Friday, October 30, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 5
5
Baseball may ban supplement use
League appoints doctors to study androstenedione
The Associated Press
TORONTO — Major league baseball plans to ban the use of androstenedione, the muscle-building dietary supplement used by home run champion Mark McGwire, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported yesterday.
The newspaper cited unidentified sources, who said they expected commissioner Bud Selig to formally announce a ban before spring training next season.
Selig denied the report, saying he
had not begun to consider the issue.
"Together with the union, we've got the leading experts in this country studying this." Selig said yesterday. "It's not only very premature but very unfair. None of this should ever diminish from Mark McGwire's extraordinary season."
Selig and Union Head Donald Fehr agreed Aug. 27 to appoint a committee of doctors to study andro. The doctors are not expected to report back for 6 to 10 weeks.
Fehr was quoted in the paper saying all players would know what the decision on andro was once it had been made, stood on andro once a decision had been made, the paper.
"Right now, the doctors are simply investigating," he said.
McGwire, who could not be
reached for comment, hit 70 homers this year, breaking the record of 61 set by Roger Maris in 1961.
"I would hate to be in McGwire's shoes right now," said William Bryan, team physician for the Houston Astros and the past president of the Association of Professional Team Physicians. "We have just been shaking our heads all this time that androstenedione was on the shelves."
Androstenedione is illegal in Canada but legal in the United States. It is banned by the NFL, NCAA and the Olympics but allowed by baseball.
In Johnson City, Tenn. researchers at East Tennessee State are studying the supplement. Craig Broeder, exercise physiologist at the school's Human Performance
Lab, said they would study androstenedione's physical and psychological effect on men between the ages of 35 and 65.
"The main reason for the study is about health issues and anti-aging," he said.
The study's 70 participants will undergo medical tests as they engage in 12 weeks of weight training.
The $28,000 study is funded by ChemSource, a company that researches supplements and other products, and Metabolic Response Modifiers, which produces supplements.
Broeder said he hopes to find that andro can boost men's testosterone at an age when it begins to drop. Such a drop creates a greater risk of heart and circulatory problems.
Two Women's World Cup games moved
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. — Two of the six Women's World Cup soccer games scheduled for next June have been moved from Portland to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
The games — originally scheduled for June 20,1999, at Civic Stadium — were switched after World Cup officials had haggled for months with local officials and Jack Cain, owner of the Portland Rockies minor-league baseball team, about who had rights to the stadium in
the days leading up to the games.
The 72-year-old, publicly owned stadium will lose about $100,000 in expected revenue. Perhaps more importantly, the city will lose publicity at a time when the city is hoping to draw more major sporting events.
Two days after World Cup organizers said they were moving the games, Cain said his team wouldn't need the stadium on the disputed days after all. The Rockies, a Class A farm team of the Colorado Rockies, will open the season on the road and won't need Civic until
June 26.
"This is an incredible irony," said Marla Messing, president of the Women's World Cup. "We relied on what the baseball team and MERC told us."
Representatives of MERC, or the Metro-Exposition Recreation Commission, insisted the Women's World Cup breached its contract in moving the games and said they were considering legal alternatives.
The conflict is the latest in a series of disappointments for the city's sports
promoters. Portland has repeatedly lost the NBA All-Star Game because of a lack of hotel rooms.
Efforts to land NCAA men's basketball tournament games have been hindered by the state lottery's sports-betting games. And the city finished second to Los Angeles in its attempt to land the U.S. Olympic figure-skating trials.
Portland, one of eight cities that were chosen for the 1999 Women's World Cup, will be host for six games on June 23 and 24.
Padres hope successes will score new stadium
The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres were swept in the World Series, but their fans may give them a nice consolation prize — a new stadium.
This Election Day offers a new contest for the Padres, and for professional teams in Cincinnati and Denver looking to voters for new ballparks.
The Padres boosted their chances for a $411 million stadium by their surprisingly strong finish to capture the National League pennant.
The number of voters favoring next week's stadium measure increased from 48 percent this summer to 60 percent during the playoffs. Thousands of fans refused to leave
Qualcomm Stadium after the final World Series game, standing and roaring until the Padres returned for a curtain call.
"I hope this proves to them how much they mean to San Diego," said Angie Berry, 29, who stuck around to cheer for the Padres after the last loss to the New York Yankees. "I'm sure now they'll get their stadium."
The Padres estimate they've lost $50 million in the last three years because Qualcomm has no luxury boxes. They share the 31-year-old stadium with the Chargers until the Padres' lease expires next year.
Harriette Wade, who has purchased Padres season tickets since the team formed in
1969, said the team loses money not for lack of luxury boxes but because of exorbitant player salaries.
