Too many questions
'Andro' controversy begging for some answers
Posted: Monday August 31, 1998 06:16 PM
ST. LOUIS (CNN/SI) -- I don’t know much about androstenedione, this drug or
medicine or supplement or whatever you want to call it.
And that’s probably the biggest point to be made. I don’t know much about
it. Nobody knows much about it.
And we probably should.
The whole flap around St. Louis Cardinals
slugger Mark
McGwire and “andro,” as it’s called, is a whole bunch of questions with
no answers. Evidently, andro is a substance the NCAA and NFL have decided
to ban. But baseball has not, and McGwire and many others insist there’s
nothing wrong with it.
Let’s say this out front: If it’s not illegal, McGwire has every right to
use it, and there’s really no evidence he’s getting an edge from it.
Still, there’s a legitimate concern that young kids may now be looking to
this stuff thinking if they use it, they can be like Mark. And we just
don’t know enough about andro.
So, from that standpoint, this is something baseball has to look at very
carefully.
In this society, we’re always looking for something more. If you’re big,
you want to get bigger. If you’re fast, you want to get faster. And
players, for years, have been trying to get that edge.
When I was in the majors, I used creatine, a substance to increase energy
and muscle. McGwire uses it, too, as do many major leaguers.
Playing long ball: McGwire has hit the ball more than 500-feet five times this season AP | |
Creatine is different, though. Anytime you get into something like andro --
something that might have some kind of a relation to steroids -- anytime
you get into hormone building and building muscle mass, that’s when you
have to be careful.
Some people, including McGwire, have said this whole controversy is nothing
more than a media creation. But when you start hitting the ball 500-some
feet, people are bound to ask questions. This game has been around since
the 1800s, and up until 10 years ago, you could count the number of
500-foot home runs on one hand.
McGwire has five this season.
A lot of people worry that the controversy will take away from the home run
race, too. But the fans will not let that happen. This race is way too big
to be brought down by something that baseball has not declared illegal.
Still, baseball has to look into it andro -- officials already have said
they will -- to find out why the NCAA and NFL have banned it. The questions
have to be asked. For everybody’s sake.
The 6-4-3 with Ozzie: One of the side effects of this home run chase
is that people are missing a lot of good baseball being played.
The San Diego
Padres’ Greg
Vaughn is having a heck of a year (44 homers and 105 RBIs) a year after
batting a paltry .216. Eric Davis of the
Baltimore Orioles
is sizzling, too (.328), a year after being diagnosed with cancer.
San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds has
become the first player in history to hit 400 home runs and steal 400
bases. And young Alex
Rodriguez -- a shortstop -- has 38 home runs for the Seattle Mariners.
The home run race is great, maybe a once in a lifetime spectacle. But look
around, folks. There’s more to baseball this year than McGwire, Sosa and
Griffey. Ozzie Smith is the baseball analyst for CNN/SI, the 24-hour
sports news network from CNN and Sports Illustrated. His column appears
every Monday exclusively on CNNSI.com.
| 
