
Shock value of Sammy Sosa's positive drug test was minimal Tuesday because it's not the first time he's used drugs to enhance his game performance.
In reference to his 2003 drug use exposure, General manager of the San Diego Padres, Radny Smith, at the time, said: "We all know there's steroid use, and it's definitely become more prevalent. The ballplayers all know the dangers of it. We preach it every year. But because there's so much money to be made these days, guys are willing to pay the price now and will pay the piper later. …No one has any hard-core proof, but there's a lot of guys you suspect."
Sosa, who has been under suspicion for a span of time that it was almost taken for lightly that he used performance-enhancing drugs, which was confirmed Tuesday by The New York Times' report that he failed an anonymous 2003 drug test.
For so long the league has opposed random drug tests claiming it was a violation of individual right, even to those who wanted testing.
I'd love to see testing myself," White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas said at the time. "If it can be done in every other sport, why not ours? At least it would get rid of the suspicions. 'I went in to see my doctor this winter, and he even asked me, 'Hey, are you on steroids? It's a question people are going to ask, especially the big power hitters, unless something is done about it."
"It's not like it's a shocker," says Brian McRae, Sosa's former teammate with the Chicago Cubs. "I think with the top 10 guys you most suspected, he was one of the top three or four on everybody's list.
"It's not like you were thinking, "Nah, he never did anything.' The guys that were around him, and saw him every day, you suspected something. He just didn't look right."
"Are you shocked? That's all I can say, are you shocked? I became his friend. I have nothing bad to say about him, but there are so many guys in that same situation, so are we shocked? I was shocked [Sosa] came out last week and said what he said [about being innocent] and I think that fueled the fire," Frank Thomas told Chicago Tribune on the Wrigley Field.
White Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik says why should anyone be surprised these days when a player of the steroid era is linked to drug use?
"I'm really surprised by how people are so shocked when some other one's name pops up," Podsednik told reporters. "It's not surprising. It's not that shocking. It is what it is. That was part of those times."