Steroids kill (2004 accolades)

By Brian Witter

With the World Series set to begin on Saturday, baseball is about to end another superb season of play.

This year saw many remarkable occasions including Barry Bonds' 700th home run, Ichiro Suzuki setting the single-season record for hits, and the announcement of where Major League Baseball will relocate the Montreal Expos to.

However, another more pressing story overshadowed Major League Baseball this season. Bonds and other players' association with that "S" word: Steroids. And with the untimely death of 1996 National League MVP Ken Caminiti last week, the negative aspect of the issue has been accentuated.

Caminiti died last week at age 41 from a drug overdose in New York. He was the first player in baseball to openly admit to using steroids, a decision that may or may not have contributed to the depression he experienced. But for someone who battled with drug and alcohol addictions, Caminiti's use of steroids wore him down and provided him with a reputation that haunted his later years.

On Saturday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Barry Bonds' trainer had been secretly recorded discussing Bonds' use of an untraceable performance-enhancing drug in 2003. The allegations are being denied by both Bonds' trainer and his representatives, but that's beside the point.

With the way Major League Baseball is inefficiently run, it's unlikely that any punishment will be handed down.

Bonds is an astounding player and should receive the honor bestowed on him, yet if a player has as many ties to something with such a poor connotation and is innocent, one would think he'd be outraged and willing to launch his own investigation. Then again, Bonds is largely a scapegoat and draws heat away from other alleged abusers like Luis Gonzalez or Albert Pujols, who are lucky enough to stay out of the spotlight for the most part. Barry is a target because he puts up the biggest of the big numbers.

I agree that perhaps the players could use something to step up their power and make the game more exciting, but the use of steroids on this massive scale doesn't offer a healthy image to younger players who might get the idea that it's a necessary evil. Performance-enhancing drugs provide an unfair advantage and encourage cheating. It's up to baseball to reform drug testing procedures but it's up to the players to lead by example.

*Contact Brian Witter at (408) 551-1918 or bwitter@scu.edu.