Pumped Up

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Mar 18, 2005 5:25PM

Congress called six former and current baseball players to testify in a hearing about steroids in baseball. The issue has received a lot of press recently in light of the BALCO scandal and Jose Canseco's tell-all book. The two have brought to light the possibility that much of the increased offense in baseball over the past decade was fueled by chemicals means, affecting the integrity of the game.

In addition to former slugger Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa and Frank Thomas were among those called to testify. Sosa claimed he is clean. But what about a couple years back, Sammy? Chicagoist has always been very skeptical of Sosa's claims about 'roids, especially given his suddenly clear complexion, his freak injuries and his deminished numbers (too bad that corked bat was discovered!). We believe he may be clean now, but certainly wasn't back in the late 90's when he was hitting 60+ dingers a year.

While Sosa has always been one of the players rumored to have used the juice, Thomas has always taken a stand against it. A massive figure since he began his career (he played tight end for Auburn's football team), he and the rest of the Sox team refused en masse to take drug tests in 2003 because they wanted to trigger mandatory testing league-wide that would have begun has more then 5% of the league tested positive in sample testing. Ultimately, the players union forced them to take the tests.

It wasn't until recent scandals that the league finally got tough(er) on illegal substances by instituting random testing, fines and suspensions for positive tests. As much as many hate Canseco and his profiteering from the 'roids debate, he has brought to light an important issue that needs addressing. The players in the major leagues don't need to ruin the game by cheating and younger players don't need to see that dangerous example and follow suit.

For those who want to praise or castigate Jose Canseco, he will be signing copies of his book, Juiced, at the State St. Borders today at 12:30pm, fresh off Capitol Hill.