I have not read Jose Canseco’s book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big.  However, many people have formed an opinion about baseball players and steroids.  Bill O’Reilly believes that if Barry Bonds should pass Hank Aaron on the all time homerun list that there should be an asterisk placed next to Bonds' name.  One columnist, Ben Shapiro, goes further than that.  In an article titled, “Ban baseball’s steroid users for life,” Shapiro calls upon Major League Baseball to ban for life Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and anyone else who has used anabolic steroids.

Now, I read Shapiro’s column from time to time.  He’s pretty sensible when it comes to foreign affairs, media and political correctness on university campuses.  But I am afraid he has missed the mark here.

Shapiro writes, “Anyone who doesn’t believe that McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds were on the juice is living on a different planet.   Just look at old pictures of these players.  Bonds used to be a string-bean -- now he looks like he could play linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers…(Sammy) Sosa, too, went from beanpole to bulky behemoth.  McGwire was always large, but he played with Canseco early in his career.”

Now, I don’t believe that I have any mail waiting for me on Mars.   However, I think Shapiro is overlooking one very obvious fact here.  Yes, Bonds and Sosa are bigger now than when they started out in Major League Baseball.  But what Shapiro does not mention is that Bonds and Sosa’s rookie seasons were in 1986 and 1989, respectively.  That’s right!!!  Barry Bonds is entering his 20th major league season and Sosa is entering his 17th.  It is amazing how time flies.  Believe it or not, people do change physically over 15 to 20 years.

Of course, it is quite possible that Bonds and Sosa are now on steroids or have been on steroids in the past.  Even if we accept Shapiro’s proposition that they have used steroids one must ask what, if any, influence the use of steroids has had on their success.  Barry Bonds enters the 2005 season with 703 career homeruns, needing only 12 homeruns to pass Babe Ruth and 53 to pass Hank Aaron.  But what is remarkable here is that Bonds has hit 30 or more homeruns for 13 consecutive seasons and for 14 of the past 15 seasons.  Let us also consider that Bonds began to become noticeably larger around 1997.  Except for his record-setting 73 homeruns in 2001, his numbers have been remarkably consistent.  Sosa, for his part, has hit at least 35 homeruns a season for the past 10 seasons.

Shapiro cites the late Ken Caminiti, who won the National League MVP with the San Diego Padres in 1996, who stated in 2002 he believed that more than half of all players in Major League Baseball were using steroids.  If Caminiti’s statements are true then how is it that no other player has matched Bonds' and Sosa’s offensive output for so many years?  If more than half of all of major league players are on steroids, why aren’t there more Bonds and Sosas?

Even if you put Bonds and Sosa side by side they are very different players.  Bonds is one of the most disciplined hitters in the game.  In 2004, he struck out only 41 times while walking a staggering 230 times.  Now 120 of those 230 walks were intentional, but he still walked the normal way 112 times.  This tells me that Bonds does not swing at bad pitches.  Indeed, Bonds has only struck out 100 times in a season once in his career, his rookie season in 1986, when he struck out 102 times.  Sosa, on the other hand, is a notorious free swinger who has struck out 100 or more times in a season twelve times in his career.  In fact, he has posted at least 100 strikeouts for ten consecutive seasons.  Sosa enters the 2005 season with 2,110 strikeouts.  This places him second on the all time strikeout list.  Only “Mr. October” Reggie Jackson struck out more in his career, whiffing 2,597 times.  In 2004, Sosa struck out 133 times, while walking 56 times (only four of them intentional).

Sometimes baseball players will have one really great season.  Shapiro thus turns his attention to Brady Anderson, who played in the Major Leagues for 15 seasons, mostly with the Baltimore Orioles.  He writes, “In 1996, he hit 50 home runs while looking like a mini-Schwarzenegger.  The year before, he hit 16 homeruns.  The year after, he hit 18.  Is that a coincidence?”

