TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Hopefully now that the season has started, the entire steroid nastiness will die down. But before that happens, I'd like to share one last story. A recent article details the steroid-fuelled fall of Rob Garibaldi, a USC baseball player.

Garibaldi was a little guy, and had the idea of size and power built into his head for years by baseball managers and scouts. He had decent talent, was drafted in the late rounds by the Yankees in 1999, and was a good college baseball player. But after his sophomore year he was told by the USC coaching staff that he should be a better power hitter. According to Garibaldi's mother, one of the trainers helped him get started on steroids.

What followed was a sad story. He had serious emotional and violence problems, and his roommates had to buy deadbolt locks for their doors, and (since they were ballplayers themselves) they started sleeping with their baseball bats.

Things spiraled downward. He was kicked off the USC due to his behavior problems, and he ended up in a Division II program. He went undrafted after the completion of his collegiate career, and at the age of 24 took his own life. One of the effects of steroid withdrawal is depression.

First of all, this raises the question of NCAA testing. According to the NCAA Website steorid testing takes place in a random year-round fashion only for football and track. All other sports have testing only at championship events. In other words, there's a date on the calendar and the athletes can time their steroid cycles without fear of detection. Entire teams can juice, and nobody would know the better. While individual schools are allowed to have stricter detection programs, they would have to bear the cost, and also the competitive disadvantage of a clean program. Next time you see all of the "NBA bodies" on a college hoops team, remember that there is more or less no effective steroid testing for that sport. Bottom line, Garibaldi could have easily gotten away with steroid use, the NCAA was willing to look the other way.


This is a story that should be told to all high school and college athletes. Not just because of the tragic ending, but because of how well the steroids worked for Garibaldi. The best place for minor league and college stats is The Baseball Cube. Here are Garibaldi's stats at USC before and after steroids:

Year	Avg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SLG	OBP	OPS
2000	.335	60	224	46	75	17	1	8	44	24	29	.527	.405	932
2001	.281	41	135	22	38	5	1	1	25	19	20	.356	.365	721

Did the power numbers go up? No they crashed. He might have been bigger, stronger and more surly, but he was a poorer ball player. Baseball is a difficult game, and there is a strong mental aspect. A load of extra testosterone flowing through your veins makes you more aggressive; this could hurt you at the plate. Again, look at the stats, Garibaldi's stats were worse after he started juicing. Is this all due to steroids? Of course not, he was trying to change his game to be a more powerful hitter, and the adjustments, in both technique and physique, did not combine for the winning formula. Given the sample size even taking the signal from the noise is hard. But it's important to see that steroids did not act like a magic bullet, and helped a once promising baseball career crash and burn.

posted by David 10:15 AM