By Timothy C. Davis
Staff Writer

A baseball is a pretty inanimate object, when you get right down to it - a solid rubber core, surrounded by a layer of cork, all bound with twine and cowhide-wrapped, finished off with raised red waxed stitching. Bounce one, and you're lucky to get more than a foot or two of liftoff. Get hit by one, and you'd swear it was made of stone.

Used to be a guy hit 30 home runs per year, and he became known as a slugger. Last year, such unsung sluggers as Dan Uggla, Brandon Phillips and Adrian Gonzalez topped the mark, and Hanley Ramirez and Brad Hawpe launched 29.

Watch some of the really big bashers take batting practice - an A-Rod, Ryan Howard, or a Prince Fielder, say - and you'd think that stone was a Superball. Missile-like arcs spray from their bats like artillery fire, regularly denting the outfield wall, or else carom into the stands, bouncing from aisle to aisle.

Then again, this is their job, hitting baseballs, one that made most of them multimillionaires at a very young age. Many of them could quit baseball right now, and probably never have to work again a day in their lives. Some people would say they're living a dream, playing a kid's game and getting paid handsomely for it.

However, with those exorbitant salaries come exorbitant expectations. Teams want to see a return on their investment. Fans want a return on the ticket price they pay. Players don't want a return to the minor leagues, which is what can happen when the numbers no longer ring the bell on the longball meter. They know what a slog it is to make your high school team, get a scholarship to college, make a college team, get drafted, play rookie ball, low-A ball, high-A ball, AA ball, AAA ball, get called up to the major leagues, stick in the major leagues, get a starting job, and keep a starting job, all the while fighting off the other thousands of guys salivating to take your job from you.

As such, people look for shortcuts. Something to tilt the odds in their favor. Something to make their statistics spike to the point people stand up and take notice.

One of the most well-known of these shortcuts is performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) - usually, anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH). In the wake of Senator George Mitchell's December 13, 2007 report on the subject, steroids are still a hot topic in the world of baseball, with the Major League Baseball season, minor league and college ball underway. Otherwise-surefire Hall of Famer Roger Clemens is fighting for his reputation, thanks to accusations by former trainer Brian McNamee makes in the report. Barry Bonds, the all-time home run king, is fighting for a job. Jose Canseco has yet another book of steroid allegations out, called "Vindicated." Others, such as former Atlanta Braves outfielder and two-time National League MVP Dale Murphy, are fighting to keep those players on the way up - be they in middle school, high school, college or the minor leagues - clean of PEDs in the first place.

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans, an advanced Class A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves celebrating the team's 10th season in Myrtle Beach, have a 7:05 p.m. home opener slated for Friday with the Frederick Keys at BB&T Coastal Field. The team says it has plenty of reason to stay clean, even as its players fight their way up the minor league baseball ladder for a shot at the major leagues - and with the breaking news that one of the best players from last year's Pelicans squad, outfielder Jordan Schafer, was busted late Tuesday for HGH use.

At the same time, the release of the Mitchell Report has now placed any baseball player, whether in the minor leagues or college - under suspicion in the court of public opinion, the blogosphere, 24-hour sports networks, and talk radio.

"(Fans) are so over this Canseco/Mitchell/Clemens/McNamee thing," says Matt Monks, a co-host of "The Locker Room" on Myrtle Beach's ESPN Radio 93.9 FM. "At the same time, they don't want a known steroid/HGH user to break all the sacred records in baseball either. This subject is just as divisive as the demographics of the baseball fan. The Mitchell report did what - bring out something like 86 names? It's cost tens of millions of dollars and for what - 86 names? You will never be able to convince a baseball fan that over the course of the last 20 years, only 86 people were chemically enhanced in baseball."

Rocket Wheeler

Rocket Wheeler, now in his third year of managing the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, says that theMitchell Report, for all its bombshells, doesn't really have much effect on his squad.

"That report doesn't really affect us at all," he says. "We get tested three times a year by Major League Baseball. Plus, our organization tests as well. So we keep a handle on it pretty good. It's in conjunction with MLB, but we get tested three times by the majors, and once by the organization. Sometimes even twice."

Wheeler says the tests aren't announced in advance, although he has noticed a two-year trend.

