Baseball's worst-kept secret

A veteran player came up to me behind a batting cage last season and, with disgust apparent in his voice, volunteered that steroid use had become rampant in baseball. He talked about a pitcher on his team who would "take just about anything." A pitcher? Of course, he said. The player happened to have spent time in the minors that year and was appalled as to how readily the next generation of ballplayers had accepted steroids as a means to becoming a big leaguer. A culture was in place to assure that steroid use would continue -- and even grow -- in baseball.

James Porto • SI Report: Caminiti comes clean • Sidebar: The injury toll • Verducci: The worst-kept secret • Reactions: Players | Fans • Special Report Video Archive

What you'll see in the pages of Sports Illustrated this week -- the investigation into steroid use in baseball and the first public admission by one of the game's many users -- began with a grassroots movement. In fact, it started with the players themselves.

Some players, of course, have whispered and winked about steroid use for years. What I noticed more and more, however, was that as steroids gained greater acceptance in the game, clean players became more vocal. They felt they were becoming outnumbered. The playing field had tilted.

An agent of a star clean player complained strongly, albeit off the record, about the unfairness of being measured against peers who were "cheating." When another agent, at my request, polled his clients about steroid use, he found a clear, virtually even split on whether to keep steroids or get rid of them. Veteran players, no longer whispering, are raising their voices.

Now the worst-kept secret is out: Steroids have a firm footing in the game and they do enhance performance.

When I told a suspected steroid user that 1996 NL MVP Ken Caminiti admitted his steroid use to SI, the player first reacted with a worried look. Then he asked me a question: "Did he say they made him a better player?"

See, that's been the steroid user's dirty little lie -- that steroids only help you in the gym, not on the baseball field. Yes, I told the player, Caminiti admitted he hit the ball harder and farther and felt better while on steroids. The lying is over.

Steroid users are cowards. Start with the fact that they are breaking the law (steroids are illegal in the U.S. unless prescribed by a physician for medical conditions). Then add their specious little rationalization that if steroids were so great for ballplayers, why don't juiced-up bodybuilders hit cleanup for every team? Now factor in the hypocrisy of these same players; they say steroids don't help guys get better, yet refuse to admit their own use. If it's so benign, why not come clean?

Think what you will about Caminiti, but you must respect his honesty. He is a player with no agenda. He is a man coming to grips with a life that has run off the tracks. No coward is he.

Lately, players have found themselves being asked pointed questions about steroids from an increasingly skeptical media. At a postgame press conference in April, Barry Bonds addressed the issue, doing so with the same kind of rhetoric he has used before and since.

"You can test me and solve that problem real quick," he said. "I just think it's the media trying to stir up stuff just to have something to talk about. To me, in baseball it really doesn't matter what you do; you still have to hit that baseball. If you're incapable of hitting it, it doesn't matter what you take. You have to have eye-hand coordination to be able to produce. I think [steroid use] is really irrelevant to the game of baseball."

Let's examine those suppositions: