Kansas City Star, October 2, 1998 
Opinion Page 
 
Big Mac steps up to the plate; steroids awareness steps back 
 
By Matt Chaney 
Special to The Star 
 
As St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire rewrote home-run records  
in baseball, much of America saluted him, but the debate over his  
feats will not disappear. 
 
It should not. 
 
On Aug. 21, McGwire acknowledged publicly that he takes  
androstenedione, a nonprescription steroid, legal by law and in  
baseball, but one banned as a performance-enhancing drug in Olympic  
sports, the NCAA, and the NFL. 
 
Disagreements have festered from there. Questions include: 
 
Does McGwire's use of androstenedione taint his records? 
 
Can androstenedione jeopardize the health of users? 
 
Should McGwire, as a cultural icon, refrain from using  
over-the-counter androstenedione because children will follow his  
example? 
 
Are public opinion leaders who defend McGwire wrong to assert any  
substance he uses is fine so long as neither laws nor baseball ban it? 
 
The answer is affirmative to each question. 
 
Androstenedione in the synthetic pill form that McGwire consumes is a  
potentially dangerous anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) that boosts  
human performance, according to experts such as Charles E. Yesalis of  
Penn State University. The Food and Drug Administration, on which many  
reporters depend in declaring androstenedione to be a natural food  
supplement, is not in the business of such research. 
 
In fact, a 1994 congressional law prohibits the FDA from even acting  
on new “supplements” until scientific studies conclude whether adverse  
side effects can occur. Since reputable studies on “andro” have not  
yet been conducted, any truly authoritative stance by the FDA is on  
hold. The agency's current classification, therefore, basically means  
nothing in the McGwire issue. 
 
Regarding children, McGwire is not a superstar jock insulting us by  
claiming, “I'm not a role model for your kid.” Rather, McGwire  
repeatedly demonstrates his belief in setting a positive, giving  
example in the society that has made him rich for playing a game.  
McGwire's $1 million pledge to abused children speaks volumes. 
 
Undeniably, McGwire is a man of moral character. But today, untold  
good people who are athletes cheat by using performance-enhancing  
drugs. Yesalis recently told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,  
“Professional athletics is a business; it's a billion-dollar industry.  
My personal instinct is that the vast majority of people in it  
wouldn't compete without drugs.” 
 
Sports media are culpable in this mess. Those staunchly pro-McGwire  
are in denial, unwilling to acknowledge truth, lest they soil the  
glorious narratives of him they have created—and thus taint their own  
credibility and that of the media entities they represent. 
 
Some have attempted to ride the fence by contending McGwire's feats  
have not been tainted because he is using a legal substance. But they  
also have urged kids not to use androstenedione because of possible  
harmful side effects. 
 
Sports reporters have adopted a double standard. At the 1996 Olympic  
Games, for example, American reporters went into a frenzy alleging AAS  
use by Ireland's gold-medal swimmer, Michelle Smith, who in fact  
passed urinalysis testing in Atlanta. Sports Illustrated launched an  
international investigation into Smith. 
 
Why? For precisely the same signs evident in McGwire during this  
decade: marked increase in muscle mass and skyrocketing athletic  
performance. 
 
The 1990 Oakland A's roster lists McGwire as 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds.  
At that time, he was physically mature at age 26 and already an avid  
weightlifter. Today, at 35, he has added 30 pounds of muscle he  
somehow manages to hold throughout a hot summer. He has huge  
circumferences in chest, biceps and thighs. 
 
As a major-league rookie in 1987, McGwire hit 49 home runs in 557  
at-bats, or one every 11.4 plate appearances. In 1989 he hit 33 home  
runs in 490 at-bats, or an average of one every 14.9. In the 1998  
season, McGwire hit 70 homers in 509 at-bats, or one for every 7.3  
plate appearances. 
 
Whether these statistics prove illicit performance-enhancement or not,  
the same factors compelled Sports Illustrated to trail Smith worldwide  
in winter 1996-97 and brand her a cheater. This year, finally,  
international swimming officials banned Smith for life because of an  
allegedly “manipulated” urine sample taken at her home. 
 
McGwire, meanwhile, escapes scientific scrutiny; major-league baseball  
does not even test for AAS. McGwire is spared criticism from media  
that adore him, despite his admission to androstenedione usage. He is  
lauded as a true competitor of self-made greatness, and fans young and  
old embrace the rhetoric. 
 
Quite expectedly, sales of androstenedione have shot through the roof.  
The Dallas Morning News reports vendors cannot keep up with sudden  
demand. “Nine out of 10 people don't even know what it does,” said  
one. “They saw that Mark McGwire said he takes it.” 
 
Observers like Yesalis must shake their heads in bewilderment. “The  
worst thing about this whole affair is that it's the greatest possible  
advertisement for kids to go out and use this drug,” he said. 
 
Chaney is a journalism instructor in Warrensburg who has studied  
performance-enhancing drugs.