When Major League Baseball announced before the season that its new drug policy was going to include amphetamines, or "greenies" there was a lot of jokes made at the expense of the players.
"How are they going to finish the season?" some asked.
"What's going to happen to half of the players in the league come September?" others offered.
Well, we're just about to the point of the season where some players hit the proverbial wall (it's a marathon, not a sprint, right?) and I'm even more curious about what affect the new policy will have over the final month of the season.
For the uninitiated, greenies are speed or a synthetic stimulant used to suppress the appetite, control weight, and treat disorders including narcolepsy and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. It is also used recreationally and for performance enhancement and is illegal without a prescription in most cases.
It's also been a popular drug used by baseball players for the past 50 years. In fact, there are many published stories about the widespread use of greenies in big league clubhouses, including somewhere the team supplied the drugs for the players. According to legend (and Tug McGraw), greenies were the drug of choice amongst the Phillies in the late 1970s and early 1980s, not that this made the Phillies any different from any other team.
All of that aside, there has been no reports of any positive greenie tests in the big leagues this season, and it appears as if the players who were using them have made the shift to other stimulants. Coffee as well as more mainstream energy boosters favored by runners and triathletes are more prevalent in big league clubhouses, though for whatever reason, Red Bull and other so-called energy drinks aren’t as visible as they were in past seasons.
In other words, it seems like the ban on amphetamines has worked.
Hitting the wall
Putting the greenie issue aside, it seems as if one Phillie is slowing down. At least that's the way it sounded when I read a few quotes from Mike Lieberthal regarding Brett Myers' latest poor outing against the Nationals on Friday night. According to the irrepressible Dennis Deitch of the Delaware County Daily Times, Lieberthal said:
"He seems a little tired," catcher Mike Lieberthal said of Myers. "The pop isn’t there on his fastball. He has seemed a little tired in his last few starts."
Lieberthal said Myers might be going through a "dead-arm phase." The last time that phrase was used in conversation, closer Tom Gordon was theorizing on his struggles. A few days later, he was shut down and having tests performed on a sore shoulder.
By no means am I suggesting anything about Myers, but based on a quote in a newspaper it sounds as if the big pitcher is getting tired. Perhaps it's Myers' fitness that has caused this downturn? Perhaps Myers might hit the wall in the final month of the season because he isn't in good enough shape?
Remember how Kevin Millwood folded like a cheap tent during the stretch in 2003?