29 MAY 02: THE PRICE
OF HOME RUNS: SHRUNKEN GENITALIA, DISTORTED FACIAL FEATURES, HEART DAMAGE,
LETHARGY AND DEPRESSION, ETC.

Caminiti comes clean

Ex-MVP says he won award
while using steroids

Posted: Tuesday May 28,
2002 4:16 PM

ATLANTA (CNNSI.com) — Former
major leaguer Ken Caminiti says he was on steroids

when he won the National
League Most Valuable Player Award in 1996, according to

an exclusive report in this
week’s issue of Sports Illustrated.

But even though it left him
with health problems that continue to this day,

Caminiti defended his use
of steroids and told SI’s Tom Verducci the practice is

now so rampant in baseball
that he would not discourage others from doing the

same. Caminiti told Verducci
that he continued to use steroids for the rest of

his career, which ended
last season when he hit .228 with 15 home runs and 41

RBIs for the Texas Rangers
and the Atlanta Braves.

“Look at all the money in
the game,” Caminiti said. “A kid got $252 million. So

I can’t say, ‘Don’t do it,’
not when the guy next to you is as big as a house

and he’s going to take your
job and make the money.”

Eight days after his release
by the Braves last November, Caminiti was arrested

in a Houston crack house.
In March, he was placed on three years probation and

fined $2,000 after pleading
guilty to cocaine possession.

“I’ve made a ton of mistakes,”
admitted Caminiti, who is also a recovering

alcoholic. “I don’t think
using steroids is one of them.”

Although he is the first
major leaguer to publicly admit using steroids,

Caminiti told Verducci that,
“It’s no secret what’s going on in baseball. At

least half the guys are
using [steroids]. They talk about it. They joke about it

with each other. … I don’t
want to hurt fellow teammates or fellow friends.

But I’ve got nothing to
hide.”

Steroids are illegal in the
United States unless prescribed by a doctor for a

known medical condition.
But they are easily obtained, most commonly over the

counter at pharmacies in
Mexico and other Latin American countries. Former major

leaguer Chad Curtis, who
retired after last season, estimated that 40 to 50

percent of major league
ballplayers use steroids — sometimes supplemented with

joint-strengthening human
growth hormone — to suddenly become stronger and

faster.

“You
see guys whose facial features, jaw bones and cheek bones change past [age]

30.
Do they think that happens naturally?” Curtis told SI. “You go, ‘What

happened
to that guy?’ Then you’ll hear him say he worked out over the winter

and
put on 15 pounds of muscle. I’m sorry, working out is not going to change

your
facial features.”

Steroids improve muscle mass,
especially when combined with proper nutrition and

strength training. But they
also have several side effects, such as heart and

liver damage, endocrine-system
problems, elevated cholesterol levels, strokes,

aggressive behavior, and
the shrinkage and dysfunction of genitalia.

The NFL, NBA and International
Olympic Committee all test their athletes for

steroids. Major League Baseball
has no testing program, but in February owners

presented the players’ association
with a comprehensive drug-testing plan that

covers 17 commonly known
steroids, as well as amphetamines, cocaine, LSD and

Ecstasy.

“We need to test,” commissioner
Bud Selig told SI. “I believe it’s in the best

interest of the players
long term. I feel very strongly about that.”

But the players’ association
has refused to include steroid testing in past

collective bargaining agreements,
arguing that it is an invasion of privacy.

Gene Orza, the union’s associate
general counsel, was noncommittal about the

latest proposal.

“We’re going to do what the
interest of our membership requires us to do,” he

said. “There will be a consensus
from the players’ association.”

One reason for baseball’s
slow response, players suggested to SI, is that by

making players bigger —
the average All-Star weighed 211 pounds last year,

compared to 199 in 1991
— steroids have contributed to one of the greatest

slugging booms in the game’s
history. The single-season home run record has been

broken twice in four years,
while the 60-homer plateau has been surpassed six

times. Even leadoff hitters
and utility infielders are hitting home runs in

record numbers.

“We’re playing in an environment
in the last decade that’s tailored to produce

offensive numbers anyway,
with the smaller ballparks, the smaller strike zone,

and so forth,” said Arizona
Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling. “When you add

in steroids and strength
training, you’re seeing records not just being broken,

but completely shattered.”

And
that’s what fans want, said Curtis. “If you polled the fans, I think they’d

tell
you, ‘I don’t care about illegal steroids. I’d rather see the guy hit the

ball
a mile or throw it 105 miles an hour.’ “

Caminiti told SI that he
began using steroids midway through the 1996 season

after injuring his shoulder
while playing third base for the San Diego Padres.

Then 33, Caminiti had never
hit more than 26 home runs in a season. But he hit

28 alone after the All-Star
break that year, finishing with 40 homers, 130 runs

batted in and a .326 batting
average. All were career highs, and he was a

unanimous choice for the
MVP.

“I think it was more of an
attitude,” Caminiti said of the steroids’ effect.

“There
is a mental edge that comes with the injections. And it’s definitely

something that gets you
more intense. The thing is, I didn’t do it to make me a

better player. I did it
because my body was broke down.”

While his performance improved,
Caminiti encountered new health problems,

primarily because he initially
used steroids nonstop instead of in recommended

cycles. As a result, his
testosterone level dropped 80 percent below normal.

Still, he continued to use
steroids for the rest of his career, albeit in proper

doses. But he never again
approached his ’96 performance, in part because he

spent portions of each of
his final five seasons on the disabled list.

“I got really strong, really
quick. I pulled a lot of muscles. I broke down a

lot,” he said. “I’m still
paying for it. My tendons and ligaments got all torn

up. My muscles got too strong
for my tendons and ligaments. And now my body’s

not producing testosterone.
You know what that’s like? You get lethargic. You

get depressed. It’s terrible.”

Caminiti’s injury history
is not unusual, according to the SI report. Major

league players made 467
trips to the DL last season, staying there an average of

59 days — 20 percent longer
than in 1997. And major league teams paid $317

million last year to players
physically unable to play — a 130 percent increase

from four years earlier.

“It [baseball] was always
the sport for the agile athlete with the small frame,”

said noted sports orthopedist
James Andrews of Birmingham, Ala. “Over these last

10 years, that’s all changed.
Now we’re getting a bunch of these muscle-related

injuries in baseball. You’d
have to attribute that — both the bulking up and

the increased injuries —
to steroids and supplements.”