"The testing people just sort of show up," he says. "It's kind of funny - the last two seasons we've been tested in Frederick (Md.). We go up to Frederick, and there they are. (laughs.) I guess maybe the people who give the tests live up in the D.C. area or close by...but they can come callin' any time, knockin' on the door, without so much as a warning. And they do."

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH

Chuck Greenberg

The first step to polishing the diamond, says Chuck Greenberg, Presidentand Managing Partner of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and a member of the Minor League Baseball Board of Trustees, is to make sure everyone's on a level playing field.

"Whereas major league players are part of a union, which makes steroid policy a matter for collective bargaining between major league baseball and the players' union, minor league players are not members of the players union, or any other union for that matter," says Greenberg. "(In the minors,) Major league baseball is able to enact any policy it wants without needing approval. So major league baseball can enact policies unilaterally. The fact that the policies have been so stringent shows you what their objective is." Namely, to come down hard, and attempt to nip any potential use of PEDs in the proverbial bud.

David O'Brien, the Atlanta Braves beat writer for The Atlanta Journal Constitution, says it was no coincidence the minor league steroid policy is not only harsher in its punishment (first offense - 50 games; second offense - 100 games; third offense - lifetime ban), but was also put into place first.

"The Major League Baseball Players' Association is one of the strongest unions in the world, and it has to sign off on any changes to the collective bargaining agreement that's used in Major League Baseball, including changes to the drug testing policy," says O'Brien. "That's not so in minor league ball. The union doesn't have a say in the policies used there. I do know guys who think they are oh-so-close to being good enough to get consideration for a major league job are sometimes willing to do whatever they believe it'll take to get them over the hump. But on the other hand, if minor league players see that the stain of 50-game suspensions is not worth the risk of getting an edge they believe will help them make it to the bigs - pardon the pun - they might become more reluctant to use the low-level 'roids and other substances they can afford or have access to in minor league ball. I just don't know."

George Godfrey of baseballssteroidera.com, a popular compendium of PED information, literature, and test results, says he doesn't believe Major League Baseball is attempting to catch players as much as deter them from using in the first place.

North Johnson

"Because they were able to unilaterally implement a testing program in the minors, it may just appear as though they are paying special attention to minor league baseball," he says.

North Johnson, General Manager of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans,says appearances, in this case, are to be believed.

"Minor league players have been tested for steroids and alcohol abuse and drug abuse for years and years and years. So they've always been tested. I think it is more stringent now, however. With the designer steroids and everything else that's floating around out there, everybody's looking to get that extra edge. So I guess the short answer is yes - I do think they're looking closer at players now to see if they're getting a natural athlete, a natural player.

"Basically, they want to make sure the guy they're drafting is going to be the guy they have in uniform two, three, four years down the road."

Greenberg says that concept can trickle down to the local economy, too.

"Minor league baseball franchises are basically sales and marketing companies. What we sell and market is the experience at the ballpark," Greenberg says. "The centerpoint of the ballpark experience is the on-field product supplied by the major league club. That said, from what we understand, knowing a player is clean is becoming more and more of a factor. As the policies get more and more stringent, the risk of a player being caught is much higher. So if you draft someone who's achieved what they've achieved as a user, you're simply not going to get what you're expecting."

Which is, in short, a player willing to get his uniform dirty while keeping his proverbial nose clean. Myrtle Beach has had only a few run-ins with the policy - outfielder Ricardo Rodriguez, later traded for current Atlanta Braves outfielder Matt Diaz, was suspended 15 days in 2005 after testing positive for anabolic steroids. Current Pelican Tyler Flowers was suspended while with rookie-league Danville of the Appalachian League in 2005. (According to Atlanta Braves insider Bill Shanks, host of "The Bill Shanks Show" on WIFN 105.5 The Fan in Macon, Ga. and the writer and publisher of thebravesshow.com, "This was something that Tyler did before he signed with the Braves.") And former Myrtle Beach Pelican centerfielder and Atlanta Braves top prospect Schafer was suspended Tuesday for 50 games for the use of HGH (exactly how Schafer was caught was unclear as of press time, as there's no reliable test for it; however, people can be suspended for being linked to the PED in some way).

Wheeler believes that once in a major league farm system, a player can't avoid hearing about the dangers of using PEDs - whether they heed that advice is up to them.

