Steroids are baseball's ugly companion, By: Mike Hutton

May 1, 2007

I don't have one scintilla of evidence that Mark Prior used steroids. I don't even have a reasonable basis for suspicion. I feel slightly uncomfortable for wondering out loud, in this paper, what so many people are thinking.

Did steroid use contribute to his recent shoulder surgery as a pitcher?

I know readers are thinking this because they e-mail me and say things like they believe that Prior used steroids. Fans talk about this subject among themselves while watching the games on television. People ask me this question when they see me in public.

I shrug my shoulders and say, "Who knows?"

It's a loaded question with an unreasonable supposition to make -- guilt by association with the many players who did use steroids.

It's probably unfair to paint Prior with the steroid brush. Probably.

It's not our fault that we think like this.

It's the players. The ones that used. Blame them. They ruined it for fans for a long time. Maybe forever.

This shroud of darkness, perpetuated by a small percentage of steroid users in baseball, has forced us into this corner. We wonder about every player -- and every injury if it appears out of the ordinary.

Prior's shoulder broke down at 26. We don't know why.

The normal rules don't apply anymore. When a guy who had a blazing, unhittable fastball and pinpoint control can't find the plate with a compass, we want to know: What the heck happened?

One of the answers, besides the fact that his shoulder just broke down, is that steroid use led to the injury.

This is the price that baseball is paying for years of rampant steroid use by some players.

We look at individual players and make our own private judgements.

Greg Maddux and steroids? Not a chance in this universe. Not with a body that is as lumpy as a sack of potatoes.

Albert Pujos? It's amazing the Cardinal slugger could have such an explosive bat. It's also incredible that he's cut like Adonis. He's just a freak of baseball nature.

A one-in-a million baseball talent. Leave it at that.

Alex Rodriguez? After an awful year, where the Yankees had dropped hints they weren't having him back, Rodriguez tied the record for home runs in April with 14. His turnaround is amazing, though Rodriguez has proven that he's good enough to put up those numbers.

Do you wonder if Rodriguez's start was aided by illegal substances? I do. Is it irresponsible for me to wade into that hemisphere? I don't know. Someone else has to make that judgment.

But I can tell you this. I'm a fan. I love to watch the game. And these steroid induced thoughts dance in and out of my brain like a song that I just can't stop singing.

I have this picture in my head of Prior's fastball from 2003, rising at the very last second and then popping into the catcher's mitt like a cannon shot.

The batter flails at the pitch, swinging at strike three and then walks back to the dugout with his head hung down, unsure of what happened to him.

I just hope those outs were made from an arm that was sculpted from years of hard work and conditioning.

I think, though, I'll always wonder if that's the case. Always.