Steroids throw entire decade into question.

Byline: Rick Morrissey

CHICAGO _ The asterisk hovers above the number 8 on the standard keyboard, feeling unappreciated and underused. Such a humiliating experience, knowing that when people stroke your key, they're actually thinking of another character.

But the asterisk has a chance to become what it looks like, a star, thanks to an ongoing federal investigation into steroids. According to information given to investigators, Barry Bonds' personal trainer allegedly distributed steroids to Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield, among others, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The newspaper said it's not clear whether the players used those particular steroids, but as far we know, no one acquires drugs to put on display like a baseball card collection.

Nobody says, "I'll trade you two vials of dianabol for some tetrahydrogestrinone."

If the accusations turn out to be true, much of what happened in baseball the past 10 years will be looked upon as a complete fraud. In the meantime, who do you like in the AL East?

Take your pick about what looks more ominous: The implication that several of the game's biggest stars might have been steroid-fueled or that some of the game's lesser lights, including the White Sox's Marvin Benard, might have been taking steroids.

It's a choice between indicting some of the best players in the history of the game or asserting that steroid use is so rampant that even light-hitting outfielders are cheating.

As the scope of the federal case widens, many of the accomplishments of this era are going to be called into question. Enter the lowly asterisk.

Many of us won't need to see asterisks in the record book for affirmation of what has been going on in baseball. Many of us have been hit in the head so many times by a dizzying show of power that we've been seeing asterisks for years. Many of us don't believe in the things we've seen baseball players do over the past 10 years. We know that kind of strength doesn't occur that quickly, that dramatically.

No one is sure how much evidence will be necessary before baseball puts a scarlet asterisk next to the names of Bonds and others. Would the sworn testimony of Bonds' trainer, Greg Anderson, be enough? Or will it take the convictions of several stars?

Perhaps Major League Baseball will come out and say, "You know what? From about 1995 on, it was like the Wild West of performance-enhancing drug use out there, and we have no earthly idea what was real and what wasn't, in terms of records. So we're putting a big, fat asterisk over the whole era."

That asterisk would say: Records are in question because of widespread use of anabolic steroids.

That would be the best answer. There's too much doubt hanging over the accomplishments of too many players. Too many players gained 20 pounds of muscle, grew another hat size or two and started hitting home runs as if there were no tomorrow. There might not be a tomorrow, health-wise, for some of them.

The Chronicle said the information it obtained indicated Bonds received steroids and human-growth hormone from a nutritional supplements lab as far back as 2001, the year he hit a record 73 home runs. If it turns out that Bonds indeed was powered by drugs, the increase in home run production by many players, including Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, also will come more into question. Anyone whose power numbers increased dramatically will have to prove they're not frauds.

Sheffield's agent said her client never "knowingly" took steroids, leaving open the possibility he took steroids unwittingly. Hard to believe in an age of heightened scrutiny that someone wouldn't know what he was using. But it has the ring of a legal defense, doesn't it?

This isn't a witch hunt, as some have stated, or baseball's version of "McCarthyism," as Cubs manager Dusty Baker has said. It's a full-blown crisis. But if it leads to the cleanup of a toxic dump, it will be a blessing.

A few days ago, Houston's Jeff Kent wondered out loud whether Babe Ruth might have used steroids. If Kent had paid any attention to photos of Ruth's skinny, card-table legs and ample gut, he would have known Ruth wasn't on steroids.

As of yet, there has been no call to place an asterisk next to Ruth's 714 home runs. But maybe there should be, Jeff:

Fueled by beer and hot dogs.

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(c) 2004, Chicago Tribune.

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