Baseball players skate around the big question regarding PED’s

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Whether or not you believe Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman in the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, chances are you’ve seen the video of Oswald in the hallway of the Dallas Police Department. A reporter calls out “Did you shoot the president?” Oswald: “I have not been charged with that…”

A question and an answer, though not a precise match. He wasn’t asked what he was charged with, but that’s the question he answered. It’s a tact being used these days by major league baseball players charged with used performance enhancing drugs (PED’s) other than anabolic steroids.

Orioles’ outfielder Jay Gibbons is the latest name to be tied to an alleged illegal Internet drug distribution network. According to reports obtained by Sports Illustrated, Gibbons received multiple shipments of human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone between October 2003 and July 2005. There’s a difference between receiving shipments of a substance and actually using it, and I’ll acknowledge that right here. However, baseball banned testosterone in 2003 and HGH in January 2005. Unless his dog ate the memo from MLB, there seems to be no other obvious reason for him to need things like that. His name was also part of ex-Oriole pitcher Jason Grimsley’s mostly-redacted list of players tied to PED’s. Gibbons’ response last October was a flat denial — of steroid use. “I have never taken anabolic steroids,” he told the Baltimore Sun, “and I’m not going to dignify these claims and accusations with any further response.”

That may actually have been true, but maybe the wrong question was asked. Gibbons’ former teammate Jerry Hairston Jr. was also mentioned in the SI.com story regarding receiving shipments of HGH, and his response — “Not one time have I taken steroids” — also smacks of some degree of obfuscation.

In the absence of blood testing, there’s little MLB can do to enforce their own drug prohibitions. The sport is reportedly investing heavily in research that would come up with a urine test for HGH, but that could be years off. The player’s association is in no apparent rush to volunteer blood testing — they believe it’s an invasion of privacy — so a resolution of the issue is not forthcoming anytime soon. The union does seem to have a standard bit of advice for its members: Deny something, even if it doesn’t refer to the actual asked question.

Nats’ fans — so far, at least — have been spared the embarrassment of one of their guys being fingered as a PED user. Former Sen. George Mitchell’s report on PED’s in baseball, however, could change that. Rumors indicate he’s got a lot of names in his files, though in the absence of much cooperation from the players themselves, much of his information may be subject to interpretation. Cardinal pitcher-turned-slugger Rick Ankiel — Dmitri Young’s competition for Comeback-Player-of-the-Year — was recently tied to HGH use, though the dates he is alleged to have used it date to when he was rehabbing from surgery, and he claims he had a doctor’s prescription.

The HGH issue isn’t going away anytime soon. Fans can only hope the players show a little backbone and not simply wait for people to forget about it.

Hear Phil Wood Saturdays at 10 a.m. on SportsTalk 980 AM and weekly on Comcast SportsNet’s WPL through the World Series.

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