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American Morning

'Sports Illustrated' Reporter on Baseball's Steroid Use

Aired May 29, 2002 - 08:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We want to go back to a story that we broke here on CNN yesterday. He was the National League's MVP in 1996, but after a major league confession, former third baseman Ken Caminiti may have a few asterisks placed next to the title in '96. In an interview, an exclusive interview with "Sports Illustrated," Caminiti admits using steroids the year he won that award, and from that point on.

But what he told "SI"'s Tom Verducci even more alarming.

Tom joins us now with more this morning -- good morning to you.

TOM VERDUCCI, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Hi, Bill.

HEMMER: A nice bit of reporting here.

VERDUCCI: Thank you.

HEMMER: He's claiming that about half of major league baseball players are using some form of a steroid. Is that an exaggeration, or is that accurate?

VERDUCCI: Bill, I really don't think it's an exaggeration. In fact, steroids have moved from the realm of the really taboo to what is now familiar. In fact, I was hearing repeatedly from players that players who are by principle opposed to steroids now are using steroids. They don't want to, but they're using them because they feel if they don't, they're at a competitive disadvantage.

HEMMER: He mentioned that he did it for survival. I want to put up a quote for our viewers, a quote he gave you. In this quote he says, "Look at all the money in the game. 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 your money."

He's suggesting, Tom, that the cash is too great not to take the chance in this answer.

VERDUCCI: Absolutely. And it's paid off for many players. There are many instances where not even superstar players, but even an average player can have that one big year and cash in with the kind of guaranteed contract that is going to set him and his family up forever. I mean that's an enticing brass ring that's out there for them. HEMMER: Broaden this just a bit. Football has testing. The Olympics have testing. The NBA has testing. Baseball does not.

VERDUCCI: No testing.

HEMMER: And the league is saying that they want to do it. The players union says no so fast. What's their apprehension?

VERDUCCI: Exactly. They're concerned about privacy issues. They don't like the fact that testers would approach baseball players with no suspicion or cause. Just because you're a baseball player you are subject to testing. They strenuously object to any sort of random testing.

HEMMER: Is there a suggestion there, Tom, though, that they're trying to hide something?

VERDUCCI: I don't think so. I mean there's been accusations that even the owners, although they'll talk about wanting to test, are very happy with what's going on in baseball. Because let's face it, bigger, stronger players are hitting more home runs than ever before. And the casual fan, he loves to see the ball hit 500 feet.

HEMMER: Take that a step further, though: the records we are seeing in the past few years, and they have been gigantic ones. I'm not trying to make a suggestion here that any player is doing something illegal, but what does it say about the records that we have seen fallen, and fallen dramatically?

VERDUCCI: Well, that's the shame here, I think. It throws a cloud of suspicion over the players themselves and the records that are being set. And no sport holds its records in higher sanctity than baseball does. And we're seeing now a disconnect from what the game is now to what we like to think that it was, where, as Curt Schilling of the Arizona Diamondbacks said, records are not just being broken, they're being shattered.

HEMMER: Shattered, absolutely. Did he make mention about the impact that his example may be setting for other athletes, younger athletes, kids who grew up playing baseball?

VERDUCCI: Well, I don't think Caminiti feels a personal sense of responsibility there because the issue is so prevalent in the major leagues. In other words, so many major league players are doing this that it's already filtered down to the minor leagues. The next logical assumption, and we are seeing this, is that you're seeing college and even high school players getting onto steroids, doing supplements. Let's face it, these kids, they're going to mimic the way a batter swings the bat, his batting stance. If he finds out that his favorite player won an award, hit a lot of home runs using steroids, well, he's going to try it too.

HEMMER: You can't disagree with that.

Thank you, Tom, again. A nice piece of reporting.

VERDUCCI: Thank you.

HEMMER: Tom Verducci from "Sports Illustrated."

Steroids, as we mentioned, banned in many sports. And for years athletes have been warned about the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs. But that has not stopped athletes from using them in pro sports and even at the high school and college level.

Let's talk more about it.

Here in New York again, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Good morning to you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

HEMMER: Go back to the Caminiti matter again. He told Tom, and I'm going to quote here, he says his muscles got too strong for his tendons and ligaments. He had no production of testosterone. He became lethargic and depressed.

GUPTA: Yes.

HEMMER: Common, or is that the exception?

GUPTA: All those things are actually pretty common. We don't know the long-term effects for sure yet, but let me just go through some of the short-term effects in general. Lean muscle mass, strength endurance, that's the reason these people take steroids in the first place. But it can also develop acne, oily scalp, headaches, stomach aches, water retention. All that in the short-term.

You quickly go to the midterm effects, and these are sort of the effects that you'll see after a little while. You'll start to see some of the more harmful effects -- muscle tears, tendon ruptures, balding, trembling, aggression, which may or may not be a good thing for ball players.

HEMMER: Is any one of this reversible?

GUPTA: Well, some of the things, if you, this is one of the most remarkable things -- and Tom talked about this in his article -- but a lot of these players are starting to actually cycle the steroids, trying to approximate the steroid production that the body would actually have so as not to decrease the body's own natural production of steroids, which is the most harmful thing.

HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay.

Interesting topic.

GUPTA: Yes.

HEMMER: It came out yesterday, and we've been talking about it ever since.

GUPTA: Absolutely.

HEMMER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks.

Tom, thanks to you, as well.

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