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Anderson defends his '96 power trip, says 'it was not a fluke'
Former Oriole answers Palmer's steroid remarks
By Roch Kubatko
Sun Staff
Originally published March 20, 2004
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - One cell phone call to Brady Anderson is interrupted
because he's running with the track athletes at the University of
California-Irvine. Another time, he cuts the conversation short to lift weights,
promising to reserve a few minutes later in the day. Nighttime hours are spent
feeding his 7-month-old daughter, Brianna, and putting her to bed. And the
weekends aren't always good because he's competing in a flag football league.

Perhaps the Orioles' second-most popular player behind Cal Ripken during his 14
years in Baltimore, Anderson has been retired from baseball since the San Diego
Padres released him from their Triple-A affiliate in Portland, Ore., in 2003.
But no matter how long he's away from the game, no matter how many athletic
challenges await him - and he's always looking - the aura of his 50-homer season
will continue to exist. And so will the suspicions.

When Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer suggested earlier this week that Anderson's
achievements in 1996 were open to scrutiny because they were such an aberration
- the implication being that without a drug-testing program, nobody knows
whether he cheated - the former outfielder's name became linked to steroids. And
this time, it wasn't just the whispers that envelop any player who has an
anomalous season.

The story made national headlines and aired on ESPN. Eight years after
Anderson's milestone, he was a hot topic again - and for all the wrong reasons.

"Because I only hit 50 home runs once, it was, in fact, an aberration. However,
it was not a fluke," he told The Sun yesterday. "Nothing can be considered a
fluke that takes six months to accomplish. Rather it was a culmination of all my
athleticism and baseball skills and years of training peaking simultaneously.
This was my athletic opus.

"Hitting in front of [Roberto] Alomar, [Rafael] Palmeiro, [Bobby] Bonilla and
[Cal] Ripken didn't hurt, either."

Palmer later explained that his remarks, which aired Monday on 98 ROCK
(WIYY-FM), weren't meant to suggest that Anderson used steroids. Though he
hasn't contacted Anderson, Palmer issued a brief apology through the media.

"I have been alternately amused and perplexed by Palmer's vacillating comments
over the last few days," said Anderson, who is raising his daughter with her
mother, Sonia Vassi. "I did not respond initially because I sensed he knew he
had made a mistake and thought it fair to let him rectify the matter on his own.

"Perhaps what offended me the most was his comment that he knows how hard I
trained. How could he possibly know that? Pushing myself to become a better
athlete was truly my passion and still is. Many people don't possess the desire
to test the limits of what the body and mind can accomplish, and others I'm
certain possess the desire but lack the expertise to achieve the desired
results."

Anderson never hit more than 21 homers before 1996, and didn't eclipse 24 after
'96.

"I know what I accomplished, am proud of it, and know that it was done with
integrity," he said. "I'll state this once again: It was 26 more home runs than
I hit in any other season, but that's just one more home run per week, just one
more good swing. That is the data that simultaneously comforted me and haunted
me, the small difference between greatness and mediocrity."

Anderson usually kept a container of Creatine in his locker, but the supplement,
which serves as an energy reserve in muscle cells, is legal.

"That's here to stay. It's a legitimate substance. It's found in food," he said.
"Taken properly, it can be very beneficial. But it doesn't replace skill or
training."

Anderson, who was tested for steroids in the minors last year, said he has
received dozens of calls from friends and former teammates since Palmer's
remarks made it into print, many of them outraged or confused by the
implications.

They remember Anderson as a man obsessed with physical fitness, someone whose
training methods were seen as outrageous for a baseball player. They remember
him working out privately on the back fields at Fort Lauderdale Stadium, where
he would squat 200 pounds while balancing on an exercise ball.

They also observed how his weight never fluctuated much, that his muscular build
was the same four years before he hit 50 homers - as evidenced by a poster of
him, shirtless, that was a popular sell in Baltimore. They didn't see the
violent outbursts common with steroid abusers.

"There was a part of me that regarded the steroid talk as a compliment, sort of
like when the Brewers came into town in '96 and were snooping around for my bats
to see if they were corked," he said. "Those things weren't upsetting to me."

Players used to tease Anderson for bringing his own blender into the clubhouse,
unfamiliar with the concoctions he chugged before or after games.

Said Ripken: "Now protein mixes are an acceptable part of everyone's diet. Brady
always had a much more advanced concept of cross-training and plyometrics and
his diet. He was just ahead of the curve."

His timing on fastballs was impeccable in '96.

"To me, it was all about him being locked in. He had good swings every at-bat.
Bearing witness to it all year, he was a marvel to watch. I don't remember him
ever being in a slump," Ripken said.

"Brady always had a fly-ball swing, which he was criticized for as a leadoff
hitter, but that year he was right on the ball. He was just in one of those
grooves. There were a couple of instances in my career when I seemed to pick up
the next day where I left off. It's hard to explain. You wish you could do that
every year."

Said Anderson: "The thing that stands out about '96 is, it's not my size, it's
my swing. If anyone wants to compare what changed about me, my swing was so much
better that year. I couldn't match it, and I don't know why. Later in my career,
I was trying to imitate myself. I had a swing that any hitter would have been
proud of. The other years, I used to just battle [hard] and be athletic."

Once reluctant to share the training methods that gave him an edge, Anderson now
offers to work with other athletes at his Los Angeles home. Mark Quinn, 29, a
former teammate in Portland who's in the St. Louis Cardinals' camp, spent four
months with Anderson after the season and said he has never been faster or
better conditioned.

"I gained pounds and lost body fat," he said. "One day, we'd work out with the
track and field coach at UC-Irvine. The next day we were doing standing long
jumps and hurdles, throwing a football around. We'd lift weights, play
basketball. Some days we'd head to Venice beach and work out on the gymnast
rings. We'd run hills and do lunges - every aspect of cross-training you could
imagine.

"Brady just turned 40, and he's in better shape than I'll ever be in. People who
accuse him of steroids obviously never spent as much time around him as I have.
He's a genetic freak. He was born with three percent body fat and never changed.
He's a super athlete, and that's something you can't get from a syringe."