Ex-Mariner cites “clubhouse culture” as introduction to steroid use

Uh-oh.

With his revelations to ESPN.com, former Mariner fringe minor leaguer Shane Monahan has perhaps began to pull back the shiny veneer from the great Mariner ballclubs of the late 1990s.   Monahan played just 78 clubs for the big club from 1998-99, but by voluntarily offering descriptions of goings-on in the M’s clubhouse from that era, it makes me wonder if the playoff match-ups between the Mariners and the obviously juiced Yankees teams weren’t nearly as mismatched.

Still, even Monahan’s personal story serves as a warning tale about how the potential promised by steroids rarely manifests, and how the term ’steroid enhancers’ may prove to be the ultimate misnomer.  From ESPN.com:

“I read up on it. I learned how to use it. I started lifting weights and I went from like 190 pounds to 215. I mean, muscles on my body where I didn’t know you had muscles. I already ran fast. I could hit. I had a good arm. But all of a sudden now, recovery time felt better. Everything was a lot better.”

Even so, the steroids didn’t take his baseball skills to superstar heights. Nor did they transform him into a consistent long-ball slugger. By the end of the 1999 campaign, Monahan says, he moved away from steroids; and he didn’t stay around the game long enough to experiment with human growth hormone, which gained popularity in clubhouses after baseball began testing for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. HGH is undetectable in current urine testing procedures.

It would be easy to dismiss the actions taken by Monahan as decisions influenced by the corrupting influence of Ryan Franklin, David Segui, Glenallen Hill,  and Todd Williams, all players named in the Mitchell Report whose tenure with the M’s overlapped Monahan’s short stay with the club.  But when you consider Monahan’s statement that “almost everybody” in the Mariners clubhouse at the time was taking amphetamines- except for Dan Wilson who Monahan described as “a big Christian, big moral guy”- you have to wonder how many of our beloved M’s players from that era took the slippery slope to injecting performance enhancers into their rears.  Are we going to have to hold Ken Griffey Jr.’s 104 home runs and 280 RBIs under increased scrutiny?   Surely Papi’s .329 average over that period is safe, isn’t it?

And what about Alex Rodriguez, who shared a roster with Monahan both seasons, compiling 84 home runs and 235 RBIs while reaching 40-40 status in 1998?  Jose Canseco was surprised when A-Rod’s name wasn’t included in Mitchell’s report.  Will Canseco prove to be, indeed, vindicated when A-Rod is discussed in Jose’s new book Vindicated?