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Photo by Ethen Lieser.

APAs Should Not Ignore Steroid Controversy

By Ethen Lieser
AsianWeek Staff Writer

That pustule, what we call baseball, is about to rupture. “Come on, man, you want to make the big bucks, right?”

“I don’t know. What will it do to me? Will it hurt me?”

“I’ll tell you what it’ll do to you. It’ll make you stinking rich. You’ll be one monster of a ballplayer. You’ll be a leviathan, a scary son of a gun. You’ll make pitchers weep on the mound.”

“All right. Where is it?”

“Right here, man. I got some right here.”

Football great Lyle Alzado did it. Then brain cancer ate him alive. By 1992, he was dead.

Steroids are what did him in. Ostensibly, athletes still ignore such consequences.

The rampant reports of Major League Baseball players using anabolic steroids will not disappear until we confront the problem. The National Football League and the National Basketball Association both took care of the issue years ago. Baseball has been dog paddling in it, rolling around in it as if it were an October pile of fallen leaves.

Recently Ken Caminiti, the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1996 when he hit .326 with 40 home runs and 130 RBIs, said he won the award while on steroids. He also estimated at least half of big leaguers are using the drug. José Canseco, who retired this season with 462 career home runs, argued that the numbers are higher — more like 85 percent. And current big-boppers, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds — who have insisted they never used anabolic steroids — have been smashing home runs at a rate only seen in whiffle ball.

“When you look at their bodies, you just wonder how they got so big,” said Kaleo Eldredge, member of UC Berkeley’s softball team that won the national championship this season.

Who knows the exact figures of players doping? Major League Baseball doesn’t test. And it won’t until there is a new labor agreement. But one thing is certain — we have a problem here.

The new generation of Asian Pacific American athletes could be infested next. Like Ichiro Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Shinjo, most APA athletes are slim. Even 7-foot-5 center Yao Ming, the No. 1 pick in last month’s NBA draft, isn’t a bruiser — he has a lean upper body.

Imagine how much anabolic steroids could “help” these players. Suzuki and Shinjo could be bashing home runs as if they were on a beer-league softball team. And Ming could be heralded as Shaq II.

APA kids — and all kids, for that matter — do a lot of imagining. They imagine heroes and role models. They dream and pray that one day they could be playing in the World Series too. Ursula Liang, a reporter for ESPN magazine, wrote that a recent survey revealed APA boys identify professional athletes as their heroes more than any other ethnicity.

According to the 2001 National Institute on Drug Abuse survey, 2.8 percent of eighth graders said they had used steroids at least once. The percentage increased to 3.5 for 10th graders and 3.7 for high school seniors. Reports suggest between 500,000 and 600,000 youths use steroids.

Of course, we’ve heard some of the side effects: acne, stunted growth, liver and kidney damage, premature baldness, drastic mood swings, depression, an enlarged heart, prostate cancer. Yet, steroid use is on the rise.

How do we curtail the problem? Education.

“Education and collaboration in the community, at school and at home would be strongly encouraged to discourage practices such as steroid use,” said Kenny Lee, a counselor at Presidio Middle School and organizer of San Francisco Hoopsters, a Chinese American youth basketball team.

Money and fame, of course, will usually be the driving force behind doping. Steroids target that borderline athlete in high school, possibly a member of a junior varsity wanting to make that jump to varsity. Or maybe it’s that struggling Triple-A player Hanting a shot at the majors. Crazy? The average major-league salary is over $2 million.

“Athletes take steroids because sports have become too competitive and too money driven,” said Keiko Tokuda, member of the national championship women’s tennis team at Stanford. “Before anyone starts pointing fingers at those who take steroids to enhance their performance, I think people should investigate the issues revolving around the athletes that encourages steroid use.”

Major League Baseball will likely have a strike this year. Meantime, baseball owners and the player’s union should be outlining a way to curb steroid abuse. If needed, Congress should step in as well. It can save lives. It can save next generation’s big leaguers.

Football and basketball already have. They haven’t had a Lyle Alzado since.

Reach Ethen Lieser at elieser@asianweek.com.