Sports Scandals

by Laura Finley; Jeffrey J. Fountain Peter Finley

  Sports organizations have grappled with how to handle this pervasive problem, vacillating between denying there is a problem to enacting tough measures with long suspensions for players who fail a test. Moving forward, the leagues will grapple with determining what to do with records that were clearly set in a time when sports were rife with drug use. What is clear is that the win-at-all-costs mentality endemic to sports in the United States has created a culture whereby many athletes feel they have no choice but to use drugs in order to remain competitive. Not exclusive to team sports, drug-related scandals have permeated individual-based sports to an alarming degree as well.

  In addition to performance-enhancing substances, some sports scandals involve athletes who have destroyed themselves through their use of other illicit drugs. With it, they have had a negative impact on their families, friends, teammates, and the entire sports world.

  MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL COCAINE SCANDAL, 1985

  In 1985 Major League Baseball was engulfed in a major drug scandal when an investigation by federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh revealed players were buying cocaine from local dealers. In May 1985 up to twelve players reportedly testifled to a federal grand jury. Commissioner Peter Ueberroth remarked, ''I think it's going to be bad,'' when asked about the grand jury inquiry.1 The next month, the federal grand jury indicted seven men for drug trafficking.

  Fortunately for Major League Baseball, no players were indicted or even named as unindicted coconspirators. However, the investigation revealed that a considerable number of players were using cocaine. Evidence pointed to cocaine being sold to players in almost every Major League ballpark in the National League, and that transactions were so commonplace that ''in some cases the athletes were able to pin down sales by recalling who the opposing pitcher was on a given date.''2 The prosecutors reported that the drug transactions between the players and dealers were always for small amounts of cocaine, however the frequency of drug deals for some players was alarmingly high. Prosecutors indicated one player paid for over $100,000 worth of drugs in one year.

  In September 1985 the trial of Curtis Strong, a Philadelphia caterer, began.

  He was charged with sixteen counts of cocaine distribution. Lonnie Smith was the first player of several to testify in the case after receiving immunity from the prosecution. During his testimony, he named other players when asked about drug use in Major League Baseball. Joaquin Andujar, Gary Mathews, Dickie Noles, Dick Davis, and Keith Hernandez were all named as players using cocaine with Smith during his playing days with the Phillies and Cardinals. Smith also mentioned the names of players taking amphetamines, including Bake McBride, Nino Espinosa, and Mike Schmidt. When Keith Hernandez testifled, he admitted using cocaine since the 1980 season and referred to that time period as one of ''romance between baseball players and the drug.''3 Under cross-examination, Hernandez named Bake McBride, Nino Espinosa, Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski, Randy Lerch, and Pete Rose as teammates that ''supposedly'' used amphetamines, or ''greenies,'' as the players called them. Keith Hernandez's and Dodgers infielder Enos Cabell's testimony named Dave Parker, Jeff Leonard, Lary Sorenson, Al Holland, J. R. Richard, Dale Berra, Rod Scurry, John Milner, and Bernie Carbo as MLB players using cocaine during the early 1980s.

  Pittsburgh Pirates Dale Berra, son of the legendary Yogi Berra, and Dave Parker also testifled during Strong's trial. Their testimony painted the Pirates organization in a particularly ugly light. They testifled that team leaders Bill Madlock and Willie Stargell were the ''people to see for amphetamines in the Pirates clubhouse.''4 If all the major leaguers were not granted immunity, they could have faced charges for drug possession and use, smuggling, illegal transportation, and distribution of cocaine.

  At the conclusion of the two-week trial, Strong was found guilty on eleven felony counts of selling cocaine. Major League Baseball found itself with a black eye after seven players testifled about not only their current and past drug use, but also about the drug use of their teammates. Even the great Willie Mays was accused of having ''red juice'' (a mixture of fruit juice and amphetamines) in his locker by retired Pirate John Milner.5 While Madlock, Stargell, and Mays all denied the allegations, the cloud of suspicion hung over all of baseball, and fans were forced to wonder which players were into illegal drugs and which were playing while strung out.

