The Only Thing Tainted Is the Attacks on Big Mac

Supplement or Steroid?

Androstenedione is sold as a nutritional supplement and found naturally in meat and some vegetables. The Food and Drug Administration classifies it as a dietary supplement, but supplements are not regulated by the FDA and there is disagreement about their composition and their effects. The International Olympic Committee has banned "andro," as have the NCAA and NFL, but it is sold over-the-counter in nutrition and drug stores and is permissible in major league baseball. The IOC has determined that andro gives users an unfair competitive advantage because it is said to sculpt lean muscle mass and promote recovery from injuries. John Lombardo, a physician and the NFL's adviser on anabolic steroids, has said he considers andro a steroid. Steroids have been linked to such side effects as liver dysfunction, heart problems and cancer. However, St. Louis Cardinals trainer Barry Weinberg disagrees with that assessment, saying andro "contains no testosterone. It has no anabolic steroids in it. It stimulates a slight increase in your own natural testosterone level for a short period of time, only about an hour. Most people take it within an hour of their workout because it makes their workouts a little more efficient."

By Thomas Boswell
Washington Post Columnist
Thursday, September 3, 1998; Page B1

If there's something about Mark McGwire – anything about McGwire – that you don't like, then just clam up about it. Rediscover your voice on Sept. 28, please – the day after the regular baseball season ends. That's just four weeks away. Even in an age of compulsive debunking, we can act decent for a month. Let's keep our asterisks, innuendo and, perhaps, even a bit of our conscience, in the closet.

Some things are too good to spoil. McGwire is one of 'em.

Seldom does a person who's at the eye of the hurricane of popular culture understand the meaning of his moment better than anybody else. Too often, the protagonist is also the victim. McGwire, like Cal Ripken three years ago, is wise enough – and modest enough – to get it.

"Just ride the wave, enjoy it while it's happening, because we don't know if this will ever happen again," said McGwire Tuesday night in Miami. With that quote, Big Mac nailed another one.

For now, for September, riding McGwire's wave – as well as Sammy Sosa's – and enjoying the moment is the way to go. You don't talk in the symphony hall during Beethoven's Fifth. And you don't say, "This guy takes a testosterone-producing protein supplement" as Big Mac's gargantuan home runs fly over the wall. Save it. There's always plenty of time – starting in October – to make sure that we're not having too much fun.

Perhaps best of all, the Cardinals slugger isn't crashing as the season concludes. He's just cresting. On Tuesday, McGwire's 56th and 57th homers, to tie and break Hack Wilson's National League record, were genuinely Ruthian mementos – 450 and 472 feet to dead center. In recent days, he has also hit 501-and 509-foot homers that went right back over the pitcher's head, but didn't come down for an hour and a half. He has also had a 548-footer this season. For reference, that one would've gone over the ivy-covered back wall in Camden Yards.

What we have here is an interlude in sports that speaks to much of the best in human achievement, and evokes very little of the worst in us. As we watch McGwire's home runs seek out the deepest and most difficult part of the field – then clear those walls, mocking the physical challenges that defeat other players, by 50 or even 100 feet – we sense that we are in the presence of greatness.

Yet we live in a time that is often uncomfortable with such elite stature. The dark side of egalitarianism is that it tends to harbor a distrust of anything that rises too high above the norm. If Everyperson is the arbiter of everything, then how do we deal with the Exceptional Individual? For many years, our reflexive response has been to attack or doubt whatever seems to be "too good to be true." There's even a catch phrase for the pattern: Build 'em up to knock 'em down.

The public has a right to distrust journalists who think a lifetime supply of Kryptonite – suitable for disabling Supermen – should be included with every media credential. At the moment, some sportswriters – a minority – are out of touch with both the public's mood and sensible behavior. They harp on the legal, over-the-counter, allowed-by-baseball food supplement – androstenedione – which McGwire takes to help him recover more quickly from his strength-building workouts.

Isn't McGwire's feat tainted? Isn't he setting a risky example for young people since andro is banned in some other sports, including the NFL and the Olympics? Is he endangering his own health, since the long-term effects of andro presumably won't be known for many years?

There's an ounce of truth in all these questions. But there's also a pound of bunk. The first issue is easily answered. If McGwire hits 70 homers, it will be an entirely legitimate mark. Babe Ruth and Roger Maris played within the rules of their times and McGwire is playing within the rules of his. That's the core point. In 1927, 1961 and 1998, strike zones have been different, the number of teams and the size of parks has changed. Ruth had to face the legal spitball. There were seasons when you could drive nails in your bat for more power.

So what? It's all a wash. You play it as it lies. The record is the record. And McGwire may blow The Most Famous Of All Records to bits.

A longtime friend of McGwire's told me this analogy last week: If the speed limit on a certain road is 65 miles an hour and you drive 65, you're obeying the law. You're a good citizen. If, the next year, the limit is lowered to 50, then you better not drive 65 any more. You're breaking the law. That's McGwire's situation. He's not in charge of setting the speed limit. He's supposed to obey it. And he is. Completely.

"This whole andro issue is disgusting," said this friend, "because it's got nothing to do with Mark."

This is a pious age, or perhaps a self-righteous one. Ruth had a roaring stock market in the '20s, as did McGwire until recent days. But that's where the similarities end. Then, larger than life was good. Now? Peccadillos are treated as though they were perfidies. Does baseball need a permanent special prosecutor to investigate any and all heroes, for any and all possible human imperfections?

Long ago, the poet Yeats took his best shot at the debunkers of his time-always ready to belittle or diminish those who made them seem small by comparison. "Mock mockers," said Yeats. Their sin: They would never "help the good, wise or great," preferring to seek their flaws.

Luckily, baseball fans know how to act. Wherever McGwire goes, even if he beats the home team with a bomb, they stand and cheer until he is forced to come out of the dugout and tip his cap.

"It all started in Pittsburgh a week ago when I got a curtain call, and I didn't think that'd ever happen again [in a visiting park], and then tonight I got two of them," said a very moved McGwire on Tuesday.

The time will come when it's appropriate to study supplements such as andro and creatine. Accidentally, McGwire has brought them into the bright light. They won't be forgotten. But that moment isn't now. This is the time to mock mockers, even as we stand and cheer.