"They can fill the seats right here during a winning season and make money," she said.
Cincinnati voters already approved a half-cent sales tax increase in 1996 to build stadiums for baseball's Reds and football's Bengals, who now share the 28-year-old Cinergy Field.
In Denver, the Broncos' Super Bowl victory last year and this season's undefeated record have boosted support to replace Mile High Stadium. Voters in six surrounding counties are being asked whether to extend a pennyper $10 sales tax to build a $395 million stadium.
Proposition C in San Diego asks voters to approve a deal the city made with the Padres to build the $411 million stadium downtown near San Diego Bay. The deal requires the city to contribute $275 million, most of which would come through hotel taxes and bonds.
The Padres would kick in $115 million, up to $40 million of which they would raise from selling a company the rights to name the center. The team also agreed to recruit at least $400 million worth of development near the ballpark, such as office space, hotels, shops and restaurants, and stay in San Diego through 2024.
vibrant economic center that will attract tourists and locals. Opponents fear the project will drain money for city services.
Proponents of Proposition C say the 42,000-seat stadium will transform a forgotten warehouse district into a
"We need a better financial package with less burden to the public, and a ballpark largely affordable to families instead of half the seats going to luxury sky boxes," said Diane Dixon of the Strike Three on Proposition C campaign—STOPC.
But fans like 26-year-old Jason Winters said the investment was worth it, no matter who paid.
"A rundown part of downtown gets a shot in the arm, fans get to watch the Padres for another 20 years, the city gets recognized for a great ballpark and the Padres don't have to share space with the Chargers," he said. "All of that is worth the money, I'd say."
Belle and Johnson are hot commodities
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Two of baseball's most explosive players, Albert Belle and Randy Johnson, are now free agents and already are attracting attention.
Both the New York Yankees and Mets said Wednesday they had contacted Belle's agent, and other teams are thought to be interested, too.
whether he'll re-sign with the World Series champions.
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said he wasn't bothered by Belle's tempestuous past.
"Nobody's history scares me," Steinbrenner said. "We have a discipline in the organization that has proven itself."
Belle generally prefers to avoid reporters and would have trouble doing that in the Yankees clubhouse, where dozens of writers and cameramen spent hours each day.
through Nov. 25 of returning to his White Sox contract.
Joe Torre's team has been a model of tranquility this year, and Belle doesn't appear to be a good fit.
Arizona general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. said he intended to have Williams in for a visit next month. Diamondbacks manager Buck Showalter was Williams' manager in New York from 1992-95.
Williams' agent, Scott Boras, is seeking a deal at least seven years long and exceeding the $91 million Mike Piazza got from the Mets.
"Who comes from deeper problems than Darryl and
"Here's a player who was the American League batting champion, a Gold Glove center fielder. I think it would be useful, if he wants to, to have a conversation with him," Garagiola said. "He is one of the most attractive players on the market."
Johnson, who filed for free agency Wednesday, led the majors with 329 strikeouts, going 10-1 with a 1.28 ERA in 11 starts after Houston acquired him from Seattle on July 31. The Astros have said they want to re-sign
"Nobody's history scares me. We have a discipline in the organization that has proven itself."
George Steinbrenner New York Yankees owner
Doc?" Steinbrenner said, referring to Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden. "Yet they accepted the discipline and accepted the direction."
Mets general manager Steve Phillips said he talked with Belle's agent, Arn Tellem, but about a different player.
Belle hit. 328 with 49 homers and 152 RBI last season. He agreed to a $55 million, five-year contract with the Chicago White Sox in November 1996 but has a unique clause in his deal that allowed him to become a free agent Tuesday and also gave him the option
him, but the 35-year-old left-hander hasn't said whether he wants to stay. The Diamond-backs are interested, because he lives in the Phoenix area. Me while, David Cone and
"You'd certainly have to be interested in him offensively and what he's done," Phillips said. "Any队 in baseball would like to add his offense to their club. But does he fit? I can't tell you yes or no."
the Yankees postponed a decision on whether he would exercise a $5.5 million player option for next season. The deadline, originally midnight EST Wednesday, was pushed back to Nov. 4.
In other free-agent news, the San Diego Padres exercised their $1.9 million option on postseason hero Jim Leyritz.
Philadelphia center fielder Doug Glanville, who would not have been eligible for salary arbitration until after next season, agreed to a three-year contract worth $5,575,000.
Glanville, who led the National League with 678 at-bats last season, will make $525,000 in 1999, up from a $260,000 base this year. He gets $2 million in 2000, $3 million in 2001 and a $50,000 signing bonus.
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