"I've been fortunate, knock on wood, that I haven't (managed a player suspended for steroids while under his watch)," he says. "It's monitored so tightly, they're not going to get away with it. It just goes back to hard work and dedication as the way to get yourself to the big leagues. There will still be one or two guys out there who are going to take a chance, but the percentages are very, very, very low that they won't get caught. We've been fortunate - minor league ball clamps down pretty good. You could take a Sudafed, which has ephedrine in it, and get caught, and pay the price. But we make sure they know what's what: in Spring Training they talk to the kids, all the minor leaguers, as a group. And then our strength and conditioning coaches follow up, and the trainer, and tell them again about the do's and don'ts out there. We're trying to educate as we can, whenever we can, and make sure everyone understands the rules."

FATHER TIME AND MONEYBALL

Most folks work with an eye on the clock, always mindful of quittin' time, measuring their days and their lives by the hands of the Westclox on the wall. Many minor league and college ballplayers try like hell every day to keep their eyes as far away from ol' Big Ben as humanly possible - time may heal all wounds, but it's constantly ticking for a ballplayer: one year you're a hotshot phenom, and the next you're a guy who's stalled in his progression toward being a top-flight prospect.

"Moneyball," Michael Lewis' 2003 bestseller about the sabermetric revolution - the analysis of baseball through objective evidence, especially statistics - helped popularize a change in the way some major league clubs began scout talent. Lewis's best-selling tale of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane - and his de-emphasis of traditional measuring sticks in favor of using financially undervalued skills like a high on-base percentage to judge hitters - made quantifiable statistical evidence (and excellence) more important than ever.

Beane, a former player, was said by scouts at the time to have one of the greatest baseball bodies they'd ever seen. Known as a "five-tool player" (hits for average, hits for power, running speed, arm strength and fielding ability), his jersey hung on him like Paul Bunyan wore a flannel.

Unfortunately, Billy Beane was also one of the biggest busts of all time. Scouts, said Beane, were important, but they were also people, and therefore likely to be blinded by a corn-fed Adonis who, despite his statuesque physique, had huge holes in his swing. To Beane, the fact that a guy looked like a ballplayer wasn't important - could the dude hit? What did the numbers say?

As numbers have become more important (and they always have been, to varying degrees), so has the pressure to accumulate them.

"I would think there will always be players who will ignore the rules and try to get an advantage," Shanks says. "But it certainly would be foolish to do it now with the light on this issue. Mediocre players are going to try to become great, and that might entice some to try and get ahead using something. I'm sure there is someone out there trying to come up with some undetectable enhancement as we speak."

Dr. Gary Gaffney, M.D., is Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Iowa College of Medicine. His research interests include the use of anabolic substances and body image in adolescents and young adults. His daily blog www.steroidnation.com contains posts about steroid users, anabolic substances, and the relationship of these athletes and performance enhancing drugs to sports and society.

"Since the institution of sporting competition, cheating has occurred," says Gaffney. "PED cheating will simply become more sophisticated over the years to avoid detection, and to stay ahead of the other drug-cheats by using better drugs. It appears that an athlete who wants to use PEDs can always find a way to circumvent the rules; as someone once said, PED testing is more an IQ test than a drug test. However, if drug-cheats are ostracized by the fans, that does send a message to would-be violators. On the other hand, the rewards for PED use appear to be very strong - increased athletic performance leading to better stats, better performance, and increased earning power."

As with anything in professional sports, the love of the game is only rivaled by the love of the green. The difference between being a first-round pick and a third-round one doesn't have all that much to do with how quick a player matriculates through the system. It can, however, mean the difference of upwards of a million dollars.

"There was a story recently on a draft pick - Matt West - from the Texas Rangers testing positive his first season out of high school; he was a teenager at the time," says Gaffney. "The GM of the Ranger - Jon Daniels - suggested the top draft picks be tested for PEDs, which is currently not being implemented. He reasoned that the MLB teams spend significant money on the high draft picks, and thus should be assured that those athletes are steroid-free."

Gaffney says he does see progress, however, even in the midst of televised Congressional witch hunts and the dog-and-pony show Canseco, his new book in tow, is leading through the halls of media.

"I believe the current minor league PED policy began in 2001," Gaffney says. "Looking at data throughout the years, the incidence of policy violations has gone down over the past three years. Therefore, it seems the minor league education and anti-doping measures may have been effective...or, perhaps, may have resulted in smarter drug-cheats. It might be the motivation of MLB to introduce younger players to a more stringent steroids testing policy than the major leagues, trying to set the ethical standard higher for the future."

