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The New Stats Explained
by Ryan T. Campbell
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Johanna quoted in the Chicago Tribune about Fan Safety.
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This Month
Hunter Manchak reviews
Kirk Radomski's Bases Loaded: The Inside Story of Baseball in the Steroid Era
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 1:00pm
Over the past decade we the sports-loving public have come a long way in our understanding of steroids and their role in athletic competition. Even the category of "steroid" is no longer the in-vogue designation for what we're referring to. Instead Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) serves as a much wider umbrella under which we find good old-fashioned steroids, Human Growth Hormone (HGH), amphetamines, and others.
As PEDs apply to sports, and specifically baseball, we've also come a long way. Not long ago, the general sense was that only muscle-bound sluggers were using, and that the only benefits were being able to hit the baseball further and motor around the bases more swiftly. Excused from suspicion were all pitchers (supposedly having extremely large muscles would be too much of a detriment to one's needed flexibility), smallish middle infielders, and basically any other player not hitting in the middle of the Oakland A's batting order.
Now, however, with revelations from past major leaguers like Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco, and with Congressional hearings and the Mitchell Report added to the public record, we are collectively much better informed on many aspects of the PED issue and culture. Indeed, we've reached a point where very little else that could possibly be revealed about PEDs would surprise us. It's hard to imagine how any future positive test could ever produce a name more scintillating than Bonds, Clemens, or Rodriguez.
To be sure, PEDs will continue to play a central role in professional and amateur sports for the foreseeable future, but it's likely that we've seen the majority of mysteries revealed, and of public interest/furor over the issue. Witness, for example, the lackluster sales of Jose Canseco's second PED-themed book versus that of his first.
With this mindset, I was not expecting Kirk Radomski's new book Bases Loaded to be much more than a rehashing of already known names and events-a last ditch effort from one of the era's central but still obscure figures to make a quick buck before his fifteen minutes had elapsed.
What I found, however, was that Radomski not only had a lot to say about his personal experience supplying PEDs to players, but also was also illuminating on a number of other issues, and the book was even fairly well written.
The most interesting sections of the book were those detailing the different types of PEDs, how the drugs were obtained, how they were administered, and what the specific effects would be for a Major League baseball player. As most of what's been written about baseball's PED problem comes fully infused with moralism or lasciviousness, it was nice to read something and actually become better informed about the issue.
Also interesting were sections discussing the legal ramifications of Radomski's decade-long involvement with PEDs and Major League Baseball. Radomski details his initial encounter with Jeff Novitzky and his team of federal agents, his role in a government sting operation to catch players in the act, and ultimately his meetings with Senator Mitchell. These sections were compelling from a historical perspective and also added a level of intrigue that I did not expect.
Throughout the book, Radomski makes several mentions of having nothing to gain by lying. With respect to his supplying players with PEDs, there is probably little reason to question the veracity of his story. Indeed, much of what's contained in Bases Loaded is identical to what he discussed with Senator Mitchell and in his own legal case, both situations in which Radomski had much more reason to tell the truth than to lie. With respect to his motives, however, some of what Radomski writes may bit a bit more suspect.
Radomski seems overly concerned with how he will be perceived after everything is said and done. He laments that even were he to go on to win two Nobel Prizes, his legacy would still be forever tainted by his involvement with baseball and PEDs. In addition, he goes out of his way to demonstrate his own moral rectitude and also describes in great detail, how great a friend he was to many different baseball players, even before drugs entered the equation. While all of this may be true, the fact that Radomski dwells on it to such an extent detracts from his central points and needlessly extends the book.
It is clear in reading Bases Loaded that Radomski is at peace with his role in baseball's PED era. However, far from feeling he had played a part in staining the game, he seems to believe that the impact PEDs can have on the history books is minimal at best. It is somewhat difficult to follow his logic on this issue.
He goes to great length to describe how a player benefits from taking PEDs. Steroids will make one stronger, while HGH aids in recovery from both nagging and long-term injuries. In either case a given player is able to perform at a higher level than he would have without the drugs.
However, Radomski also mitigates the overall impact of PEDs, stating that "they don't turn ordinary players into superstars," and that "anyone who believes that players have broken (statistical) records because they were using steroids or growth hormones doesn't know enough about baseball."
How Radomski manages to make such statements while also detailing each drugs efficacy is hard to reconcile. Indeed, Radomski seems to be attempting to refute an argument that few people would actually make. That is, no one really believes that Clint Barmes can become Joe Morgan simply by sticking a needle into his backside. However, it's not hard to imagine that PEDs mixed with proper exercise can produce performance, and statistics, out of step with a players own natural abilities. The fact that such game-raising can exist with both the Bondses and Barmeses alike (and thus include a varying degree of record-breaking) should not be terribly surprising.
Radomski seems to reconcile this incongruity by suggesting that PEDs simply allow players to play up to their true capabilities, unrestrained by injury or myriad other factors. This is where the issue gets extremely hard to pin down, as it truly is impossible to determine a players "true" baseline. What about players with Attention Deficit Disorder? What about those who naturally produce higher levels of testosterone? What about those with deteriorating vision? To what extent could such players remedy their situation without crossing the nebulous line of cheating?
Of course, such issues were in the forefront previously, and they remain after Bases Loaded. While the book is largely descriptive, it does attempt to shed light on the very complicated issue of PEDs in sports. In some ways, it's successful; in others, it's not. Nevertheless, Radomski's book provides enough valuable information for the baseball fan to become better informed about the issue, and is an enjoyable read in the process.
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