Copyright 2004 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution  
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

March 15, 2004 Monday Home Edition
SECTION: Editorial; Pg. 11A

LENGTH: 749 words

HEADLINE: BASEBALL: Steriods drain statistics' clout

BYLINE: ZELL MILLER

SOURCE: For the Journal-Constitution

BODY:
For most of this old man's adult life, I have kept "The Baseball Encyclopedia" within quick reach of wherever I worked or lived. For years, I kept a copy at my feet under my desk in the Georgia Capitol. Often I would leaf through its dog-eared pages.

For me it was therapy, similar to moseying around in the stacks at a library or a really good bookstore.

You see, baseball is all about statistics. Batting averages, fielding averages, slugging averages, RBIs, ERAs, strikeouts, home runs, wins, losses. You can argue ad infinitum about who was the greatest or which was the best team, but it always comes down to the "stats." And I used to drown myself in them.

Not anymore. I still love the game, still follow it closely and will until my dying day. But seldom do I open up that magic book. I took it out from under my feet and put it high on the top shelf with books that are seldom used.

Those fascinating stats no longer fascinate. They have become meaningless. With pills, the skills are enhanced, and so are the numbers.

Look at them. In 1976, a home run was hit every 65 plate appearances. In 2002, a home run was hit every 35 plate appearances. Either the hitter or the ball --- or both --- were juiced.

In more than 125 years of baseball, no one had ever come close to hitting 70 home runs in a season. But in 1998, Mark McGwire did, with Sammy Sosa close behind. And in 2001, Barry Bonds topped McGwire with 73.

McGwire and Bonds are both great athletes, no doubt about it. Bonds may well be the best baseball player who ever lived. But McGwire admitted to using androstenedione, better known as andro, and Bonds said he used a "supplement" called tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG.

Now, some will claim these are "vitamins" or pseudo-steroids. Perhaps, but I'll tell you they probably were not the only substance being used.

So, the stats no longer have the same meaning. Individual achievement, documented so carefully for decades, has been blurred.

A wimpy Congress, an even wimpier baseball commissioner, greedy players and even greedier owners have allowed --- even encouraged --- this to happen. Fans, too, must bear some of the blame because they like to see those balls fly out of the park. And they buy the tickets to pay those enormous salaries.

Commissioner Bud Selig has failed the owners and Donald Fehr, director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, has failed the players. They both should resign now. For Fehr to say this is an issue of "privacy" is outrageous.

Fehr and Selig are not the blind leading the blind. They are the backboneless leading the backboneless.

These multimillionaires are cheaters. They are defrauding fans. They are setting examples of criminal behavior for the kids who adore and look up to them.

The fact is that spectacular achievement has and can be accomplished without steroids. There is an old black-and-white photograph on my wall of a young Mickey Mantle, grinning broadly and holding the baseball that he hit off Chuck Stobbs of the Washington Senators in the 1950s.

Some argue that it was the farthest any baseball was ever hit. Others point to Mickey's blast out of Tiger Stadium in Detroit or off the facade in Yankee Stadium.

Mantle could also run from home to first faster than any other player, 3.1 seconds. And Mantle used no steroids; he just had those Oklahoma miner's genes.

Two of the most bulked-up, juiced-up behemoths to ever play the game, Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco, have said 50 percent to 85 percent of the players use steroids. David Wells, flabby not bulky, put it at 25 percent to 40 percent.

Whatever it is, the game has been changed and these old stats in my much-used encyclopedia are out the window.

Of course, I know about the new "rules" to curb steroid use. They are a farce. They are meaningless because no testing takes place in the off-season --- when so much of the juicing takes place. And the rule that a player has to be caught using five times before receiving a one-year suspension is worthy of Comedy Central.

There should be random testing for every player, major league or minor league, 12 months out of the year as long as they are under contract. And unlike in the game they have exploited, the players should be given two strikes --- not three. A second chance only.

If they screw that up, they should be sent home to get a real job and more importantly --- a life.

Zell Miller, a Democrat, is Georgia's senior U.S. senator.

GRAPHIC: Photo: Barry Bonds' home run feats are clouded by speculation about steroid use. / MATT YORK / Associated Press; Photo: Zell Miller; Graphic: E-MAIL FORUM
Should there be a "two strokes and you're out" policy on steroid use in baseball? Send your e-mail to issue@ajc.com, where it will be posted online. Please include full name, city or couny of residence and daytime phone. (Phone numbers will not be published.)

LOAD-DATE: March 15, 2004