  On February 28, 1986, Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth announced eleven players were suspended because of cocaine. Seven of the players were suspended for one year but were able to buy their way out of the suspension by paying 10 percent of their base pay to local drug rehabilitation facilities. Ueberroth believed they had prolonged drug use and facilitated distribution among players.6 Four players were suspended for sixty days, with the option to give 5 percent of their base pay to a rehabilitation facility to have the suspension waived. These four players had used, but not distributed drugs. All eleven players also had to perform community service and submit to drug testing for the rest of their careers. The seven players receiving the harshest penalty were the players involved in the Pittsburgh drug trials: Joaquin Andujar, Dale Berra, Enos Cabell, Keith Hernandez, Jeff Leonard, Dave Parker, and Lonnie Smith.

  This case was significant for many reasons, but in particular for its timing.

  In the 1980s, crack cocaine was decimating cities across the country. The fact that professional athletes were using cocaine highlighted the fact that use of the drug was widespread.

  THE TRAGIC DEATH OF LEN BIAS

  As a star of the University of Maryland's basketball team in 1986, six-foot-eight forward Len Bias wowed coaches and fans alike with his powerful, yet graceful moves, his acrobatics, and his confidence on the court. Bias was Maryland's all-time leading scorer and a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year. The excitement about Bias continued as he was the Boston Celtics' number-one draft pick, and the second overall selection for the 1986-1987 season. Excitement turned to shock when twenty-two-year-old Bias was found dead from a cocaine overdose on June 19, 1986. His death prompted a dramatic overhaul of the Maryland athletic program, as the athletic director and two head coaches resigned. Its impact went beyond the world of basketball, however. It was the impetus for national debate about drugs and spurred a massive antidrug campaign by Congress.

  On June 19 at approximately 6:30 A.M., Bias collapsed in his dorm room after a ''cocaine party'' with his friend Brian Tribble and teammates Terry Long and David Gregg. According to Long and Gregg, there were ''scoops'' of cocaine available. Bias had bragged, ''I'm a horse, I can take it.'' He suffered three seizures before paramedics arrived.7 He was pronounced dead at approximately 8:50 A.M. A search the following day revealed nine grams of cocaine in Bias's car. The following week, Maryland state medical examiner John Smialek reported that there was no evidence Bias had ever used cocaine, only to announce less than two weeks later that Bias often used the drug.

  Maryland coach Charles ''Lefty'' Driesell resigned in the wake of the scandal, amid allegations he tolerated drug use and academic deficiencies among his players.8 Driesell was widely denounced for calling cocaine performance enhancing, saying at a conference on drugs that ''if you know how to use cocaine and use it properly, it can make you play better.'' He said his comment was based on research he had done thirty years prior for his master's degree, but that it was misinterpreted, and he meant that cocaine acts as a stimulant and thus increases heart rate and the production of adrenaline.9 He said, ''It was interpreted entirely wrong. Good gracious, I've made a living coaching. I would never allow my athletes to use or suggest that they use steroids or cocaine or anything to enhance their performance.'' Driesell, who was known for making ''alarming public statements,'' went on to be assistant athletic director for fundraising.10 Athletic director Dick Dull left Maryland a few weeks after Driesell.

  Football coach Bobby Ross also resigned, even though he had nothing to do with the basketball team and its problems. He cited a lack of support for his efforts to improve the school's athletic
facilities and was resentful that his reputation was sullied by guilt by association with the athletic department as a whole.

  Terry Long and David Gregg, who were with Bias when he died in his dorm room, were kicked off the team before the start of the 1986-87 season.

