WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Rafael Palmeiro, the Baltimore Orioles baseball star who swatted his 3,000th career hit last month, has told reporters although he has been suspended for using steroids, he did not use them intentionally, but his suspension raises questions about the state of steroid use in U.S. sports, particularly among adolescents.
"Why would I do this in a year when I went to Congress and I testified?" the Cuban native said in a media conference call Monday. "Why would I do this in a season where I got 3,000 hits? It doesn't make any sense. ... I'm not a crazy person. I'm not stupid."
Palmeiro had testified at a congressional hearing last spring where he denounced steroid use, and he was invited to participate in a congressional task force on how to combat adolescent steroid use.
"Given my role with the No Tolerance Committee and my relationships with Congress, I feel the need to communicate a serious message to my fellow players and to kids everywhere," Palmeiro said. "All of us have to be responsible and exercise extreme care in what we put in our body."
Affectionately known as "Raffy" by his fans, Palmeiro appealed his 10-day suspension through the Players' Association, but his appeal was denied. Palmeiro maintained he did not knowingly ingest steroids and said he did not know what could have caused the results and refused to speculate. He also would not say how many times he had been tested for steroids or when Major League Baseball administered the drug test that yielded a positive result.
Earlier this year San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds also admitted to inadvertently taking steroids in leaked grand-jury testimony.
"I'd love to tell what happened to me so that everyone would understand ... so that they don't make the same mistake that I made, but under this confidentially agreement, I can't get specific," the 40-year-old Palmeiro said.
Dr. Jorge Gomez, a physician at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, said Palmeiro's suspension could serve as a wake-up call for some young athletes.
"I think for some youngsters this sort of brings it to home that this is the wrong thing to do," Gomez told United Press International. "When a high-profile athlete gets caught and has to suffer the repercussions, it shows that this isn't something you ought to be doing because you'll get caught and have to pay."
Dr. Linn Goldberg, head of the division of health promotion and sports medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, said that over the last 15 years steroid use in students has continued to rise and it never has been higher among high school seniors. Citing statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Goldberg said between 800,000 and 1 million high school students have tried steroids at some point.
Steroid use is particularly troublesome in adolescents, because it can produce irreversible effects, such as a disturbance in bone growth, problems with cholesterol and metabolism, shrinking of the testes in men and the development of male characteristics in women.
"It's sort of ironic that the short, scrawny guy uses steroids, because he'll probably wind up shorter than he would have otherwise," Gomez said.
Gomez also offered slightly more comforting news, saying the latest data indicate steroid use in young people has leveled off, and seniors in high school did not show an increase in use. What is troubling, however, he said, is that an increasing number of ninth and tenth graders using the drugs.
Goldberg said Palmeiro's positive drug test is proof Major League Baseball is failing at addressing the steroid issue.
"The way you determine whether drug testing works as a deterrent ... is whether you catch anyone," he told UPI. "Everyone would say, 'Hey, I'm not using it, because this deters me, because I don't want to get caught.'"
Goldberg also criticized Congress, which has held numerous hearings on the state of steroid use in professional sports, saying legislators have shown a "blatant disregard" for the well-being of students by refusing to fund steroid-education efforts.
In October 2004 the Anabolic Steroid Control Act, which authorizes $15 million per year for steroid-education efforts, was signed into law -- but never funded, explained Dr. Lisa Fish, chair of the Hormone Foundation at the Endocrine Society.
"What the law was supposed to do was to help fund education. Obviously if there is no funding, there's no education," Fish told UPI.
She said funding has been "remarkably barren" for both research and education on adolescent steroid use.
Goldberg attacked Congress for "hyping the issue" without providing adequate funding for education.
Brian Blake, special assistant at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the government is educating young people about steroids through advertisements and is providing funds to the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse has helped develop two of Goldberg's programs for high school students -- Atlas for boys, and Athena for females -- to educate them about the risks of steroids.
Blake said President George W. Bush is asking for $25 million for schools to randomly test students for drugs, including steroids.
Goldberg, who worked with NIDA to develop programs for high school students, said although a steroid test costs $100, it only costs schools $5 for each student involved in those federal programs. About 60 schools across the country are using the programs. He said the programs are heavily scripted and allow peers to teach one another while using coaches as facilitators.
Fish stressed the importance of coupling testing with education.
"All the major sports (organizations) need to have aggressive bans and testing," she said. "They've shown that without testing, the ban is useless. You can have education and you have bans, but unless you're testing kids it has no teeth."
Palmeiro, who has hit 569 home runs, is now just the fourth player in baseball history to achieve the twin accolades of 3,000 hits and 500 homers. He is expected to retire at the end of the 2005 or 2006 season. Despite his refusal to discuss the specifics of his situation, he warned that players should "understand the risk of contamination."
"You have to be careful with what you take," Palmeiro said during the conference call. "You have to be sure you see a doctor (and that) you get supplements or whatever you're taking from a reputable source."
Gomez said he found Palmeiro's argument hard to believe, and noted although it is possible the slugger accidentally took steroids, "it strains credibility" that an adult would have so much faith in a trainer that he would ingest substances he was unfamiliar with. He also said athletes who do not admit to using steroids when caught are "not helpful."
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Ryan Holeywell is an intern for UPI Science News. E-mail: [email protected]
