Steroids & A Little Boy's Baseball Cards

Seattle-Area Boy Separates "Cheaters" From Baseball Card Collection

(CBS)  Jim Gullo is a Seattle-area writer who blogs for CBSNews.com as the How-To Travel Guru. He wrote this piece on how the Mitchell report on steroids in professional baseball has changed his 7-year-old son Joe's view of the game.

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Baseball came all in a rush to my son Joe last summer. He got a Major League Baseball videogame for his seventh birthday that featured real players, and suddenly he was hooked. All at once he learned statistics, strategy and personalities, putting faces and physiques to real players’ names. He began to make comments at the breakfast table like, “Travis Hafner is a good hitter, but he has a very small head.” Also, “Randy Johnson is super good, but he’s, like, 70 years old or something.”

We spent the summer watching games on TV, attending Mariners games in our native Seattle, and following the Red Sox through the World Series. Joe began to collect baseball cards; lots of them. Lists began to appear around the house in his careful hand-writing of his favorite players in fantasy line-ups: Thome, Konerko, Rodriguez, Jeter, Ortiz.

He began to ask questions, loads of them, all day long. Do I think Magglio will be a Hall of Famer? (Too soon to know.) Is Felix Hernandez good? (Yes, he’s good, but not yet great.) Who’s better, Oswalt or Santana? (I have no idea.) Is Jeff Weaver good? (Regrettably, not anymore). Who was better, Williams or DiMaggio? (Ask your mother).

He knew about Barry Bonds’ homerun chase and the accusations of steroid use. Joe made up his mind early, and on his own, that he wouldn’t recognize Bonds’ record when he passed Hank Aaron. As far as Joe was concerned, Hammering Hank would always be the Homer King, and that was fine with me. It was clear to Joe that if you cheated to play better, your records couldn’t amount to much.

Every morning when he wakes up, Joe sorts his baseball cards, a collection that now numbers in the hundreds. He makes groupings of the best hitters, best second basemen, most strikeouts, or all-star lineups he’d like to see. We began to plan trips for next summer that would allow us to see games in different stadiums across the country.

And then the Mitchell report came out. Joe reads the sports section, and I couldn’t keep the news from him. He learned that dozens of players had been named as cheaters and drug takers, buying and ingesting steroids and human growth hormones for more than a decade. Some of them were players whom he plays with on his videogame, and whose cards he studies and sorts. He read the lists of names and understood how steroids can grow muscles that make fastballs livelier, and make routine fly balls turn into home runs. And how it wasn’t fair when ballplayers cheat the game.

Joe dealt with the news in his own way. First, he segregated the cards of the named cheaters: Gagne, Lo Duca, Segui, Brown and Clemens. They went into a new pile that he had never previously considered, and were separated from the other players.

But then my 7-year-old child went a step further. Scrutinizing the statistics on the back of the cards, he began to sort his players by who he thought might have taken performance-enhancing drugs.

“Look, Dad,” he said, “this guy hit fourteen home runs in 1999 and thirty-six in 2000. He might have been taking drugs. And this pitcher had, like, four wins in 2000 and fourteen in 2001. Do you think he was cheating?”

What could I say? I have no idea if they were cheating or not. But if there is one thing we’ve all learned in the past month, it is that baseball players don’t seem to have the courage or the integrity to come forward and admit their mistakes until they’re publicly outed as having bought or ingested human growth hormone or steroids. Joe is trying to figure out how to deal with this new baseball landscape in his own way. I am wrestling with the question of how can I spend fifty bucks to attend a game next season with Joe and cheer for a third baseman, as yet unnamed by Mitchell or anyone else, who got a $64 million contract because he hit 48 homeruns in 2004, yet hasn’t hit more than 26 since. And a hundred more players with similar stories being told on the backs of their baseball cards.

Joe and I talk a lot less these days about going on baseball-viewing road trips next summer. But then, it is basketball season now and Joe has begun to collect NBA cards. And with them come new questions. Is Iverson good? Is Carter? No, really, is he?

[feddupp]

Well, BOO--HOO!! A child has to grow up fast and learn that even some adults do things that are wrong, like cheat and steal.
At least, thank God, he wasn''t being molested by an older friend or relative and learned how horrible life can be!
Get a GRIP, people! Is this really such a revelation?? As long as there are rules, there are people looking for ways to be break them--whether it be on Wall Street, in politics or your neighbor down the street!
This would be the perfect time to sit down and talk to the child about the realities of life!

[janus_nyc]

wow, what a grinch

[bozworth4]

Well boo hoo! All team sports players should be paid the same. If you do something good in a game you get an extra $5,000. screw up and you loose $5,000. Base pay 1 million a year sounds about right. Gee, imagine that being paid for what you do instead of what you have done in the past. Not exactly an original idea now is it? We common folks wodk that way all the time.