According to minorleaguenews.com, in 2001, minor league testing produced 439 positives out of 4,850 tests given - a percentage of 9.1 percent of tests failed. (No suspensions were required, but players were required to participate in treatment and counseling.) In 2002, the rate of positive tests went down to 4.8 percent (Only players who failed two tests were suspended). In 2003, it was down to 4 percent. In 2004, when first-time offenders were suspended and names made public, the rate went down to 1.78 percent. In 2005, it dropped slightly to 1.7 percent, and in 2006, when major league baseball increased suspensions for 2006 to the current 50/100/life model, it dropped to a tiny 0.36 percent.

"The greatest temptation is using steroids as a way to get to the big leagues," says Greenberg. "If you can nip it in the bud at the minor league level, all the better. It's like with most advice - the best way to quit is to never have started."

However, some people have already started, back in college, high school, or, in the rare case, even middle school. What's more, thanks to the relatively lax testing done by colleges and athletic associations (due in part to the sheer numbers of such colleges), kids are slipping through the cracks, sometimes making it all the way through their amateur baseball careers having never had to submit to one.

"I am not sure the 'testing-positive' numbers are even published in college baseball," says Gaffney. "Past ESPN reports indicate that the numbers of positive tests dropped from 92 in 1999-2000 to 49 in 2004-2005, without a breakdown by sports. A recent series of reports in the Salt Lake Tribune suggested that the NCAA's anti-doping procedures are very weak."

"I've found it difficult to find a lot of data," says Godfrey. "But according to an NCAA chart (www1.ncaa.org/membership/ed_outreach/healthsafety/drug_testing/0203results.html), from August 2002 to June 2003 there were less than 200 samples collected from baseball players across all divisions, and over 7,000 from football players (Author's note: Of those '02 to '03 baseball samples collected, there were only two positives. Things were similar in 2004-2005 - of 516 Division I tests, there were six positive tests.)"

That may sound like a perfectly agreeable amount of testing to some - until you consider the fact that there are 283 championship-eligible Division I institutions which sponsor baseball alone.

If the NCAA's not interested in doing anything - and indeed, it is a hard thing to police, when you consider the sheer amount of colleges and universities in this country - it seems like the main deterrents for high school and college players lies, as with their fortunes, in the future. To be specific, the specter of a strict, name-names minor league drug testing program, the Mark McGwire Hall of Fame fiasco, the stepped-up busting of Internet pharmacies and anti-aging clinics, and the precedent of trainers and drug suppliers being forced to talk to investigators to save their own hides.

Coastal Carolina University baseball player Joey Haug, a right-handed pitcher recently named CollegeBaseballInsider.com's National Player of the Week following a dominant 10-inning relief stretch during the first week in April, is something of a scholar on the subject of PEDs.

Joey Haug

"A lot of my writing assignments for school have been on the subject," Haug says. "I've been playing baseball my whole life, so it's something I have a passion for. I've done a lot of research about it, and looked into the pros and cons of steroids in Major League Baseball and who takes the blame for it, and who takes the blame for it unfairly sometimes."

Haug says the research he's done has taught him two things: one, that steroids have been completely rampant in the majors for a while now, and that the strict college and minor league penalties for testing positive have had an effect on players of all stripes, whether high school, college or pro.

"Coastal and every other Division I program is subject to random drug testing," he says. "Whenever the NCAA decides to show up to test, we have to take them. We actually just had the NCAA come through a few weeks ago, and I was one of the people pulled. But we all passed. In Division I, it would be stupid. I pitched in junior college (Maple Woods Community College in Kansas City, Mo.) and I saw that there was no testing, and you could tell a difference. People know they're not going to get tested, so it got a little rampant. But in D-I, one's going to do it and face a one-year suspension. People are all looking to get drafted, and you become an untouchable if you test positive in college."

But for a person on his last legs, or perhaps a junior college kid looking to gain traction with a major college or pro program, steroids are a temptation, Haug admits.