Well, actually that could very well be a coincidence.  Anderson’s success could be due to factors other than steroids.  Orioles fans remember the year 1996 with fondness.  The team made their first postseason appearance in 13 years with an 88-74  record, winning the American League Wild Card before being bested by the New York Yankees (with a little help from Jeffrey Maier) in the American League Championship Series.  Anderson was surrounded by a very potent offense.  The 1996 Orioles had a lineup that included Rafael Palmeiro (a target in Canseco’s book), Roberto Alomar, B.J. Surhoff, Cal Ripken, Jr (a favorite of Shapiro’s), Bobby Bonilla and Chris Hoiles.  The aforementioned players hit at least 20 homeruns for the Orioles that season.  So why did Anderson hit 50?  Several reasons.  Anderson hit leadoff and generally saw good pitches, and pitchers would rather face Anderson than Palmeiro or Bonilla.  The quality of pitching in the American League declined.  In 1995, American League pitchers surrendered 2164 homeruns.  In 1996, they coughed up a record 2742 gopher balls.  The American League’s ERA (earned run average) in 1996 was 5.00 (anything above 3.50 to 4.00 depending upon who you talk to is not a good earned run average).  The Orioles' team ERA was a woeful 5.15 ERA, despite making the postseason.  The team with the best ERA that season was the Cleveland Indians (who the Orioles beat in the American League Division Series) with a 4.35 ERA.

Anderson was not the only player in 1996 who put up unusual power numbers.  Consider Kevin Elster’s season with the Texas Rangers, where he hit 24 homeruns and drove in 99 runs.  Though Elster’s numbers are not as dramatic as Anderson’s, his output that season is no less astounding.  Prior to that season Elster was largely an afterthought.  He began his career with the New York Mets in 1986 (the year they defeated the Boston Red Sox in the World Series).  Elster was considered a good fielding shortstop who could barely hit his weight.  Prior to 1996, Elster never hit more than 10 homeruns in a season, and never drove in more than 40 runs.    After being granted free agency by the Mets after the 1992 season, Elster played with six different major league organizations and was released by five of them -- the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Florida Marlins, the San Diego Padres, the New York Yankees, the Kansas City Royals and Philadelphia Phillies.  Elster played briefly in the majors for the Yankees and Phillies during the 1994 and 1995 seasons.

So what happened to Elster in 1996?  The 1996 Texas Rangers, like the ’96 Orioles, had a very good hitting team.  Elster was in a lineup that included Ivan Rodriguez (yet another Canseco target), Will Clark, Dean Palmer, Rusty Greer, Juan Gonzalez (yet one more Canseco target) and Mickey Tettleton.  Elster, like Anderson, got to see good pitches because pitchers were more comfortable facing Elster than Gonzalez or Greer.  Elster, like Anderson, also benefited from the decline in the quality of American League pitching.  The Rangers went on to make their first ever postseason appearance, although they fell to the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series.

Elster signed a free agent contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1997 but injuries limited him to 39 games.  Elster returned to the Texas Rangers in 1998 but hit only 8 homeruns while knocking in 37 runs.  He ended his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2000.

In 1996, there were some who argued that it was the baseballs themselves -- not the players -- who were juiced.  To most eyes, all baseballs look the same, but some believe that if balls are wound and stitched tighter, then the ball will be harder and smaller, and thus easier for batters to the hit out of the park.

But 1996 was by no means the only season where a major league player displayed sudden power and just as quickly lost that power.  Let us consider Davey Johnson.  Most remember Johnson as the man who managed the New York Mets to the 1986 World Series (including Kevin Elster).  Johnson also managed the Cincinnati Reds, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Baltimore Orioles.  Yes, Johnson also managed Brady Anderson on the 1996 and 1997 Orioles.

Yet some will also remember that Davey Johnson also played in the major leagues for 13 seasons with the Orioles, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs.  Early in his career, Johnson was known for his superb defensive play at second base.  In fact, he won three consecutive Gold Gloves for his fielding between 1969 to 1971 while playing for the Baltimore Orioles.    Indeed, Johnson and the Orioles would play in three straight World Series over those three seasons.  Johnson was an adequate hitter whose best season with the Orioles was in 1971, when he hit .282 with 18 home runs and had 72 RBI.  But Johnson slipped in 1972, hitting only .221 with just 5 home runs and 32 RBI.   During the ’72 season, Johnson would lose the second base job to Bobby Grich, who was at the beginning of a solid 17-year career with the Orioles and later the California Angels.

