New York, NY (1888PressRelease)
April 09, 2008 - As the Major League Baseball season gets underway, fans can’t help but wonder: Are their favorite players using drugs to get ahead?
“Last year’s massive steroid scandal still hangs over many players’ heads,” says Stephen Della Valle, author of the new addiction and recovery memoir Rising Above the Influence. “No matter why they took the drugs, what they did still constitutes abuse, and that’s a hard stigma to shake.”
In his now-infamous Mitchell Report, former Senate majority leader George Mitchell investigated drug use within professional baseball and found a high incidence of abuse of both steroids and human growth hormone among players. In a controversial move, he even named more than eighty players in his report, including seven former MVPs.
“Human growth hormone is almost impossible to detect through regular drug testing,” notes Mr. Della Valle, “and that makes it especially dangerous. Players can essentially use it unchecked, doing untold damage to their bodies in the process.”
Some of the surprising players’ names on Mitchell’s list included:
· Barry Bonds—played for the Pirates and the Giants; has seven MVPs and 762 home runs
· Roger Clemens—pitched for the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Blue Jays and the Astros
· Jason Giambi—with 364 home runs, has played for the Brewers, the Athletics and the Yankees
· Jose Canseco—retired in 2002, he played for the Athletics, the Rangers, the Red Sox, the Blue Jays, the Devil Rays and the Yankees; had 462 home runs in his sixteen-year career
“Some people see steroid use as an ‘acceptable’ form of addiction because they’re not out scoring on the street, like a regular junkie,” says Mr. Della Valle. “But they have to open their eyes—performance-enhancing substances can be just as dangerous and deadly as any illegal narcotic out there.”
Stephen Della Valle is president of the board of directors at Turning Point rehabilitation center in Verona, New Jersey. Currently celebrating twenty years of sobriety, he lives in Oak Ridge, New Jersey, with his wife, Donna. He has three children.
Rising Above the Influence is available now (ISBN: 0-9801776-0-X; softcover; Oak Ridge Press) on Amazon.com, Borders.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and at fine bookstores everywhere.
