Baseball's dirty little secret

As if baseball wasn't bad enough right now, Ken Caminiti added more fuel to that fire.

Caminiti stated in a Sports Illustrated article that he took steroids during his 1996 MVP season with the San Diego Padres, confessing that he cheated.

That season, he had a .326 batting average, 40 home runs, and 130 RBI's and carried the Padres on his back and to the National League West title.

He also stated that half of the major league players are on steroids, a figure he later retracted.

When news of Caminiti's confession spread, major leaguers had many different opinions.

Most of the players expressed very little shock on the use of steroids. Frank Thomas welcomed drug testing very openly.

Currently, Major League Baseball does not have drug testing for its players. There isn't even a guarantee that the majors will have drug testing in the next collective bargaining agreement.

What is most shocking of all is that, from a fan's perspective, the players are saying "Hey, taking steroids aren't against the rules."

While they aren't against Major League Baseball rules, they are against United States government law without a doctor prescription, which totally prevails over any rules Major League Baseball has.

One would think that these players would have been educated enough to know that steroid use is bad for their health.

Still, to these players hitting 50-60 home runs a season is more important than keeping 8-10 years of their lives...or more.

Caminiti, in addition to his steroid confession, said that his body does not produce normal amounts of testosterone and that his body his weakening.

Records are being shattered in recent history like they are going out of style.

The home run record has been broken twice in four years.

Mark McGwire admitted to taking androstenedione, a body building supplement that is not a steroid.

Barry Bonds, on the other hand, has said that he is clean from anything. Of course, given Bonds' history of foot-in-mouth disease, if you will, I take anything that he says as a complete lie.

Look at him in a Pirate uniform and look at him now.

A nine year span is a stretch, but there is no possible way someone can go from a skinny punk into a muscular punk.

Even in his first couple years with the Giants, he wasn't as big as he was now.

He must have one heck of a training regimen if he is clean, as he says he does.

Baseball is scared now and Bud Selig is worried about this problem.

The players should be worried, but they seem unphased going on the alibi that steroid use is not banned from baseball.

Jose Canseco has said as much as 85 percent of major leaguers take steroids. He must be including himself in about half that number.

Tony Gwynn said that it is closer to 20 percent.

I will say 25 percent, with another 45 percent on other legal supplements.

With all the dirty words that have been thrown around in baseball in the past year (contraction, strike, and elimination), the dirtiest little secret in baseball is steroids.

Everyone inside baseball knows it and the fans are now in for a rude awakening.