http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/13617193p-14459050c.html
Mark Kreidler: Congress should care about steroids
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, September 24, 2005
There was a classic moment in Washington the other day, when Barry Bonds suddenly relocated the high horse he once rode in on. Turns out, the saddle still fits.
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Now, I'm going to preface Bonds' ridiculous comments by saying they were prompted by a question. Bonds was asked if he felt Congress was wasting its time by continuing to investigate steroid issues in sports. OAS_AD('Button20');
"Pretty much, I think so. Yeah," Bonds replied. "I think we have other issues in this country to worry about that are a lot more serious. I think you guys should direct your efforts into taking care of that.
"Talk about the athletes that are helping Katrina. Ask yourselves how much money y'all personally donated and have helped. ... Right now, people are losing lives, don't have homes. I think that's a little more serious - a lot more serious."
OK, class, anymore questions about why the media continue to pound the drug issues in sports?
Ask Bonds about steroids, and he'll talk to you about Hurricane Katrina being more important. Ask Bonds about steroids, and he will table-turn the topic until he is the victim, as he did during spring training, using his son as a theatrical device while explaining just how hounded he felt.
Ask Rafael Palmeiro about steroids, and you'll get a wagging finger in your face - until, of course, the moment that Palmeiro tests positive, whereupon he might just suggest that one of his own teammates sort of accidentally, you know ... contaminated him.
Ask Mark McGwire about steroids, and he will decline to answer on the basis that what's past is past. Subpoena Sammy Sosa about the steroid issue, as Congress did, and suddenly Sosa needs an interpreter - something he hasn't used for years in any other public setting - to translate his prepared speech.
Understand: The people involved will do absolutely everything they can to convey the message that drug use in sports isn't worth the time or trouble it takes to look into it.
Shouldn't somebody suggest otherwise?
The steroid story isn't going away, in baseball or anywhere else, and it shouldn't. The story is just too important for that. There are too many implications for that.
Are you a parent? Then you should care. Do you love your sports statistics as close to pure as you can get them? Then you should care. Do you simply want, every now and then, to be able to make a little mini-idol out of someone who can do great things in the athletic arena without running the risk of being made a flipping fool down the line?
Then it's relevant, that's all. Not necessarily dominant. Not necessarily obssession-worthy. But relevant, you bet.
Palmeiro came streaking back into the news this week with the word that, in trying to explain how he reportedly tested positive for the steroid product stanozolol, he mentioned a vitamin B-12 syringe he once was given by teammate Miguel Tejada.
The sports world immediately jumped on this exchange as proof that Palmeiro's a rat who would implicate one of his own in order to get out of trouble, which is a dramatic misreading of the situation. It seems more likely that Palmeiro threw out the B-12 shot as one of any number of possible excuses for his positive test. Hey, the guy was running scared. We know that beyond a doubt.
But it's all part of the bigger coverup, isn't it? Palmeiro pointedly denies using steroids, then, when exposed, goes into an elaborate maybe-I-got-set-up scenario. McGwire embarrasses himself before Congress in his one glorious chance to do something heroic and tell young athletes to stay off the juice, instead sitting there and saying nothing.
Bonds uses his fan base as a mallet to smash through walls of suspicion, figuring that if enough people love him as an entertainer, nobody will again ask him to be a role model. Sosa suddenly discovers he cannot communicate effectively and goes mute beyond a basic denial of guilt.
Why should Congress care? I don't know. Why should Congress care about anything? Should Congress care that kids have died as a result of using and abusing performance-enhancing drugs and supplements, in an effort to be like the pros?
Should Congress care about the case of Efrain Marrero, the 19-year-old Vacaville football player who committed suicide after apparently trying to go cold turkey off steroids? Should it care that Marrero, when earlier confronted about his drug use, told his parents he took steroids to get stronger because Bonds and McGwire took them?
How about Taylor Hooton, the Texas high school baseball player who began secretly using steroids, tried to cycle off them, fell into a swirl of depression and hanged himself at age 17? Should he matter?
This week, after Bonds' remarks in Washington, Hooton's father, Donald, spoke with the Arizona Republic, saying, "It's another in a series of irresponsible statements coming from Mr. Bonds. I'm not surprised he'd want to continue to deflect attention away from a behavior that we tend to forget is a felony, cheating, and - last but not least - a very poor example for our kids."
Don Hooton: There's a guy who is justified in sitting on a high horse. Everybody else, time to climb down.
