Letters

Baseball and Steroids
Tom Verducci's special report (Totally Juiced, June 3) saddens me more than anything I've read in longer than 25 years as a sub-scriber. The true tragedy of baseball is that it is being destroyed from within—by the very parties charged with its custodianship. Shame on the players for forever tainting the game, and shame on the owners for their complicity. I mourn for this once special pastime.
ROGER MEEKER, Kapaau, Hawaii

Ken Caminiti whines, "My body's not producing testosterone. You know what that's like? You get lethargic. You get depressed. It's terrible." Yeah, Ken, I know what it's like. My body doesn't produce testosterone either—not because of substance abuse but from a battle with testicular cancer. So far it's been 12 weeks of chemotherapy, two abdominal surgeries (one of which lasted six hours), countless scans and tests, and that doesn't include what my family went through. It's because of people like Caminiti and the other "users" in the article that people like me have to go through so much red tape to obtain legal medications. He's a crybaby who chose to cheat and in the process abused his body to the point of breakdown, and yet he still thinks he did nothing wrong. My condition was by chance, his was by choice.
TIM QUACKENBUSH JR., Rock Tavern, N.Y.

Since it is illegal for baseball players to buy and use steroids in the U.S., forget about the players' union and the owners. Let the police take the action needed to clean up the game.
CARL FAILOR, Grand Rapids

A year and a half ago my family was devastated when my father passed away at 52 from a heart attack brought on by prolonged steroid use. He was a competitive powerlifter from the late 1970s to the early '90s. The baseball players in your article say they need to take the chance of using steroids because higher salaries will result from fans paying to see the long ball. My question to these athletes is, Should your families have to pay the price for your selfishness and greed?
CRYSTAL JONES
Side Lake, Minn.

I have three words for all those baseball players who continue to deny the rampant use of steroids: Take a test.
BILL BINGHAM, Narragansett, R.I.

?For more reactions to our story on steroid use in baseball, see SCORECARD.—ED.

Tellem Off
Arn Tellem's colossal ego shines through in Franz Lidz's story {The Arn of the Deal, May 27). No matter how much they pay attention to their personal diets, agents, owners and players have collectively killed pro sports with avarice and gluttony.
MARTY LANGE, Austin

Tellem judges a man by how he gets along with his children. I judge a man who is rich and powerful by how he treats a waitress who accidentally spills a drink on him. By this standard Tellem doesn't rate too highly.
CHRIS ECK, Indianapolis

The Downside of Success
I loved Steve Rushin's story on the long-suffering New Jersey Nets fans, The E Street Bandwagon (AIR AND SPACE, May 27). However, success has its price. My now 10-year-old son and I used to attend an average of about 15 home games a year. My wife and I always felt a Nets game was a nice quiet place for Matthew to do his homework. Now Matthew does his homework at home and then gets to watch the Nets on television. Oh, the benefits of having your team in the cellar.
IRA FLEISHER, New York City

A Half-Full Cup?
Please tell me you will be devoting much more space to the World Cup (May 27). While I enjoyed the articles on Bora Milutinovic (Soccer's Sorcerer, May 20) and Clint Mathis (Goal Digger, May 27), I think you owe your readers a lot more.
BAILEY S. RICE, Chicago