So the Orioles traded Johnson to the Atlanta Braves after the 1972 season.  Johnson answered the Orioles by hitting an astonishing 43 homeruns while driving in 99 RBI with a respectable .270 batting average during the 1973 season.  Johnson was one of three Atlanta Braves to hit 40 or more homeruns.  The legendary Hank Aaron and Darrell Evans hit 40 and 41 homeruns, respectively, for the ’73 Braves, despite a mediocre 76-85 record.  Only Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates would hit more home runs in the National League that season with 44.  How does one explain Johnson’s power surge?  Well, after being the Orioles starting second baseman for six and a half seasons, Johnson was benched and had something to prove.  Johnson had also never faced National League pitching (except in the World Series) and National League pitchers, given the choice between facing Johnson or Hank Aaron, chose to face Johnson and he made them pay.  But National League pitchers eventually adjusted and Johnson would hit only 15 homeruns for the Braves in 1974, and would be released by the Braves in 1975, only two years removed from his career season.   Johnson’s playing career ended in 1978.

The point here is that there is no guarantee of success in baseball, whether one uses steroids or not.  A few players have Hall of Fame careers.  Some players have two or three good seasons.  Many players are lucky to have one great season.  Many more players barely make the starting lineup and are gone before anyone remembers that they were ever in uniform.

But Shapiro maintains that the sky is falling.  “This scandal threatens the very integrity of the game.  Baseball personifies the American vision: an idyllic field of green, a game that glorifies the individual within the team context, the reverence for history.   Baseball is a game enmeshed in history.  From Ruth to Mays, from Aaron to Gehrig, from Walter Johnson to Sandy Koufax, from Honus Wagner to Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball’s past makes it what it is today,” writes Shapiro.

So baseball’s past makes it what is today?  Well, what about the old Baltimore Orioles from the 1890s?  Managed by Ned Hanlon, the Orioles were the best team in the National League between 1894 and 1896.  The Orioles were also notorious for breaking the rules en route to victory.  Since there were only two umpires as opposed to the four we have today, it was not unusual for Oriole players and coaches to physically impede opposing runners from trying to score, whether by slipping their fingers into their belts or by outright tackling them.  When an opposing batter would get a base hit, an extra baseball would be strategically hidden so as to prevent runners on base from advancing.  (Although occasionally this strategy would backfire as more than one ball would suddenly be in play at the same time.)

Admittedly, this kind of play is not seen in this day and age, but all teams try to get an edge.  There is a time honored tradition of teams trying to steal the other team's signs.  Why do you think they have coaches sitting in the dugout?  By stealing signs one can find out what the opposing team will do next.  If you watch a baseball game on television or listening to a game on the radio, you might hear the announcer state, “Damon is cheating two steps to his left.”  Fielders will often move before a pitch is thrown so as to get into a better position to catch or field a ball that is hit.  There is nothing out of the ordinary about it, and yet it is called “cheating.”

Even the groundskeepers get involved.  The Philadelphia Phillies’ groundskeepers kept the third base side of the field uneven so as to help Richie Ashburn get more bunt base hits.  This bit of lawn care became known as Ashburn’s cliff.  Ashburn was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995.  Sometimes the groundskeepers will work against an opposing player.  In 1962, the San Francisco Giants groundskeepers wetted the infield until it was practically muddy, to prevent Maury Wills of the Los Angeles Dodgers from stealing bases.  Wills would steal 104 bases that season for the Dodgers, setting what was then a single season record for stolen bases.  But the San Francisco Giants went to the World Series that year.

But Wills was not above chicanery.  When Wills managed the Seattle Mariners during the 1980 and 1981 seasons, he would have the groundskeeper make the batting boxes one foot larger than regulation.  But Wills made the mistake of trying to outfox Billy Martin, who was managing the Oakland A’s at the time.  Needless to say, Martin caught on and the batting boxes were restored to their regular size.

Shapiro is an admirer of Ronald Reagan (as am I).  I wonder if Shapiro is aware that when Gaylord Perry won his 300th career game in 1982 while with the Seattle Mariners, that he was personally congratulated by the 40th President.  Reagan, of course, was the oldest man elected President, and Perry was the oldest pitcher to win his 300th game, at the age of 43.  Reagan told Perry, “I just know it’s an ugly rumor that you and I are the only two people left alive who saw Abner Doubleday throw out the first pitch.”

Of course, Perry was the foremost master of the spitball.  Banned by Major League Baseball in 1920, a spitball is what it sounds like.  It is when a pitcher applies his spit or other foreign substance -- be it sweat, Vaseline or jelly -- to make the ball move very suddenly as it approaches the plate, thereby baffling opposing batters.   Although the pitch was illegal, Perry used it openly and even wrote a book about it in 1974 called Me and the Spitter.  Perry wrote, “I reckon I tried everything on the old apple but salt and pepper and chocolate sauce topping.”  Yet Perry was never sanctioned by Major League Baseball for his statements.  In fact, he was only caught using the spitter once in his career, and that was in his final season in 1983, when he pitched for the Kansas City Royals.    Perry was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991.  What does Shapiro think of the Gipper cavorting with an athlete who publicly bragged about cheating?

Perry was by no means the only Hall of Fame pitcher to doctor the ball.  Whitey Ford, the legendary pitcher for the New York Yankees in the 1950s and 1960s, favored using a belt buckle or his wedding ring as opposed to liquid substances to increase movement on the ball.  Ford finished his career with a 236-106 record.  His .690 winning percentage is the 6th highest in major league history.  Ford also pitched in 11 World Series and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974,

Most people today might know Don Sutton as the radio and television voice of the Atlanta Braves.  But Sutton also pitched for 23 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics and California Angels, amassing 324 wins and 3,574 strikeouts.  He also was not above using sandpaper to scuff the ball.  Indeed, he was once caught on videotape applying sandpaper to the ball while pitching with the Angels.  But Sutton was never sanctioned for his actions.  He would be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1998.

Now Perry, Ford and Sutton didn’t doctor the ball all the time.  It was enough for the batters (especially in Perry’s case) to think that they might be doctoring the ball and instead of concentrating on hitting the baseball, the batters instead thought about what Perry, Ford and Sutton might be doing.  Of course, hundreds of pitchers have tried to use a spitball but very few have done so successfully.

So here’s a question for Shapiro:  Since you believe that Bonds and Sosa should be banned for using steroids, should Major League Baseball remove Perry, Ford and Sutton from the Hall of Fame and banished from baseball since they doctored the baseball while they pitched?

While Shapiro mulls that one over let me quote an article for your consideration:

So these fans are upset about baseball players using steroids, right?  Actually, no.  The above was taken from an article from the September 16, 1985 edition of Time.  The article, written by Ed Magnuson, was titled, “Baseball’s Drug Scandal: With the races heating up, the game gets a black mark from a white powder.”    The article was in reference to the disclosure in a Federal Court in Pittsburgh that 13 major league players had used cocaine including Dave Parker and Keith Hernandez.  Quick!!!  Name the other 11 players involved.  Tick.  Tock.  Tick.  Tock.  That’s what I thought.   

The point here is that baseball overcame the situation with cocaine and will do the same with steroids.  As it has done with the many challenges that have come its way since 1869.  The past is not as rosy and serene as Shapiro would have you believe.  Neither is the present as bleak and maudlin as Shapiro would have you believe.

Baseball will carry forward.  I am looking forward to seeing Bonds pass Ruth and Aaron, but there is no guarantee that he will.  I am looking forward to seeing Sosa in an Orioles uniform, which means that Bostonians will see him play at Fenway Park for the first time since 1991.  A change is scenery away from Chicago may be exactly what the doctor ordered.  I am saddened that there is no baseball in Montreal.  Olympic Stadium (eyesore that it is) was the first place I ever saw a major league game on August 30, 1981.    Yet I am also happy that Washington, D.C. will field a baseball team for the first time since 1971.

Every year there are surprises in baseball.  A team that hasn’t done so well suddenly becomes a contender.  Maybe the Detroit Tigers will be baseball’s Cinderella story.  Or perhaps the Milwaukee Brewers.  Or the Washington Nationals.  Conversely, championship teams may fall on hard times.  Maybe this will be the year that the New York Yankees fall from grace (one can only hope).  Perhaps the St. Louis Cardinals will go from National League Champions to also ran.  Of course, I am looking forward to going to Fenway Park to see the Boston Red Sox defend their first World Series Championship in 86 years.  

The sales of Jose Canseco’s book are pumped up.  But in 2025 they will be scarcely a footnote.  Baseball will continue to amaze and wonder young and old alike.  And writers will continue to proclaim its death knell.

Aaron Goldstein, a former member of the socialist New Democratic Party, writes poetry and has a chapbook titled Oysters and the Newborn Child: Melancholy and Dead Musicians. His poetry can be viewed on www.poetsforthewar.org.