First thing I did was jump into a cab in the Loop. I had watchedon TV as Glenallen Hill's home run flew over the left-field wall atWrigley Field, over the bleachers, over the back fence, overWaveland and onto one of the rooftops.
Some guy in a corporate outing had dived for the ball, and downbelow the ball hawkers already were arguing over whether this wasthe longest homer ever at Wrigley, or whether Dave Kingman's orBilly Williams' went farther. Or maybe Jim Hickman's, RobertoClemente's or Swish Nicholson's.
"I hit one to the trees by the Torco sign," said Williams, a Cubscoach that day, May 11, 2000. "But this was the longest ball I'dever seen hit at Wrigley Field."
In the stadium, players past and present, and fans, too, werebuzzing. Ron Santo and Mark Grace, though, both told of baseball'sdirty secret, that the ball was juiced.
"Not to take anything away from Glenallen," Grace said at thetime, "but no human being can do that."
Hill was named in the Mitchell Report on Thursday. Sen. Mitchellcompleted his steroid investigation into baseball and named morethan 80 names. At some point in his career, Hill allegedly boughttwo kits of human growth hormone from New York Mets clubhouseattendant Kirk Radomski. A signed check for $3,200 is in thereport's appendix. Hill, now a coach for the Colorado Rockies, saidhe bought steroids but never used them.
Do you believe him? And more important, do you still believe inhis home run? I don't. Remember what Grace said. No human being cando that.
CUBS, SOX FAR FROM EXEMPT
Hill was never a great Cub, but he had a great Cub moment. Andyou can take all great moments now and try to figure how they blendtogether. It's Clemente and Hill and Williams all in the samesentence. What's real?
Thursday was a big day in baseball history. Chicago is a bigbaseball town. How did the city do? Not well. But no one did.
Former Cubs and Sox pitcher Matt Karchner tells in the report ofthe time he watched two Cubs teammates, his roommates, do steroidsin their apartment. Ex-Sox pitcher Scott Schoeneweis allegedly hadsix shipments of steroids sent right to Sox Park. Then there's JimParque, Rondell White, Todd Hundley, Jerry Hairston Jr., GaryMatthews Jr.
Do you still want Baltimore's star second baseman, Brian Roberts?The Cubs are said to be talking trade for him. His name is in thereport as having told someone he had tried steroids.
That report was more than 1,000 names short of being complete.Still, the Cubs shouldn't bring in anyone on the list.
So it's the past, the present, the future. It's hard to believein any of it.
The report didn't add a whole lot or say much that hadn't beenwritten a million times already. The cheating players are hurtingthe kids who are watching. Commissioner Bud Selig looked the otherway when steroids started taking over, more concerned withbaseball's revenues than its conscience.
But seeing it all together like that, one story after another,what can we actually believe in sports?
Frank Thomas, maybe. Look at Chicago's two baseball icons fromthe era, Sammy Sosa and Thomas. Sosa was mentioned in the reportjust once, where it said that he didn't respond to a letter askingquestions. Thomas was the only current player who voluntarily talkedto Mitchell.
Thomas and Sosa always will be connected in this town. Sosa wasthe smiley human Beanie Baby, while Thomas was about brooding self-interest. Which one do you believe now?
When they went to the congressional steroid hearings, Sosasomehow forgot how to speak English. No one ever pins anything onhim. But I don't believe.
Thomas said he'd be willing to be a part of solving the problem.Not long ago, some people were wondering what happened to that vow.
In the report, Mitchell says that Thomas was "very helpful."
Other players will see him as a snitch now.
QUITE A STORY FROM KARCHNER
Do you still believe in the White Sox' World Series title?Players from that team weren't named. But it's hard to think thatany championship has been won without cheats.
When Karchner tells of his teammates together in his apartment,the problem doesn't sound isolated. It's a culture.
"He said that one of the players brought the steroids to theapartment but was afraid of needles and therefore asked the secondplayer to administer the shot," the report says. "The second playerinjected the first player with steroids in the buttocks and theninjected himself. Later that season, Karchner was offered steroidsby certain of his Cubs teammates."
Hill said in the report that he didn't use the steroids he hadbought because he was having marital problems. There is noexplanation for whatever that means.
Hill's famous homer is gone now. It was measured at 490 feet, butwho knows how far it would have flown if that rooftop hadn't been inthe way. Kingman's had a chance to fly down Kenmore into someone'syard.
"I kind of think they shortchanged me a little bit," Hill saidthat day.
He also said this: "The ball is not juiced."
Maybe something else was.
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