As unfortunate as it is, steroids are here to stay, By: Rick Hurd
9/9/07
BEEN PAYING ATTENTION? Good, then you've noticed how baseball's most glamorous record exchanged hands a month ago. And that the new holder is a man who has been linked closely with one of the biggest doping scandals in sports history. And that the torch didn't explode when it was passed from Henry Aaron to Barry Bonds.
Too, you observed how one of baseball's most definitive statements was made on Capitol Hill a couple of springs ago, and how the man who delivered it was found to be as trustworthy as most folks on Capitol Hill seem to be these days. And that the bald-faced lie -- "I have never used steroids, period," -- in which Rafael Palmeiro was caught did nothing to stop people from surging to see his sport.
You may also have seen how one of baseball's most obscure relievers (Jason Grimsley) took it upon himself to quit when a shipment of performance-enhancing drugs showed up on his doorstep in Arizona right about the time federal investigators did the same. And how his sudden disappearance led only to the arrival of another obscure reliever to take his place.
Heck, if you really live dangerously, you might even have taken note of the suspensions incurred by Rodney Harrison and Wade Wilson, a star and assistant coach in that Teflon-coated league called the NFL. And how their link to performance-enhancers inspired as much uprising from the masses as the latest Osama Bin Laden tape.
The point is, Rick Ankiel's rendezvous with sports' latest human growth hormone controversy and Troy Glaus' attachment to its latest steroids scandal should be no more jarring than accidentally gulping a still-steaming cup of coffee.
You see, in professional sports in the 21st century, stories like this are bound to keep springing up. Sort of the way those seedy adult bookstores in the big cities gave way to classier adult boutiques in the suburbs. Their presence may not thrill everybody, but enough people are checking them out that they aren't disappearing anytime soon.
So it is that the cases of Ankiel and Glaus provide more grist for the mill.
Ankiel, until Thursday, had been one of the best hits of the summer. The failed pitcher-turned-slugger homered in his first at-bat after returning to the majors following a three-year absence, then clocked eight more in his next 80 at-bats. Simultaneously, he has fueled the St. Louis Cardinals resurgence in the National League Central and inspired visions of 1998, when another Cardinal, Mark McGwire, hit 70 home runs.
Now surely, you paid heed to what has happened to McGwire since then. But even though he's disappeared from the scene, the magic of that summer still resonates, just as does the awe generated by Bonds when he broke the mark three years later. Ankiel's comeback may not warm the heart as much as it did 72 hours ago, but in five years, the sheer amazement of it will still endure.
Five years ago, of course, is when Glaus, now a Toronto Blue Jays third baseman, was tormenting the Giants in the World Series. Then an Anaheim Angel, Glaus was the MVP in that seven-game series, hitting three home runs and capping Anaheim's epic Game 6 comeback with a two-run, eighth-inning double off Robb Nen.
That performance will leave the hearts of Giants fans wounded forever, no matter what may have been in Glaus' system. And for those fans crying foul, consider that Bonds also played in that World Series (hitting four home runs) and that their pennant-winning hit was produced by a man, Benito Santiago, linked to same doping scandal as Bonds.
In other words, the need for the moral police took place long ago, and the silence rang out loudly. Blame baseball's leadership, its union, its unwritten code and its chroniclers for the hush-hush that allowed the Steroid Era to evolve. Blame, too, a culture so out of touch with its ethical compass that refs gamble, quarterbacks fight dogs, CEO's bilk retirements, the military fabricates heroes and the president sends kids to fight in a war even as he plans for his own child's wedding.
What cannot be taken seriously, however, is the notion that shock should follow the latest news that the Steroid Era is still thriving. It's with us to say, at least until further notice, and surely nobody is still so naïve as to assume that much of what happens in any professional arena is not, to some degree, artificially enhanced.
After all, it's the customer who ultimately drives any business, and the scourge of these respective scandals has, if anything, attracted more customers, not fewer ones.
Perhaps that will change some day. Until then, however, the boys of summer (not to mention the behemoths of fall, the speed-demons of Olympiads and who knows however many else) will have to co-exist with the drugs of sport, and no athlete should ever again be nicknamed The Natural. It may be a cocktail that begs for a skeptical eye, but then again, didn't we already know that? If not, then we really haven't been paying attention.
