Drugs and baseball go together like America and Apple pie – or at least that is how it seems. Drugs have been a documented part of this game for over 30 years, and questions still remain. Every since I can remember, drugs have cast a shadow on a once proud game.

The first documented case I remember hearing about was from a drug-dealing friend. I was hanging out as young men often do in the early evening, and we were talking about my sinus problems and the medicines I was taking to keep it under control.

My friend was kind enough to point out that these pills were "uppers" and useful for many things. I told him I wasn't sure about that, and, furthermore, I was going to be a baseball player and I couldn't take drugs, it would ruin my athletic ability.

My friend, Bob we will call him, told me that before I was born there was a pitcher who dropped acid and speed, similar to my sinus medicine, and pitched a no-hitter. I researched this, and found it was true. Doc Ellis pulled off a no-hitter on June 12th, 1970. This no-hitter was performed while under the influence.

It was only a couple years later when the Pittsburgh Drug Trials entered newspaper headlines. This trial rocked my world as a 13-year-old. I have been a fan of baseball since seven years old. Several of the players played on my hometown team, the St Louis Cardinals. I remember Keith Hernandez, Lonnie Smith and Joaquin Andujar were all Cardinals or ex-Cardinals. I also remember hearing that one of my heroes, Tim Raines, said he had a vial of coke around his neck during games. I knew he was quick, but was the coke that much of a boost that he needed it to steal bases?

My innocence was gone, and I was wondering is there that much of an edge using chemicals, legal or illegal, to enhance my on field performance. I was a small guy, at thirteen just five feet tall and slightly more than a hundred pounds. I wanted to be bigger, to be able to reach balls that were over my head. I wanted to be stronger; I had yet to hit a ball over a fence for a home run. I wanted to be faster, stealing a hundred bases a year would be awesome. So do you think this information, accurate or not would affect my life for years to come?

It wasn't until my sophomore year of high school that I heard of Human Growth Hormone. I had a diminutive classmate that suddenly had a growth spurt. I was impressed and during study hall he told me that he was been treated for a glandular disorder or something and the drugs he was taking had spurred his growth of 6 inches and 20 pounds of added weight. I went home and talked to my father, who basically told me it was stupid to even think these things, God made me just how he wanted me to be, and that if I was supposed to grow, it would happen. Besides, my father added, it probably isn't covered by my insurance anyway.

The summer of my junior year I learned of steroids. I had to take them for a reoccurring knee injury. I worked out even more than I had before. I was unable to bulk up, and unable to get the doctor to keep me on them either. The doctor told me they were dangerous, stating that I should read about the NFL players who reported taking steroids in large doses over many years. I checked out his claims, and found that Brian Bosworth was suspended a game in college for testing positive for steroids. There were rumors that Lyle Alzado had used steroids and was in less that prime physical health and not even forty. Again I backed off, letting nature and sinus medications in larger than prescribed doses work their wonders on my body.

By my senior year I was five-feet, seven-inches tall and tipping the scales at one 132 pounds. I was not destined to be tall and bulky. I enjoyed my speed and ability defensively to play multiple positions. These skills allowed me to hang around the game I loved, as bench guys who can fill in anywhere are valuable as summer vacations strike your American legion roster. I was invited to try out for the Reds and played briefly for the Fairview Mets, a Midwestern forefather to the Frontier League that now exists in the Midwest.

While playing for the last few teams I became a supplier to several teammates for amphetamines and andro, where a friend was working for a supplement business called GNC. We were taking the stuff the summer of 1990, and at least one player who was drafted off that team was taking andro when I last spoke with him in AA in 1993. I hated the stuff. It tasted horrible, like a chalky Metamucil. I gained about twenty pounds through heavy weight training, better nutrition and the andro helped, I am sure. But re-injuring my left knee, I knew my baseball days were over. And I hated to pay for the Andro, even at cost it was more than my six dollar an hour job could handle.

I stuck with a 4,000-calorie diet and heavy weight training for 6 months into college, and then something had to give. I was working my way through junior college, with no assistance from Uncle Sam or my parents, short of a place to live. My schedule demanded I either cut activities or create more hours in a day. I was sleeping between four to no more than six hours, with my prescription sinus medicines helping keep me going. It was at college I got out of the supply side of the drug business. I stopped hanging out with the jocks, at least until I became sports editor for the student newspaper. But even in college I saw and knew of illegal and performance enhancing chemicals being taken by college athletes. I cast no judgments on them, as I was in no position to judge. After all, being a college athlete-student is a difficult thing, especially when you add in the social life.

I watched some of these same athletes as they progressed into professional careers with mixed results. Their success and my media connections allowed me access to stadiums and workout rooms in various cities. I found the same thing at every sport and level. Drugs, legal, illegal, and unheard of were being used. Speed to get up for the game, pot to sleep at night. There was andro, creatine and I saw a few doses of "flax-seed oil" as Barry Bonds called it. There were greenies, reds, bumblebees and tons of pain pills. Again, I didn't judge, let he who has no sin cast the first stone.

So I am not surprised by drug use in sports. It has been an unspoken by writers and front office personnel for years. How long, I'm not sure. But Doc Ellis and the Pittsburgh trials opened my eyes to this, stripping my innocence at an early age. I stand by my comment that drugs use in sports is as American as Apple pie. Is it morally right? You make the call.

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Sources cited:

ESPN.com
Wikipedia
Dallas Observer
St Louis Post Dispatch
MLB.com