[zootallures2]

This would be the perfect time to sit down and talk to the child about the realities of life!

Posted by feddupp at 07:12 PM : Dec 30, 2007

More like someone needs to sit your dumb azz down and teach you how beniegn you and your majority of ret*rds are. Humans make up a very tiny part of the universe and are nothing in it''s decisions. It can work just fine with out you. Idoubt when you were typing us the ''realities of life'' you had any thoght of zooming around a star at 67,000 mph.

[zootallures2]

feddupp''s ''realities of life'' is ignoring reality...LOL!

[stargate1121]

it looks like that little boy is learing about life and it''s kind of a shame that he has to learn so young. Especially about something like baseball players the he likes so much.

[feelfree1]

Clearly, this 7 year-old child has more integrity than the average U.S. pro sports fan.

[la_lefty]

Wow, feddupp has got some issues and they don''t have anything to do with this story. I''m impressed by Joe''s conclusions. He figured out that these guys he thought so highly of were no longer worthy of his adulation. Sounds like a pretty good life lesson learned to me.

[nothappyatall]

He may as well dump the whole stack in the trashcan cause they ALL cheat and are skumbags.

Get the kid a Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show video and switch him over to something better where he''ll find animals don''t cheat, lie or fake and he can enjoy them for what they are.

[brianbwb-2009]

This merits international dissemination, while Bush literally gets away with genocide, and embezzlement?

Come on CBS, what would Murrow, or Cronkite say about the disservice you are doing to their legacies?

[yeahsure69]

blah people cheat and they cheat at everything from games to real life business deals.

Why everyone thinks baseball and sports is going to be any different amazes me. People cheat at the smallest things. Baseball was a serious business with big $$$ at stake. So if people cheat at the smallest of things what do you think they are going to do over something like that ?

Of course perhaps we should hold them at a higher standard than ourselves. But in order for that to happen a fundamental change in how we think is in order.

[barbaraf4]

This is not news.

[fstop100]

The kids smarter than the people running baseball.

[jetlizhan]

good for this kid!! i hope his values never change.

[allunknowing]

LOL.

"...this guy hit fourteen home runs in 1999 and thirty-six in 2000. He might have been taking drugs."

So much for teaching kids staying focused and practice will make you a better anything. MLB has brainwashed another young mind.

[Krazcarl]

I was real proud of my Lost In Space card collection in those day y7ou fliped them at school and the winner got all the cards. I won 250 one day talking about walking in high cotton....

[slvrsurfer2]

Lost diamond found in Fudge?? A little boy and his baseball cards??? Come on! Aren''t there more important things to cover? Pakistan? The presidential primaries on thursday? Articles of impeachment awaiting in Congress? Pathetic!!!!

[rushlimpdrug]

I agree this is not news, it is actually stupid.

Wait till the kid finds out that in the NBA they don''t take drug tests because smoking marijuana is accepted by the players and front office.

I don''t expect the idiot father to tell his son this until the kid has collected hundreds of NBA cards and can write another sob story.

[piercetheval]

Basketball? It ain''t nothing but ping-pong! Baseball ****** itself out years ago when it started taking in players from other countrie. It''s an American game and there is enough talent in this country to field as many teams as they have. I want to see ''Yanks'' [U.S. citizens] playing the game. The kids I grew up with on the field. I don''t want to root for a Cuban, Guatamalean, Mexican, Serbian, Antartican etc. at the ball park. If you want an international game leave it to the Olympics or else have international ball games. Get rid of the ''Roid Heads and expunge their records from the other purists. Hank will always be the HR king to me and Ruth the HR King of the pre-war deadball era. Bonds and his ilk can cut bait

[rushlimpdrug]

By the way, someone may want to tell this kid how "Majic" Johnson got AIDS, and the records some of the other NBA stars have on the number of women they''ve sacked, and that great ref that could fix a game, etc..
Now that gives the father a whole lot of articles to write.

[barbaraf4]

...and you''''re not relevant.... Posted by FloydZepp

Thank you! I never intended to be.

[vittlesr]

The writer makes a good point at the end. Are any of the athletes clean? Are the games fixed by the refs? If they are, just tell us, and we''ll know it''s professional wrestling, and decide whether we want to go on that basis.

And that kid better get a bigger binder if he''s gonna separate all of the steroid cards out.

[briannorwood]

Attaboy, kiddo.

[antoniof123]

I like this kid, he has a great idea put all of them on the worthless list.

[mailrick-2009]

All so-called "professional" sports now are nothing more than corporations out to make money - by any means they can. Greed rules.

[excoachken]

I know it is the Holiday, but can''t we have a real story, not this drivel?

