Return to the "POINTER VIEW"
                         June 7, 2002

I'm off the juice for good

Commentary by Jim Fox
Staff Writer

In the vein of recent admissions by former major league baseball players I too admit that I was on the juice during my best season back in 1995.

My best softball season that is. I was a cheating fool back in those days. Sports drinks packed with creatine, I admit now, were the reason I started off 10-for-10 that season and pitched our team to a 20-plus win season.

I am ashamed, now, at what I did.

Now, as a player in the West Point summer intramural softball league, I’m clean and have been for at least the last four years.

I’m sure many of you out there will agree that with the way I play these days I should start back up.

I can also attest to the fact that a majority of players in the Community Recreation Division softball league joke about being on the "juice".

Monday marked the opening of the summer intramural softball season here and whenever a player went hard he was immediately hazed by teammates for being on the "juice".

Let’s be serious for moment though. Most of us, at least those of us who are in the military or were in the military have been subjected to random drug testing during our careers.

It was part of doing your duty.

But you see, major league baseball players are exempt from random drug testing. It’s in their collective bargaining agreement.

Even minor league players have to be tested.

The recent accusations by retired baseball players Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco shine a harsh light on one of baseball’s most embarrassing problems.

Are 50 or 85 percent of players today on the "juice"?

Buy Canseco’s book to find out.

What a joke.

Until random drug testing is made routine in major league baseball the reputation of its players will be tarnished by doubt.

Who’s on it?

Is Barry Bonds home run record clean?

What about Mark McGwire’s?

Will anyone who breaks Hank Aaron’s all-time homerun record be looked at as just a pumped up cheater?

Baseball needs to erase any doubt in the fans minds that its players are not using illegal substances that would get anyone one of us put in jail.

As for West Point softball players don’t check an opponent’s bat after he jacks a long ball, demand he’s given a health and welfare on the spot!