  These losses crippled the team, which had its worst season ever and did not win a single Atlantic Coast Conference game. Brian Tribble, a friend of Bias, was acquitted in June 1987 of charges of providing Bias the cocaine. During the trial, testimony showed that many people had knowledge of Bias's cocaine habit and had warned him to cool it. Driesell, who testifled for the prosecution, professed he did not know about Bias's drug problem and commented, ''Obviously, I was shocked he was fooling with drugs because I had talked to him about it, his lawyer had talked to him and his parents had talked to him.

  We knew he was going to be worth a couple of million dollars and we were all trying to make sure he didn't go near it [drugs].''11 He claimed he saw no evidence of drug use during Bias's senior year.12 Charges of cocaine possession and obstruction of justice against Long and Gregg were dismissed in exchange for their testimony against Tribble.

  In February 1987 a Prince George's County grand jury issued a scathing report about the University of Maryland athletic programs. The report said, ''The university's decision to have a major athletic program which was based to a large extent on the talents of students who had less than a reasonable chance of graduating … was not only appalling, but abominable.''13 The grand jury recommended the university shorten the men's basketball season, increase the use of drug testing, hire more police, and make greater use of student informants.

  Interestingly, Maryland's vice chancellor, Dr. A. H. ''Bud'' Edwards,

  announced that, one year later, the school saw a major increase in student enrollment. Private donors gave approximately $4 million more than they had the year prior to Bias's death, and the number of donors expanded by 3,000 people. Edwards commented that the school had changed dramatically in that year. ''We think we have a whole new University of Maryland. We're feeling quite good about it. It's behind us. We don't spend 10 seconds a day thinking or talking about it here. It's a year old, that stuff.''14 Bias's mother, Lonise, was not so prepared to put the tragedy behind her. She became a national spokesperson against drug abuse.

  National Basketball Association executives vowed to make greater use of detectives to investigate the private lives of players suspected of drug abuse.

  NBA executive vice president Russell Granik commented, ''Drugs is a dirty business, and I think you've got to fight dirty to rid yourself of this horrendous problem. If it appears that you're infringing on one's individual rights, as the players will argue and yell, I think the greater good dictates a strong position to help eradicate this cancer.''15 The players union expressed concern that such tactics would be used nefariously by teams trying to find a way out of contracts. Another suggestion to protect the league was to expand drug testing.

  Drug testing, now widely employed by the government, in corporations, the military, schools, and athletic programs, was in its infancy at the time. The NBA only tested athletes when it had reasonable cause to believe there was drug use.

  Driesell went on to coach at James Madison and Georgia State before retiring in 2003, in the middle of his forty-first season. He was named to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

  Like the 1985 Major League Baseball cocaine scandal, Bias's case highlighted the widespread use of cocaine and its dangers, and helped to usher in reforms that went beyond the world of sports. Unfortunately, many of them, like drug testing, were hurried in without full consideration of their effectiveness and other concerns.

  BAY AREA LABORATORY CO-OPERATIVE (BALCO)

  In August 2002, Federal agents were tipped off that there was an illegal steroid distribution ring working out of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) in Burlingame, California. The following June, elite track and field coach Trevor Graham, who was aware of the use of undetectable designer steroids in his sport, retrieved a used syringe from a trash can and gave it to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). It was used to detect and create a test for the designer steroid that would later be identifled as Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG). Graham named Victor Conte, the owner of BALCO, as the source of the drug. Within months authorities searched BALCO and found steroids, human growth hormone, and testosterone. They also searched the home of Greg Anderson, fitness trainer for baseball superstar Barry Bonds. They found performance enhancing drugs and $60,000 in cash, as well as documents that detailed drug use by several professional athletes. As the story unfolded, public interest centered on the undetectable drugs, called the cream and the clear, and on which athletes may have used them.

  In October 2003 the USADA retested samples collected at the national track and field championships from the prior June. Several athletes tested positive for THG, revealing that the BALCO drugs were, indeed, being used by top-level athletes and had escaped detection through the initial round of testing.

