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Players Should Stand Up And Advocate Testing

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By Carter Gaddis, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 9, 2007

It's Troy Glaus' prerogative to remain silent about published allegations that he received shipments of steroids at a California address three years ago.

It's also our prerogative to believe what we will.

At least Rick Ankiel stood up (or sat next to St. Louis GM Walt Jocketty, anyway) and defended himself after a New York Daily News story Friday reported that the pitcher-turned-slugging-outfielder had received a year's worth of human growth hormone in 2004.

But speaking out so quickly couldn't prevent what had been a remarkable comeback for Ankiel from becoming tarnished.

You still can feel good for Rick Ankiel if you want. Just don't make a mockery of his reincarnation as a power-hitting outfielder by referring to him as 'The Natural.'

Look, it shouldn't be a stunner to anyone who has paid attention to baseball's perverse relationship with performance-enhancing drugs. It's been written many times, here and elsewhere: No player is above suspicion as long as there is no reliable test for HGH.

All this does is remind us of that.

Of course, neither is it to be assumed automatically that all players are users. We don't know, for instance, that Glaus used those steroids he reportedly received.

The point is, we just don't know.

We do know a little more about Ankiel, though.

Ankiel, whose pitching career bit the dust when first he forgot how to throw a strike and then hurt his arm, was a great story as he made it back to the majors as an outfielder with the Cardinals. The cheeky little bit of irony in the timing of this story was that it broke the day after Ankiel hit two more homers and drove in seven runs as St. Louis won again to pull to within one game of the NL Central lead.

Ankiel's response was predictable. He said any drugs he used back then were legally prescribed by a physician to help him recover from arm surgery.

Uh, huh. OK. Whatever. It doesn't matter.

Baseball wants to talk to Glaus and Ankiel, but the game won't be able to touch them.

Ankiel will keep hitting home runs for the Cardinals the rest of the season, and he might even be the deciding factor in a division title for St. Louis. So, it's OK to still feel good for him. He's making a career for himself again. His millions of dollars are on their way.

Just don't be naive enough to believe that it's natural.

Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't.

The point is, again, we just don't know.

And if that's not fair to the players out there who don't use and never have used performance-enhancing drugs, then those players need to stand up and do something about it.

Call in unison for more stringent testing. Vote in favor of financing research into an effective test for HGH and any other designer performance-enhancing drug that comes along.

It's the only way to clear their names. If they even care to do so.

AROUND THE HORN: If Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez wasn't already the clear choice for AL MVP, he became that Thursday when he hit two home runs (including one to tie it against the Mariners) after having an MRI on his ankle. ... This is the most amazing number of the season. Before the Phillies blew an 8-2 eighth-inning lead Wednesday against the Braves, the entire league had been 517-0 when leading by six or more runs that late. ... Atlanta has fallen out of it in the NL East, but it's not Mark Teixeira's fault. The former Rangers first baseman was the NL Player of the Month for August after being traded, tying Bob Horner's 27-year-old Atlanta franchise record for RBIs in a month (32). ... Another amazing number: Cleveland went 5-0 this year against Minnesota's Johan Santana. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it's the first time since the Cy Young Award began to be handed out in 1956 that a reigning winner of the award lost five times to the same team.

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