April 4, 2006 - 8:00pm
By Archives
On Monday, former all-star pitcher Jim Bouton, the author of the controversial book Ball Four, came to Cornell for a talk at the Alice Cook House entitled "Life in Baseball." Before the talk, The Sun sat down with Bouton to discuss the current state of baseball, including the steroid issue, which is a topic he has been outspoken about recently.
The Sun: When you were researching for and writing Ball Four, did you think it would be considered so controversial to so many people?
Jim Bouton: No, I didn't think it would be as controversial as it was, and it didn't think it would have the life that it's had. I just thought I was sharing some fun that I was having in baseball that year.
The Sun: In Ball Four, you exposed to the world the widespread use of "greenies," an amphetamine used to improve focus, by your teammates and other players around the league. Before this season, Major League Baseball decided that greenies would be added to the list of banned substances. What effect do you think this will have on the players?
Jim Bouton: It's going to be psychological, if anything. They didn't do that much for you. They were pet pills, like NoDoz or caffeine [pills]. I tried it one time, and I was so jumpy and jangled and on edge that I couldn't stand it. I wasn't able to focus; I wasn't able to concentrate. I didn't like the effect at all. I was already up for the game; I didn't need a pet pill - and those were the days that pitchers pitched every four days.
The Sun: Obviously steroids are a big issue in baseball today, but were they around or even an option for you during your playing days?
Jim Bouton: We never even heard the word. But I said in Ball Four, that if there was a pill that would guarantee a pitcher would win 20 games but it would take five years off of his life, we'd all be taking them. Athletes - professional athletes and Olympic athletes - need to be protected against their competitive instincts, so that's why there needs to be very tough rules so that the players aren't tempted to try to get an advantage by taking amphetamines or performance enhancers. They should have had tough laws against them a long time ago.
The Sun: How much does it bother you to see players who have been linked to steroid use - like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire - breaking the records of players from your generation?
Jim Bouton: I don't think the records today are legitimate, and I don't know how illegitimate they are or how much of them are through the steroids. And that's one of the things that baseball has to do. They have to take time out and take about a year or two with a blue-ribbon panel that involves statisticians, doctors, trainers, coaches, players and find what kind of impact steroids has on performance. It may be different for batters; it may be different for pitchers. Also, find out what period of time steroid use covers. Was it 1998? Was it earlier than that? When did it stop? And then a formula has to be devised, that I call a "steroid-adjusted number" that gets applied to all the statistics that would be impacted by steroid use. This would be a panel of very well respected people that baseball fans could believe and respect and accept. Then, all the records that are deemed to have been impacted by this panel would have a number in parentheses next to the actual number of home runs. For example, Barry Bonds's 73 home runs - if it turns out that steroids have a 25 percent impact on [home run] hitting, then in parentheses to the right of the 73 home runs, it would say 55, and then the parentheses would just sit there. And history will determine which one of the two numbers is the valid number.
