1996 National League MVP Ken Caminiti admits he was on ‘roids when he won the award. Which explains how he put on 80 pounds of muscle in the 95-96 offseason while simultaneously developing the facial characteristics of a horse…
In a Sports Illustrated report on steroids in baseball, Caminiti confirmed he used them the season he batted a career-high .326 with 40 home runs and 130 runs batted in.
‘I’ve made a ton of mistakes,’ said Caminiti, a recovering alcoholic and former drug user whose 15-year career ended last season. Caminiti played for both the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. ‘I don’t think using steroids is one of them.
‘It’s no secret what’s going on in baseball. At least half the guys are using steroids. They talk about it. They joke about it with each other.’
Arizona pitcher Curt Schilling said steroid use was rampant within the game.
‘I’m not sure how (it) snuck in so quickly, but it’s become a prominent thing very quickly. It’s widely known in the game,’ he told Sports Illustrated. ‘When you add in steroids and strength training, you’re seeing records not just being broken but completely shattered.’
[…] ‘No one denies that it is a problem,’ commissioner Bud Selig said. ‘It’s a problem we can and must deal with now. … I’m very worried about this.’
Ah, Senator Daschle couldn’t have said it better, Bud… So concerned. And yet so vague.
Recently retired one-time super slugger Jose Canseco — who estimates that 85 percent of major leagures use steroids — said he plans to write a book about drug use in the majors.
That is, unless his arms fall off first.
[Related: Bagwell and Biggio decapitate and/or smash Bobblehead effigies of selves, then (presumably) unwind with big group shower]
Hey, this post has much in common with the mutilated penis post above. If these boys are using steroids in great amounts, I hope they know that penile dysfunction is a major side effect. More home runs, fewer hard-ons–not a very good trade-off in my book! So if steroid use is as rampant in MLB as Canseco claims, then Selig had better figure out how to placate all the irate baseball groupies who are no longer getting any action. And maybe Piazza really isn’t gay–he’s a eunuch!
The reason this isn’t a big scandal is because baseball does nothing to stop the drug users. If it were more like the Olympics (which actually does make some effort to clamp down), there would be new scandals every week, and baseball would be dragged through the mud.
People don’t think of ballplayers as ‘roid freaks, but they obsess over Olympic drug use. Perversely, baseball’s image would be hurt if the leagues actually tried to crack down, but for now it’s regarded as mostly pristine (or most people just don’t care).
Nahhh…Daschle would have said that he was “disappointed.”