the undeniable truth is that fans vote with their wallets.
And right now fans would rather stand in line for dollar hot dogs than pack the Crawford Boxes in hopes of catching a home run memento. That's how far out of favor the mighty home run kings have fallen.
Just because we're force-fed the "anti-Bonds" stuff about Howard — and even if we truly believe he is clean — it doesn't mean the taint is gone.
Baseball will not truly become clean again and pure in millions of hearts until players want it clean. Players are the only driving force that can erase the kind of doubt that, unfortunately, will follow Howard from home run No. 1 through 60, 61 or, perhaps, 62*.
Only testing for HGH will erase that asterisk. The commissioner must listen to the deafening silence surrounding Howard's accomplishment and act like he did in regard to the Bonds-related BALCO investigation. Players, in turn, must recognize just how skeptical an audience now exists in baseball.
Sure, the game in most ways has never been healthier. Stadiums are shiny and new, turnstiles are clicking at unbelievable rates, and popularity is soaring because going to the ballpark is just good, old-fashioned fun. But fans are there because of competitive wild-card races, years of devotion to their hometown teams and unprecedented TV exposure.
When it comes to the most majestic of feats, however, the buzz just isn't what it used to be. And it won't be until players are tested for HGH and other currently undetectable drugs.
Survey after survey by the International Doping Tests and Management organization and the World Anti-Doping Agency have indicated that most athletes who take blood tests for HGH feel at ease about more than their opponents' performances. They also consider the blood test to be less invasive than urine tests.
If baseball's players association really has its membership's best interests in mind, and if Howard and every player still haunted by past cheats know they're clean, they should be knocking on Selig's door. Selig, too, should demand HGH testing.
After all, what's a little prick of a needle to save the lifeblood of baseball? The home run king.