"The thing with guys in junior college is that you can spend $100 or $200 on a four-week or eight-week cycle...for a college kid, those are the cheapest things you can buy. It's doable, even if it's not smart. These millionaires in baseball are taking HGH and things that can only be discovered in a blood test. (St. Louis Cardinals slugger and 2005 MLB MVP) Albert Pujols went to the same college I did, and I work out with him in the winters. He's a huge man, but he doesn't have a bodybuilder's body like Barry Bonds or Gary Sheffield. He's still got a lot of baby fat on him. His personal trainer's also the strength and conditioning coach at Maple Woods, and the gym where I work out in the winters. (The steroid issue) is so crazy now that if he's not the one to open the bottle or crack the seal, he won't drink anything out of anyone's else's hands. He's that paranoid about what people might think about him. He works out six hours a day, and I'm confident he's clean. But I've also seen (former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher) Jason Grimsley work out too, and he has failed a test (and has been investigated by the F.B.I. for distributing PEDs). It was evident to anyone who saw him work out that he was just an enormous 'roidhead. If you see it, you know it. You just have to be a little cynical these days."

Monks says that his listeners' opinions vary wildly, but that no one - not even college players, get a free pass anymore.

"Let's not fool ourselves for even a second - college sports is big business," he says. "Minor leagues lead to big business. Who wouldn't want to hit the lottery and get paid? That's the thing, right? To get that little (or big) competitive advantage to make it to the next level and gain all of the fame, fortune, adulation - everything that goes along with it."

TEMPTATION VS. CONSEQUENCES

It seems that the PED/PED testing tete-a-tete isn't dissimilar to the push and pull that goes on between computer hackers and those folk hired to design programs and computer firewalls to stop them. As soon as one side gets the advantage, the other one steps up its game. As long as the financial and fame-based rewards still exist for those willing to take the chance with PEDs - and the same is true with unchecked surgical enhancement in Hollywood - there will be people willing to take the chance.

Conversely, there will be people more than happy to create these drugs, in new and novel fashion. And as long as public opinion continues to come out squarely against those folk who do use PEDs - especially if they lie about it - baseball's going to spend the money to find and fight those users and suppliers. (Although, to be fair, Major League Baseball, never one to fight rising attendance figures, didn't seem to care all that much during the Sammy Sosa/Mark McGwire home run battles of the late '90s.)

"(The PED battle) will never truly be over, in the sense that players will always be looking for an edge," Godfrey says. It's still a major issue in the Olympics, and they've had the strongest testing program around for many years. There's not only money and fame at stake, but most athletes have devoted their entire lives to sport, and will go to great lengths to accomplish their personal goals."

Gaffney says that the viewing public's "outrage" over the PED issue isn't something that you can easily predict. As the recent "pass" given Andy Petitte - named in the Mitchell Report, Petitte admitted he used HGH, but only for a short period of time, and then apologized for it - seems to show, it's not so much that you've cheated to get ahead, but the public face you put on that enhanced body. We like to see our heroes do superhuman things, and date supermodels, but we also like to know that they're human, and that they screw the f**k up every now and again to.

"The indictment of (former MLB first baseman) Rafael Palmeiro, McGwire, Clemens and Bonds is extreme because they did things that seemed unnatural, or beyond their ability, and did so in an era when they could use drugs freely without fear of getting caught. That type of lawlessness will never happen again. I believe players like Pettitte and say, Alex Rodriguez, will get a pass because their accomplishments don't seem too out of line. I think the public makes a distinction between experimentation and habitual use, even if they're not sure who falls into which category."

Monks says it's a contest that will be waged as long as sporting contests are waged.

"It's competition - whether it's competition on the playing field, competition in practice, or competition just to earn a spot on the team," he says. "If you have competition, someone is going to try to gain an advantage. You'd love to hope that it's something as pure and simple as choosing one side of the field on a coin flip over the other side of the field because the sun is more likely to be in the eyes of your competitor than yours but it's just not that simple anymore."

These mixed messages assure us that we haven't seen the last of major league, minor league and college players taking advantage of chemical enhancement in an attempt - whether or not it's ever proven to help - to better themselves, despite the risks (bone fragility, reproductive problems, rage issues). These same mixed messages mean that baseball's not going to stop testing for them, either, especially in the minor leagues.

From the comfort of our seats, whether in the stadium or the La-Z-Boy at home, love to play umpire or referee, calling the action on the court or field or diamond as we see fit, and rue that we'll never really have any effect over the outcome. It's part of what makes sports so fun to watch - the utter lack of control we have over something that we've come to covet so much.

Things have changed in the last couple years, however. For once, it seems that we, as fans, seem to be the only ones with any real control over who are considered the winners and losers in a back-and-forth game that's not likely to be decided for some time to come.