by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 16, 2006
All Rights Reserved.

eading the charge into violating the privacy rights of major league ballplayers, Commissioner Allan H. [Bud] Selig announced MLB's officious entrée into to funding research to test for Human Growth Hormone. Not content with the current ban on steroids and other illicit drugs, Selig now wants to ban ballplayers from capitalizing, like other health-conscious people, on the $200-billion nutritional supplement industry, seeking to promote optimal health. Baseball's greatest role model, Babe Ruth, lived on hot dogs, beer and cigars. God forbid baseball's greatest slugger had a modicum of awareness about health and nutrition. Going after HGH reveals today's hysteria, where few distinctions are made between drugs and supplements. “We are proud of what we have accomplished,” said Selig, referring to MLB's tough new crackdown on steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

      Congress came down like a ton of bricks on MLB, threatening to enact strict legislation, levying heavy fines for violating substance abuse policies. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) promised to put down the hammer if Selig didn't take the Senate's concerns seriously. When it was revealed that Arizona Diamondback's reliever Jason Grimsley possessed HGH and MLB had no way of testing for it, Selig offered to fund research coming up with a test. Yet Selig hasn't a clue how HGH works or whether it should be classified as a so-called performance-enhancing drug. Whether it increases energy, improves stamina, reduces wrinkles or helps sex drive remains controversial. Results vary, like most nutritional products, according to individual differences. In Selig's mentality, it's OK for ballplayers to eat junk food, avoid exercise or engage in a variety of self-destructive activities.

      Selig only got motivated when Congress threatened legislation and stiff penalties. When San Francisco Giant slugger Barry Bonds broke Babe Ruth's 714-lifetime homerun record May 29, MLB talked about an asterisk. Bonds has been implicated in taking steroids and is currently under grand jury investigation for perjury, denying he ever received or took steroids from his weight-training coach Greg Anderson, a former employee of Burlingame-based Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, a supplement company supplying steroids and other performance-enhancing substances to professional and college athletes. While Bonds continues to deny steroid use, Anderson and BALCO founder Victor Conte have struck plea deals with federal authorities for distributing steroids and money laundering. Bonds reportedly got “the clear,” a testosterone-based product from Anderson.

      Most people agree that steroids have no place in amateur or professional sports. Recent accusations about possible drug use by seven-time “Tour de France” champion Lance Armstrong proved inconclusive. Whether Armstrong took other nutritional supplements or received blood-doping is anyone's guess. Athletes and health-conscious individuals try to capitalize on new developments in nutritional science. It's unrealistic to ban nutritional products simply because they might improve health and performance. “We ban and test for amphetamines. And, human growth hormone is banned as well. We have cracked down and will continue to crack down on steroid users, but the use of HGH represents a threat to all sports everywhere,” said Selig, promising to fund research to find a reliable test. Selig has given UCLA researcher Dr. Don Catlin $450,000 to develop a new HGH test.

      Taking out full-page ads in major newspapers, Selig hopes to convince Congress that MLB takes substance abuse seriously. For years, MLB looked the other way while amateur sports, especially the Olympics, cracked down on steroids. When Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol in 1988, he was stripped of his gold medal at the Seoul Olympics, handing the prize to American sprinter Carl Lewis. Eighteen years later, the steroid controversy hits Major League Baseball but only after former Oakland Athletic slugger Jose Canseco blew the lid off MLB's dirty little steroid secret with his 2005 tell-all book, “Juiced.” Canseco implicated his former teammate Mark McGwire and others, who smashed Roger Maris' 40-year-old single-season record in 1998, hitting 70 homeruns. McGwire, like Bonds, continues to deny past steroid use.

      Bud Selig is kidding himself trying to turn back the clock to the days ballplayers lived on hot dogs and beer. Nutritional science continues to develop products that expand health and improve quality of life. “The goal of Baseball is simple: It's a game that is to be won or lost on the field as a result of the natural talents of the game's remarkable athletes. I will do everything possible to make sure that this one goal can always be met,” Selig said in a nationwide ad campaign. It's not simple for intelligent athletes to return to the Stone Age and ignore modern developments in nutritional science. Natural talents have little to do with high-tech dietary and exercise routines, enabling ballplayers to avoid injuries and enjoy longer careers. Today's athletes shouldn't suffer because the Babe ate hot dogs and smoked cigars, or, for that matter, ignored his doctor.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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