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ST. PETERSBURGH, FLA. — Frank Thomas will retire believing baseball's steroid scandal hit him in the pocketbook. Now, he shares the same clubhouse as Troy Glaus, whose name surfaced last week in an online report about steroids.
“I'm shocked,” Thomas, the Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter, said Sunday, in the wake of a SI.com story citing anonymous sources that claimed shipments of nandrolone and testosterone were made in 2003 and 2004 to a house in California that traces back to Glaus.
“I mean, Troy's my teammate and there's no way I can alienate him,” Thomas said. “And the way they're talking, you know, a lot of other guys names are going to come out.”
There is no proof Glaus used steroids and the guessing is that Glaus's career will survive the insinuations, but since his name was found on a client list as part of a U.S. federal investigation, who knows where the story ultimately goes? There's no escaping that the issue is on the minds of those in the clubhouse and those who run the Toronto franchise.
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Thomas will go into the Hall of Fame believing one of the reasons the Chicago White Sox exercised a “diminished skills” clause in his contract was because they deemed his 28-homer, 92-RBI season in 2002 to be a down year compared to players he suspected were steroid users.
Thomas had been set to earn $10.3-million (U.S.) in 2003, but was forced to renegotiate and ended up making $5-million instead.
Glaus? He will be tainted this winter in the minds of baseball's general managers.
Any thought the Blue Jays might have had of trading the third baseman, who will earn $24-million dollars over the next two years (including a player option in 2009 for $11.25-million), is as remote as Toronto's wild-card chances after losing two of three games to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays this weekend, including a 3-2 defeat Sunday.
Even though Glaus was still a team removed from the Blue Jays when the steroid deliveries allegedly were made (he was with the Anaheim Angels from 1998 to 2004, signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks before the 2005 season and was traded to the Blue Jays the next winter) there's no escaping that the SI report has given Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi and president Paul Godfrey another unwanted issue.
One of the reasons Godfrey and Ricciardi are the perfect management team for a club owned by Rogers Communications is they understand there is a virtue in limiting shivers up the corporate spine.
Whether you're in the boardroom, on the 19th hole or at dinner, big contracts can be explained patiently to businessmen. Having a guy who'll be receiving fistfuls of owner Ted Rogers's cash connected in any way shape or form to “baseball's steroid scandal?” Tough to paint that in a positive light.
And never mind the fans, or the media. Glaus, whose nickname with the Diamondbacks was Bad Santa, is usually ornery and condescending with the press, anyhow. The Rogers suits might prove to be the toughest to spin of anybody.
Glaus played in all three games in Tampa Bay since the SI report became public, going 1-for-8 and being charged with an error Sunday when he misplayed a foul ball. His woes, such as they are, haven't made much of an impact on the clubhouse because this is 2007 and, as Jays manager John Gibbons remarked in his plain-spoken way: “[Reports of steroid use] is out there. You can't say it happens a lot in baseball … [but] it's out there.”
One Blue Jays player, noting that Glaus's physique would hardly qualify as a body beautiful, remarked: “Troy? Steroids? I've never even seen the guy look at a weight, let alone lift one.”
Glaus was injured in 2003 with a torn rotator cuff. One player opined that if it were ever proved Glaus was in some way connected to steroids, the drugs could have been part of the recovery program. Another joked that maybe Glaus's wife, a nationally-ranked equestrian competitor, needed drugs for her horses.
On Saturday – apparently against the advice of agent Mike Nicotera and at the urging of the Blue Jays – a visibly-chastened Glaus stood with his back to a wall (literally) outside the visitors clubhouse and talked briefly.
“I respect the fact that you guys have a job to do,” he said, his voice halting and eyes watery. “I respect the fact that you certainly have some questions. Um, I am not going to comment on the story, and that's … I hope you respect that at this time. At this point, I'm going to get ready for a game … and help our team get into … into the playoff hunt. That's it.”
Unfortunately, it isn't “it.” Not by a long shot.
“I really do think we'll see other names,” Thomas said, knowing there is the issue of the list of 40-odd names in the hands of former U.S. senator George Mitchell's investigative committee. “And when I think of those numbers being put up over that five-year period by guys who never touched them again … it definitely raises a red flag.”
Rightly or wrongly, that flag now flies over the Blue Jays.
