Dave McKay was the strength and conditioning coach of the Oakland Athletics in 1988 (also, freakishly, Chicago Cubs first base coach Matt Sinatro was on the roster). This is the same year that Jose Canseco claims, in Juiced, to have started injecting Mark McGwire with steroids (Jose's accounts have been shown to be wholly accurate). There is not a doubt in my mind that Dave McKay was aware of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire's steroid use, furthermore, I believe that he encouraged it. Keep in mind that this was the genesis of steroid use in baseball.
Further damning evidence is that Dave McKay coauthored the book Strength Training For Baseball, with Jose Canseco. Finally, Dave McKay's son Cody McKay was indicted in the Mitchell Report as a steroid user.
It is impossible to bring up Dave McKay without mentioning Tony LaRussa, as McKay serves as LaRussa's right hand man, who have worked together since LaRussa's arrival to Oakland in 1986.
It is unthinkable for me to believe that LaRussa was unaware that Dave McKay, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire were gaining a competitive edge through the use of steroids. Furthermore, LaRussa brought McGwire and McKay to St Louis, and although Albert Pujols has not been indicted as a steroid user, there is no doubt in my mind that he was.
In the end, the steroid era did not merely occur on LaRussa and McKay's watch, but they were active participants, which was far more damning then I believed just yesterday.
Finally, if Barry Bonds needs an asterisk by his records, Tony LaRussa needs an asterisk by his (if he goes to the Hall of Fame as a manager).
Appendix:
Ryan Franklin, Fernando Vina and Rick Ankiel are known steroid users.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You are piecing it all together. This is amazing investigatory journalism.
ReplyDeleteI know Tony LaRussa knew about it. Everyone knows that. It is obvious, but I still don't think Pujols was using them. I feel like you have to look at players who had a major drop in production from the 07 season to the 08 season.
ReplyDeleteA lot of these people are bouncing back this season after their bodies have relearned how to play baseball. Some recent people involved with the cards I think are kalil greene and jason isringhausen(even though he's getting old, he sucked real bad real fast). I'm not saying their weren't others, but those are some I really think were. If we go to the cubs, derek lee?, carlos zambrano?(second half of last season he showed some serious signs of fatigue, which is why he sucked so bad).
As for the 3 cardinals mentioned above vina was definately on them, franklin I don't remember about, and ankiel used HGH while it wasn't banned to recover from sergery, which lots of players where doing at the time.
All you fucking cubs fans always point to mark mcguire when talking about steroids but you never mention sosa, who not only looked more roided out then mcguire, but also forgot how to speak english during the hearing so he didn't have to answer the tough questions.
ps. Albert's numbers are a little better in 08 than 07(when he had a foot injury). Between 06 and 07 he had a -17 in homeruns, but in 06 he had 14 home runs in april, if you take out that month he had 35 in 5 months, or 7 a month which is about what he averages for his career.
ReplyDelete07 is one of 3 seasons where his slugging % is lower than his career average, the other two being is 2nd season(02) and 05. Any differences up or down on this number I feel just result in how he did that season, tops is .671 when he had that monster april.
You are missing the point.
ReplyDelete1985 was the beginning of steroids in baseball. You are used to 1998 baseball, were steroids are so prevelant you just throw your hands up and say everyone is doing it.
By his own admission Jose Canseco does not believe he would have ever made it to the major leagues if it were not for steroids. In one off season Canseco gained 25 pounds of sheer muscle, which imrpoved every aspect of his game. It improved his speed and his bat speed, allowing him to become the first player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases. But it was all a fraud!
In 1988 Mark McGwire started using steroids.
The same year Dave McKay was the strentgh and conditioning.
For every team that Jose Canseco played for after the Oakland A's, he would introduce guys to steroids. For example, when Jose Canseco was traded to the Rangers, he started Ivan Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez on steroids.
McGwire, similarly, used steroids with his teamates, such as Jason Giambi. This leads me to believe he did the same thing.
This is not a Cubs vs. Cardinals thing, or a did Pujols use steroids thing. Dave McKay and Tony LaRussa had the power to actually prevent steroid use in baseball, instead, they are largely responsible for the steroid era, by doing more than turning a blind eye to steroids.
Ja. Let us not get into a Cubs vs. Cards thing. I don't think Pujols was using them; he clearly is one of the best players of recent memory. I think CP's point is that steroids began with these people and that steroids changed the face of baseball forever.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Canseco was the first one to use them. He may have had a big impact on the game by spreading the most, and believe me I wish McKay and LaRussa stopped him back then, but he(canseco) was not the only one who did this. I really believe most of the league in recent years were using it, which is terrible for the game.
ReplyDeleteI can accept your argument that McKay and LaRussa could have stopped it, but it is foolish to put the blame solely on them. There were many coaches back then who knew it was going on on their teams, but most of them aren't still in coaching or had Canseco on their team, who came 'out of the closet'(with steroids) and was probably the most successful because of them.
I think it is a tall claim to say that Canseco benefited the most from steroids. But benefit he did. If you look at his stats you may not even be that impressed, but these numbers earned him all kinds of MVP awards.
ReplyDeleteSteroids allowed Canseco MVP awards, world series rings, beautiful women, and the highest contracts of his day. When other players wondered how he did it, he told them it was steroids.
Tell me that isn't a powerful incentive to use steroids. So, maybe steroids were introduced to other baseball players before or independant of Jose Canseco, but when people saw what steroids did for Canseco, more than anything else, steroids would become a part of the game.
I don't like Jose Canseco, but I respect his honesty. I think that if someone like Albert Pujols has been a clean player for his career, he should stop protecting all the other players and start voluntarily getting tested for steroids and publicly release the data. This kind of transparency will not fully illiminate doubt, but it will be a momentous move forward in cleaning up the game. If players were to do this, it would encourage the practice among players, since those who didn't do it would be deemed to have done steroids. Furthermore, if I were Pujols I would try to release my data from 2003, when all players were tested, even though it wouldn't be allowed.
Laslty, you have to realize that steroids were introduced to baseball at some point in time, it can be traced to some set of circumstances. The best documented case is Jose Canseco in 1985, regardless of your random musings and speculation about what was going on in baseball when you were -1 or -2 years old.
There is plenty of blame to go around for steroid use to be as rampant as it did. I never intended to give the impression that Tony LaRussa and Dave McKay are solely to blame for steroids in baseball, but some are more to blame than others. People say it is partially the fans fault for steroids in baseball, and there may be some truth to that, but I am not to blame as much as Jose Canseco.
ReplyDeleteHere is my final opinion on this. Pujols and other players should get voluntarily tested as you suggested(great idea).
ReplyDeleteAlso, LaRussa and McKay had a better chance than most to stop steroids in baseball, and should have taken that opportunity to save the game from the embarrassing last couple of years.
But Many people had a real good chance to stop it early on. Any one of them should have stepped up and done something about it.
If I had a time machine I would go back in time to when the lotto was 200+ million and win it.
So you admit that Cardinals baseball as you've known it, largely, is a fraud and a disgrace to baseball.
ReplyDeleteNo.
ReplyDeleteSome one on every team and in the comish's office had a chance to stop steroids in baseball much earlier. It is all of their faults.
I will admit that the Cardinals baseball as I've known it is largely a fraud and disgrace to baseball.
ReplyDelete