European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 21, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse F. A Rac. \ St r Yah sports and 7. Alcohol to Legal. Lethal and lax a 1 i editor s note this is the first of a two part series on. Sports and alcohol. Part 2, which appears in tomorrow s a stars and stripes focuses on Why athletes drink. A a a by Lee Byrd the associated press you win the big one and you re Toast of the locker room surely every bar room a. And most any living room in town. Win anything in Between and this Bud s for you. And if you lose Well the Long Michelob. Or Jack Daniels. Tastes great. Less filling. Go spuds go Good times a with Good friends. It s As american As baseball which has four teams at least partially owned by Brewers and one even called the Brewers. And As american As football and basketball whose professional teams depend so heavily upon the. Advertising and Concession dollars from those same. People who concoct and Hawk the most abused drug in Quot the land. A a. A it is the drug that is consumed by the most people an estimated 100 million americans and which kills the most. People about 100,000 annually in one Way or another. Ethyl alcohol liquor or malt liquor wine or wine cooler Bourbon or Beer it s Legal it can be lethal and sports is lax about it. Len Dykstra fourth in last years National league batting race and Phillies teammate Darren Daulton a million Dollar signing Over the Winter Bones and internal injuries in a car crash in suburban Philadelphia. Police said Dykstra the Driver was legally drunk and that both players were Lucky to be alive. /. Bill Shoemaker the winning est jockey of All time is paralysed below his upper Chest after a car wreck in which California police said his blood alcohol level was almost twice the Legal limit. A Quot a a a Quot add those to the recent cases of Roy Tarpley the Dallas. Mavericks Forward and olympic sprint and Long jump Champion Carl Lewis both were charged with driving under the influence of alcohol the latest in a Long line of athletes who ran into trouble with booze. A a a a Quot there is a Clear connection in our society linking sports with alcohol use Quot says Caryn Oftedahl of the Hazelden. A foundation in Minnesota which oversees the a Fly a drug. Abuse program. Quot often in professional athletics victors. Celebrate Success with Champagne while the Defeated a. Crown their sorrows. Drinking is often seen As an integral a a. Pari of . Americans sporting world has come Down hard on cocaine amphetamines steroids and other illegal or a controlled substances yet it remains passive about How to handle the abuse of alcohol even As the evidence mounts of its particularly insidious attraction for athletes either in its own deadly right or As the Quot Gateway Quot drug to other poisons. The a Fly a drug policy acknowledges that alcohol is Quot the most abused drug in our other professional and Amateur organizations including the Aba the Mcaa and. The . Olympic committee have issued similar Quot declarations. Quot a a. But for a variety of reasons including alcohol s legality and popularity none has.,pursued aggressive programs to Deal with the problem either through prevention or discipline. The nil is alone among the four major professional sports in having any kind of formal alcohol. Abuse policy and program. A. Which is to say simply that for the drinking athletes the organizations for which they perform and the Young fans. Who follow their examples booze remains a matter of lip service and conflicting messages. I 1 super bowl Bud bowl and just say no. Public service anti drug announcements alternate with Beer commercials. In january the soc Drew scores of physicians jockey Bill Shoemaker is paralysed after a car wreck that involved alcohol. File Long jump Champion Carl Lewis was arrested for driving under the influence. Darryl Strawberry of the los Angeles dodgers sought medical help for what he now admits was a Quot life out of control. A baseball hero babe Ruth was a two listed Drinker. Trainers and drug abuse experts to its conference Center in Colorado Springs. Colo. To discuss one topic a alcohol a and to. Establish experimental prevention counselling for 80 athletes. That came a Little late for diver Bruce. Kimball who a underwent treatment in prison for his drinking problem after he slowed his car into a group of Florida teen agers killing two a month before the. 1988 olympic trials. He is eligible for probation in 1993 \ a recent University of Kansas Survey of head athletic trainers at Mcaa division i schools ranked alcohol far ahead of marijuana cocaine and anabolic steroids in frequency of abuse by their athletes. Yet Only 36 percent of those same trainers reported any Effort to test for alcohol while Loo percent said they tested Tor marijuana and cocaine and 66 percent for steroids. the vast majority of the trainers reported no special a attempts to instruct athletes about the dangers of alcohol a outside of one or two meetings a year , briefly and generally substance abuse As a whole. That attitude makes no sense whatever to medical experts. A a a. A a. Quot alcohol toxic to the brain than cocaine Quot said or. Arnold Washton a prominent substance abuse recovery expert. Quot it kills brain cells. Cocaine won t do that. Alcohol is More toxic than heroin to rots the insides. Heroin won t do that."�?T. A. A. But rarely has any professional or collegiate athlete been disciplined or a recovery program for an alcohol problem alone Uncle sent was tied to a criminal offence or other misconduct that embarrassed the team. Even then the response is often inconsequential. Baseball whose most revered hero babe Ruth was a two listed Drinker never has suspended a player for alcohol abuse though Many have run afoul of managers. A and front offices for poor play absenteeism brawling or. Other misdeeds tied to their drinking habits. Darryl Strawberry entered the Smithers Center last year. Not because the new York mets called him. To task but because his wife called police to complain that he had. Slapped her and threatened her with a pistol. She decided against pressing charges after he sought medical help for what he now admits was a Quot life out of i other recovering alcoholics in the include pitchers Dennis Eckersley and Bob Welch of Oakland and Denis Martinez of Montreal. Welch had the Good Fortune to land first with the dodgers one of the first professional teams to have a functioning drug and alcohol counselling program and he was convinced in Early 1980 to commit himself to the Meadows a rehabilitation facility in new York Yankee Steve Howe is Back in a the majors after a suspension for drug and alcohol abuse. Dallas Mavericks Forward Roy Tarpley has also had trouble with booze. Wickenburg Ariz a a. Quot. Just recently Steve Howe of the new York Yankees. Returned to the majors after a 3 year absence forced by his sixth suspension for alcohol and drug abuse. In the Aba very few players have sought help for alcoholism while More than a score have checked into the Van Guys facility for other drug abuses. Statistically that does t jibe a but remember the league s three stakes and out drug agreement with the players does not cover alcohol. Two players who have faced up to their problems with booze Are among the Best a Golden state s Chris mum and Washington s Bernard King. A a. The nil has been erratic on the Issue. Some Are punished while others Are not. A a a College coaches and officials Are also equally mixed Over How a or whether a to Deal with excessive drinking to identify potential problem drinkers and alcoholics quite aside from chemical testing but virtually no team uses them. And Many medical experts agree that chemical tests in the Case of alcohol Are largely wasted efforts. Unless an athlete is sneaking drinks on the practice Field or getting bombed at breakfast a not unheard of mind you a he is Likely to test sober since alcohol metabolizes. Quickly. A. A -. Quot. Therein lies a cruel twist for an athlete hooked on alcohol unless he commits a crime he stands far less Chance of getting caught a and getting help a the Best Chance often comes if an athlete is busted for drug use the Washington redskins Dexter Manley for instance went to the Lucas facility or cocaine abuse he left As a member of both cocaine Anonymous and alcoholics Anonymous. A. Page 14 a the stars and stripes tuesday. May 21,1991 the stars and stripes a Page 15
