Drug Reactions

"According to a big expos� in this week's SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, more than half of all major league baseball players take steroids to boost their performance. Wouldn't it be ironic if the cleanest guy in baseball turns out to be Darryl Strawberry?
—Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, June 5

"Baseball's owners want to test for steroids, but the union says it is waiting for a consensus to develop among the players. Why delay? These drugs have no place in the game or, more important, in the lives of the players."
—The New York Times editorial, June 1

"Lamentably, the union has been silent so far. Owners...wink at the cheating through chemistry. It's a poisonous bargain baseball has made. It's driving the game even further away from its traditional base of fans. It must stop."
—The Arizona Republic editorial, June 4

"I take steroids to get bigger, stronger and faster on the keyboard."
—Tony Kornheiser in The Washington Post, May 31

"This isn't about Ken Caminiti. This isn't about Jose Canseco. This isn't about what a couple of bust-out cases say. It is about what we are seeing with our own eyes. It is turning on the television and looking at one of those classic games...and seeing what ballplayers looked like 20 years ago. And what we see...is big league ballplayers, and famous ones, who look like high school kids compared to what we see on the field now."
—Mike Lupica in New York's Daily News, June 2

"It is also an honor and privilege to play Major League Baseball, and if there are those who feel their privacy would be invaded by testing, they can certainly move on to other occupations because there are many more who yearn for the honor and privilege—and would welcome the responsibilities that go with it."
—Los Angeles Times editorial, June 2

"When I read Kenny Rogers' comment that somebody's going to get killed on the mound, well, that's a horrifying thought. So I've told our people we just can't sit idly by anymore."
—Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, quoted in the June 10 The Sporting News

"Baseball should not wait for the autopsy on its own [Lyle] Alzado to act."
—Cleveland's The Plain Dealer editorial, June 4

"Sport should be a triumph of character, not the triumph of pharmacology. Otherwise, someday kids will ask athletes, 'May I please get the autograph of your pharmacist?'
—George Will on ABC's This Week, June 9

"The thing that disturbs me most about Ken Caminiti's steroid revelations in [SI] is that the Orioles' .248 team batting average last season might actually have been inflated."
—Columnist Dan Daly in The Washington Times, June 2