Caminiti gets Hall vote for honesty, By: Gwen Knapp
December 3, 2006
A steroid user will get my vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame this month. Yes, I care that he cheated and that he won an MVP award as a result. But he has the numbers.
Zero book deals.
Zero evasions in front of Congress.
Zero attempts to point the finger somewhere else.
The late Ken Caminiti appears on the ballot for the first time this year, along with the record-breaking Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. Only one of the three made real history.
In 2002, six years after he was named the National League's MVP, Caminiti became the first prominent major-leaguer to admit that he had used steroids. He died two years later, at age 41, when a cocktail of drugs sent his already damaged heart into arrest. One of the last pictures of Caminiti showed him handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit, preparing to check out of a Houston jail, where he spent 25 days for using cocaine and violating his probation in an earlier drug-possession case.
For me, none of that rules him out as a candidate. Nor do I care that he hit only .272 with 239 home runs in his career.
Caminiti told the truth when no one else would. He stands for something that should be recognized at Cooperstown, especially as the great uncertainty of the steroids generation descends on the Hall of Fame.
McGwire's debut on the ballot brings a host of torturous questions. Did his refusal to talk about the past on Capitol Hill constitute an admission of steroid use? Is it somehow nobler to throw a spitter than it is to juice? Should McGwire be rejected for doing something that so many others did, including pitchers who tried to contain him? How many other users will slip into Cooperstown simply because Congress left them alone?
In this corner, the decision is easy. I can't honor a man for a past that he refused to discuss under oath. If McGwire explains himself someday, I may change my mind.
For now, Caminiti gets my vote, albeit purely symbolic. He won't be inducted, and I'd be shocked if he received the 5 percent required to stay on the ballot next year. But Caminiti's candor should be honored, because it is rarer than 60 home runs in a season.
In the spring of '02, Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci was working on a story about steroids when he learned that Caminiti had addressed the issue, in a general way, on CNN. Verducci arranged to visit him in Texas, never expecting a detailed confession. But Caminiti had always been a guileless personality, and he was going through drug and alcohol rehab at the time.
"I think part of the challenge of going through something like that is being honest with yourself, taking stock of yourself,'' Verducci said.
Caminiti offered up his story unvarnished by apologies or excuses. He bought his drugs in Mexico because he wanted a shoulder injury to heal faster. He took them too frequently, causing his body to shut down its natural production of testosterone. The hormonal imbalance, he said, brought on depression, and his rapid muscle gain led to a physical breakdown.
Yet he had no regrets. Steroids had become a part of baseball, and Caminiti wanted to play. He estimated that half of all major-leaguers were on the juice, but not once, Verducci said, did he bring up another player's name.
The story infuriated people in baseball. He was cast as a reckless addict trying to damage the game, even though nothing in the story suggested bitterness or a crusade. Baseball had become a den of liars and deniers, allergic to the truth.
So Verducci understood why, in follow-up interviews, Caminiti backed away from his 50 percent estimate. "I think he took more heat from his peers than we will ever know,'' Verducci said.
The Padres, however, stood behind their former third baseman. They invited him to spring training to try working as an instructor and persuaded him to attend the farewell game of their old park in 2003. Kevin Towers, the general manager, can barely speak about Caminiti without choking up.
"From a personal point of view, I was very proud of him,'' Towers said. "I respected the fact that Cami spoke out and took responsibility.''
Verducci is currently debating what to do with his Hall of Fame ballot. He won't support McGwire, but he may vote for Caminiti.
"Is the fact that he was a serial cheater worse than the fact that he was something of a pioneer and an agent for change?'' he said.
Without Caminiti's confession, baseball probably wouldn't have instituted its first steroid testing policy in the 2002 labor agreement. It was absurdly weak, but it was a start.
But I'm not voting for Caminiti because he changed the game. Canseco did the same thing, unwittingly nudging Congress to move baseball toward tougher penalties, when his only intent was to push a book for $25.95.
The changes had to come from other people. I'm voting for Caminiti because of who he was, a deeply flawed, widely beloved man. If he had been more disciplined and less self-destructive, he might have been another model citizen of the sports world -- conditioned toward deceit and programmed to keep ugly secrets.