  From the outset, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Mark Fainaru-Wada was on top of the story. He was soon joined by coworker Lance Williams. By 2004 they had secured copies of grand jury testimony that they used to quote baseball player Jason Giambi and sprinter Tim Montgomery as admitting they had used the steroids. They reported that Barry Bonds and baseball player Gary Sheffield testifled that, while they used substances that matched descriptions of the cream and the clear, they did not knowingly take steroids.

  In October 2005, three of the conspirators in the BALCO scandal entered into a plea deal. Conte was sentenced to four months in prison and four months of house arrest for conspiracy to distribute the undetectable steroids and for money laundering. Greg Anderson was sentenced to three months in prison and an equal time of home confinement for conspiring to distribute steroids to professional baseball players and for money laundering. BALCO vice president James Valente was put on probation for steroid distribution.

  Judge Susan Illston expressed frustration that the sentences could not be more severe and questioned the judgment of the prosecutors for pursuing a case that, in the end, resulted in such minor punishments. Judge Illston later sentenced track and field coach Remi Korchemny, who had a minor involvement with BALCO, to a year of probation for giving an athlete the sleep disorder drug modafinil. He was also ordered to avoid contact with the other BALCO defendants.

  The fifth man convicted was the creator of the designer steroid. Patrick Arnold, a chemist from Illinois and an executive with a nutritional supplements company, had successfully synthesized the steroids to be undetectable via the testing used at the time. Arnold had gained fame in 1998 as the marketer of the steroid-like substance ''andro,'' which was used by Mark McGwire when he broke the single-season home run record. Arnold supplied ''the clear'' to Conte, who distributed it to twenty-seven athletes including Olympic track star Marion Jones. For his part in the scandal, Arnold served three months in prison.

  In March 2006, Fainaru-Wada and Williams released their book about Barry Bonds and the BALCO scandal, Game of Shadows. In it, they claimed that Bonds became jealous of the attention heaped upon Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa during their epic home run race in 1998. He then sought an edge to improve his own game. The book also explained how Jason Giambi approached Bonds's trainer, Greg Anderson, about improving his game, and how that led him to use the cream and the clear. The book led to diminished fan support for Bonds as he pursued the career home run record. A considerable amount of the information for the book was drawn from grand jury testimony that was illegally leaked to the authors. They refused to divulge the name of their source, and U.S. district judge Jeffrey White ordered them imprisoned for up to eighteen months unless they testifled. As their case was on appeal, the source of the leak came forward. Surprisingly, it was a lawyer who had represented Conte and Valente and he had been personally complaining about the leak, even seeking a mistrial on the basis that the leak prevented a fair trial
for his clients. The lawyer, Troy Ellerman, was sentenced to two and-a-half years in prison in a plea deal in which he admitted to four charges, including disclosing the transcripts in violation of a judge's order. Even with time reduced for good behavior, Ellerman will serve far longer than any of the BALCO conspirators. The charges against Fainaru-Wada and Williams were dropped.

  Of the leaked BALCO grand jury testimony, it was Barry Bonds's testimony that drew the most attention. While he admitted to using a cream and a clear liquid substance provided by Greg Anderson, he maintained that he believed it was an arthritis cream and flaxseed oil. Fainaru-Wada and Williams claimed in Game of Shadows that the flaxseed oil story was concocted by Conte, among other cover stories. Conte reportedly also advised his clients to tell authorities that the ''C'' on their doping charts stood for Vitamin C and not ''the cream.'' His position was that all the athletes could beat the case if they refused to admit anything, particularly that they ever knew they were taking a steroid. It is possible that the BALCO convictions have not ended. Barry Bonds was indicted in November 2007 on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. Greg Anderson, who had previously refused to testify regarding Bonds's involvement, could be called to testify. He had already spent over a year in prison for contempt. He was released at the time Bonds was being indicted. It appears that he will face added prison time if he does not testify, should the case go to trial.