[kaelinda]

This little boy should also be taught that in America, a person is innocent until proven guilty. And if there is no proof of guilt, just the accusation alone can ruin an athlete''s reputation. Why should anyone believe Mitchell? What makes his word more reliable than any or all of the players? Who died and made him infallible? Let''s try to keep open minds and wait until all the facts are in instead of jumping to conclusions - if we jump to conclusions, we''re not always going to be proud of where we landed.

[michellem99-2009]

I am female and I use to collcet baseball cards in the the 70s. I gave mine to a boy who lived next door when I moved years ago. Smart kid. Play ball drug free.

Kaelinda, these "athletes" that you are trying to protect with "innocent until proven guilty", the majority have already admitted, or their teammates, or their agents. This child has proven what so many people have thought about professional athletes, whether they want to be role models or not, THEY ARE. They should be held to higher standards, because of their exposure to, and admiration of children. They may deserve time in court to decide whether to jail them or not, but baseball''s court has already found them guilty.

[edward1975-2009]

Throw each and everyone of the cheaters out of baseball. Let them go find a 9-5, maybe then the rest will appreciate the game and all the "perks" that come from that level of play. Let the game be more important then the players again. Let the competition between true athletes be the story.

[The WB]

%u201CLook, Dad,%u201D he said, %u201Cthis guy hit fourteen home runs in 1999 and thirty-six in 2000. He might have been taking drugs. And this pitcher had, like, four wins in 2000 and fourteen in 2001. Do you think he was cheating?%u201D

What could I say? I have no idea if they were cheating or not.


A player improving _could_ be an indication that he''s in a better place psychologically, or his workouts are more effective. Unfortunately, the steroid scandal will likely taint _every_ player''s improvement, even the legitimate ones, with an air of illegitimacy.

[CME4BMWS]

Why is everyone so blind to what is really going on here? Major League Baseball, as well as the commissioner, CONDONES steroid use. Want me to prove it? If they were truly concerned about the drug abuse, they would have instituted a one strike rule with these steroids stories years ago. If it is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you participated, purchased, or used these performance enhancing drugs, you ARE GONE, PERIOD...with no chance of return, and/or no admittance to the BBHOF. But you know what? It ain''t gonna happen. Why? Because it''s all about the money. The owners demand more and more from the players. The players who aren''t taking the drugs, must then start, to stay competitive w/their counterparts, or lose their job, hence their living. MLB itself perpetuates this condition by looking the other way, to keep the money flowing, the owners happy, and the fans'' butts in the seats. It sucks, I know, but there is the truth. I am so sorry, not only for the little boy, but for all of us who can no longer enjoy the professional sports because of the thugs, the drugs, and the overall cesspool that these entities have become.

[kfreeman67]

Thuggery in football, gambling refs in the NBA, steroid scancals in cycling, baseball, track and field...now we read allegations that pro tennis has been infiltrated by the Russian mafia enticing players to throw matches.

I am a true fan of so many sports, but it becomes increasingly difficult to believe in the glory of athletic achievement when so many people are outright cheaters. Yes, we all know they''re innocent until proven guilty, but how many cheating liars, first denying, then showing up at the podium, crying and begging forgiveness, do we have to take? Is true glory from fantastic athletic achievement ever going to be believed again? How can a cheater stand there and accept a medal/trophy/check/plaque/whatever when they''ve cheated? How do they justify that in their minds?

Test everyone, often. As often as necessary. Throw out cheaters, even if they are the single biggest draw on the entire roster/team/squad/whatever. If the tests and rules don''t have any teeth behind them, NO ONE WILL FOLLOW THEM. As my daddy used to say, either **** or get off the pot. Either clean it up, or just throw up your hands and be content with what you''ve got.

[kfreeman67]

By the way, all you whiners complaining about how this isn''t ''real news'', how Edward R. Murrow would roll over in his grave, blahblahblah...check the top left side of the page...this is the OPINION page. Have you ever read a newspaper? It''s "like wow like as if" this website is divided into SECTIONS!!...like FRONT PAGE NEWS, INTERNATIONAL NEWS, SPORTS, OPINIONS/EDITORIALS, etc. Mindblowing!

[blackyowe]

I walked away from following Major league sports a decade ago. Most take drugs and make way too much money. It''s ruined. Spoiled brats on drugs making millions are a big bore.

[rushlimpdrug]

"...this is the OPINION page. Have you ever read a newspaper?"
Posted by kfreeman67 at 12:17 AM

Ah, so what is the writer''s opinion?

[vittlesr]

But if there is one thing we%u2019ve all learned in the past month, it is that baseball players don%u2019t seem to have the courage or the integrity to come forward and admit their mistakes until they%u2019re publicly outed as having bought or ingested human growth hormone or steroids.

That''s the writer''s opinion.