Steroid mess puts target on anyone, By: Kevin Roberts
May 22, 2006
No one knows anything anymore, and everybody is guilty until proven innocent -- and even then we're not sure.
What David Wells did to Phillies outfielder David Dellucci (and Craig Biggio, by the way) was horrible and unfair. It is also part of the deal now in the Steroid Era -- pointing fingers and guessing. Wells thoughtlessly tossed Dellucci's name into a discussion of players who may or may not have used steroids as he talked about -- of course -- Barry Bonds on Saturday.
And then Dellucci had to stand and defend himself, for no good reason at all.
"Being a huge advocate of everything baseball is doing to clean the game up, someone who's pro-testing, to be called out be called out by David Wells?" Dellucci said, shaking his head. "That was a slap in my face, after all the hard work I've put in every day of my major league career. It was hurtful."
Wells wasn't at the ballpark Sunday. After pitching a rehab outing in Scranton, Wells launched into a profanity-laden defense that amounted to: I never said that. He said reporters who claimed he'd implicated Dellucci were (horrible expletives deleted) who "need to eat a full bowl of (wildly inappropriate expletive deleted)."
Well, at least we're not irretrievably vulgar.
So here it is, unedited, as Wells answered a question about all the steroid focus being on Bonds, and whether that was fair:
"Did you see that little bitty guy, Dellucci, hit 29 last year? How many this year? One. I know Dave. I've never suspected him of doing them. Who else? Biggio. To me, the suspicion is on everybody."
At least Wells (sort of) let Dellucci off the hook just after putting him on it. Biggio is still out there, twisting in the wind.
Wells is right about one thing -- suspicion is on everybody. This is what the steroid issue has wrought. Because baseball's testing program is so full of holes, such a complete mess, no one can be sure who is clean and who isn't. Consider that Bonds, who told a grand jury he used steroids -- albeit unknowingly -- and has left enough anecdotal evidence in his wake to fill two books has never failed an MLB drug test.
So we wonder. Already Albert Pujols is fending off steroid questions. What a glorious time in baseball.
"I find it odd that we do have guys who finger-point to other baseball players without knowing the truth and the facts," Dellucci said.
He's right. The players shouldn't be pointing fingers at each other. That's our job. Perhaps plagued by guilt after turning Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire into heroes during the steroid-fueled home run summer of 1998, we're looking sideways at everybody.
You put up crazy numbers out of nowhere, you start breaking previously unbreakable records, you get better after the age of 36 like no one in history, you're going to get some raised eyebrows. Dellucci, it should be noted, has done none of these things.
"I really can't believe, with all that's going on that's good in the game, that I'm standing here trying to justify the fact that I hit 29 home runs last year in (435) at-bats and I've hit one home run this year because I have 34 at-bats," Dellucci said. "This is the last thing I thought I'd be talking about."
Such is life in the big leagues these days. Red Sox manager Terry Francona apologized to Dellucci on behalf of his team. Curt Schilling, a former teammate of Dellucci with Arizona, did the same.
"I have a lot of respect for (Dellucci)," Francona said. "I've seen him work hard to become a good player. From what everyone tells me, he's one of the good guys you want to have on your team."
Francona said the game is probably in better shape now than people think. But the cloud remains, and some of it isn't fair.
"There are some very unfair connotations in the steroid era," Francona said.
"I'm very appreciative to him and Schilling," Dellucci said. "That means a lot. They didn't have to do that.
"That was very classy."
Dellucci has not spoken to Wells yet.
"I would like to," Dellucci said. "I'd like to know why the comments were made. I'd like to talk to him about it.
"I have a good reputation -- one that I take a lot of pride in."
Dellucci's reputation is intact, despite some weirdness from a former teammate (Dellucci and Wells played together on the Yankees in 2003). Wells' reputation is intact, too -- good pitcher, goofy guy, talks like a buffoon sometimes.
And baseball's reputation, tarnished and shaky and completely untrustworthy, remains intact too. That's the biggest problem.