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Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com.
Mark Kreidler: Congress should care about steroids
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, September 24, 2005
There was a classic moment in Washington the other day, when Barry Bonds suddenly relocated the high horse he once rode in on. Turns out, the saddle still fits.
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]
Now, I'm going to preface Bonds' ridiculous comments by saying they were prompted by a question. Bonds was asked if he felt Congress was wasting its time by continuing to investigate steroid issues in sports. OAS_AD('Button20');
"Pretty much, I think so. Yeah," Bonds replied. "I think we have other issues in this country to worry about that are a lot more serious. I think you guys should direct your efforts into taking care of that.
"Talk about the athletes that are helping Katrina. Ask yourselves how much money y'all personally donated and have helped. ... Right now, people are losing lives, don't have homes. I think that's a little more serious - a lot more serious."
OK, class, anymore questions about why the media continue to pound the drug issues in sports?
Ask Bonds about steroids, and he'll talk to you about Hurricane Katrina being more important. Ask Bonds about steroids, and he will table-turn the topic until he is the victim, as he did during spring training, using his son as a theatrical device while explaining just how hounded he felt.
Ask Rafael Palmeiro about steroids, and you'll get a wagging finger in your face - until, of course, the moment that Palmeiro tests positive, whereupon he might just suggest that one of his own teammates sort of accidentally, you know ... contaminated him.
Ask Mark McGwire about steroids, and he will decline to answer on the basis that what's past is past. Subpoena Sammy Sosa about the steroid issue, as Congress did, and suddenly Sosa needs an interpreter - something he hasn't used for years in any other public setting - to translate his prepared speech.
Understand: The people involved will do absolutely everything they can to convey the message that drug use in sports isn't worth the time or trouble it takes to look into it.
Shouldn't somebody suggest otherwise?
The steroid story isn't going away, in baseball or anywhere else, and it shouldn't. The story is just too important for that. There are too many implications for that.
Are you a parent? Then you should care. Do you love your sports statistics as close to pure as you can get them? Then you should care. Do you simply want, every now and then, to be able to make a little mini-idol out of someone who can do great things in the athletic arena without running the risk of being made a flipping fool down the line?
Then it's relevant, that's all. Not necessarily dominant. Not necessarily obssession-worthy. But relevant, you bet.
Palmeiro came streaking back into the news this week with the word that, in trying to explain how he reportedly tested positive for the steroid product stanozolol, he mentioned a vitamin B-12 syringe he once was given by teammate Miguel Tejada.
The sports world immediately jumped on this exchange as proof that Palmeiro's a rat who would implicate one of his own in order to get out of trouble, which is a dramatic misreading of the situation. It seems more likely that Palmeiro threw out the B-12 shot as one of any number of possible excuses for his positive test. Hey, the guy was running scared. We know that beyond a doubt.
But it's all part of the bigger coverup, isn't it? Palmeiro pointedly denies using steroids, then, when exposed, goes into an elaborate maybe-I-got-set-up scenario. McGwire embarrasses himself before Congress in his one glorious chance to do something heroic and tell young athletes to stay off the juice, instead sitting there and saying nothing.
Bonds uses his fan base as a mallet to smash through walls of suspicion, figuring that if enough people love him as an entertainer, nobody will again ask him to be a role model. Sosa suddenly discovers he cannot communicate effectively and goes mute beyond a basic denial of guilt.
Why should Congress care? I don't know. Why should Congress care about anything? Should Congress care that kids have died as a result of using and abusing performance-enhancing drugs and supplements, in an effort to be like the pros?
Should Congress care about the case of Efrain Marrero, the 19-year-old Vacaville football player who committed suicide after apparently trying to go cold turkey off steroids? Should it care that Marrero, when earlier confronted about his drug use, told his parents he took steroids to get stronger because Bonds and McGwire took them?
How about Taylor Hooton, the Texas high school baseball player who began secretly using steroids, tried to cycle off them, fell into a swirl of depression and hanged himself at age 17? Should he matter?
This week, after Bonds' remarks in Washington, Hooton's father, Donald, spoke with the Arizona Republic, saying, "It's another in a series of irresponsible statements coming from Mr. Bonds. I'm not surprised he'd want to continue to deflect attention away from a behavior that we tend to forget is a felony, cheating, and - last but not least - a very poor example for our kids."
Don Hooton: There's a guy who is justified in sitting on a high horse. Everybody else, time to climb down.
[/font]
Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com.