A Dirty Game

This offseason, Major League Baseball seemed to have suffered a massive blow to its’ recovering image when reigning NL MVP Ryan Braun tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (PED’s). He then proved his “innocence” through a barrage of circumstantial evidence.

Let’s go back even a year further. After being a lifetime .267 hitter, Melky Cabrera had an abnormally worthy season, only missing 7 games (career best) and hitting .307 (also a career best) for the Royals. This year, Melky was in the midst of a completely out-of-the-ordinary, phenomenal season, hitting .346 for the Giants. Then last Wednesday, Melky tested positive for synthetic testosterone.

Now let’s go to this past Wednesday. Six years removed from his 2005 Cy Young campaign, Bartolo Colon had endured five years of irrelevance and dreadful performances. This year, Colon had nearly completed a bounce back season, going 10-9 with a 3.43 ERA, his best since the year he won the Cy Young. Like Melky, his season seemingly came out of nowhere. But also like Melky, Colon tested positive for synthetic testosterone.

Major League Baseball has battled a multitude of drugs and performance enhancers for the last several decades. Baseball players have long gone to extreme measures in attempt to survive, endure, and gain an edge in the grueling 162 game schedule. After WW2, players started using “greenies” on a daily basis to improve their performance. In the 80’s, there was the cocaine outbreak. In the 90’s, the steroid era began. I recently read Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, an account of an MLB season where he references the rampant use of greenies (slang for amphetamines) in locker rooms during the 1969 season.  After a play where his teammate ran unusually fast and made an outrageously hard catch in the outfield, Bouton asked him how he had done it, the player replied, “I think my greenie kicked in.” 

Kind of scary isn’t it?

Major League Baseball started testing for steroids in 2004 and amphetamines in 2006, and obviously tests for cocaine. All Star third baseman and future hall of famer Chipper Jones responded to the new testing on greenies: “It’s gonna have a bigger effect on the game than steroid testing…it’s more rampant than steroids.” Despite the added testing, the sad thing is: the game is still dirty.

Besides a one time test in spring training Major League Baseball doesn’t consistently test for HGH (Human Growth Hormone), and with Cabrera and Colon’s results—baseball has a new hurdle to climb: synthetic testosterone.

Synthetic testosterone…that just sounds fishy doesn’t it? So what is it? I’ll give you the breakdown using the C- I received in my 8^th grade chemistry class. AKA the articles I have been reading all day about the new phenomenon.

Synthetic testosterone is especially appealing to players because of its ability to vanish from the body so quickly. Unlike steroids, cocaine or amphetamines that can stay in the system for months—synthetic testosterone can go undetected after 6-8 hours if used properly. Victor Conte, infamous for being the architect of the BALCO scandal, has said that the use of artificial testosterone “is really widespread.”

Scary isn’t it?

Baseball has combated its’ problems with cocaine and amphetamines, and I think a lot of us even thought that they had averted the steroid era. What is now starting to occur to me and many others: we may be wrong. We may be dead wrong.

We have been wrong before. We have all been fooled. Starting in the late 1990’s, baseball escalated to a new level of attraction and captivation. We saw these larger than life heroes conquer stadiums and major league pitching like nobody before. In 1998, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa allured the entire world in a race to Roger Maris’ single season homerun record. Both players broke the record—McGwire hitting 70 homeruns and Sosa with 66. The next year, they did it again. McGwire hit 65. Sosa hit 63. In 2001, Barry Bonds again set the record books ablaze with 73 homeruns. Sosa added 64.

Then the truth came out. The truth that this entire era of greatness will forever be tainted with suspicion, accusations, and doubt. That’s the sad thing…we will never know exactly who was clean and who was dirty. Sure, we know Mark McGwire used steroids and human growth hormone from 1993-1999. We are aware of the evidence against Barry Bonds, we also know that stars like Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and Rafael Palmeiro have tested positive AFTER 2004. What were they doing when there was no testing? How many players were using them when there was no testing? Honestly, I don't think we want to know.

Over the last few days, there have been statements and assertions that Baseball is as dirty as it’s ever been. I would like to think that these reports are blasphemous. I would like to think that these claims are nothing but egregious.

Look, am I skeptical? Absolutely. Am I scared for the possible reality? Absolutely. Do I think there are players are using HGH? Absolutely. Do I think players are using synthetic testosterone? Yes I do. But I am also optimistic. I would like to think that the outrageous spike in offensive and power prowess from 1994-2004 was due to a constricted era of steroid use. I would like to think that the recent outbreak of exceptional pitching is symbolic of the game’s increased level of untainted competition. I would like to think all of these things and a lot of me does believe in these ambitious foresights. But also in the back of mind I also think: How can I? I have watched this movie before…and the ending sucked.

-Chris Collins