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Dad's message: Steroids can kill
In light of his son’s suicide after using the illegal drug, he’s ready to give a congressional hearing a real earful
BY JOHN JEANSONNE
STAFF WRITER
March 16, 2005
Don Hooton intends to take Major League Baseball to task for setting a "terrible example" when he testifies at tomorrow's congressional hearings on steroid use, an example he believes led to the 2003 suicide of his 17-year-old son.
Taylor Hooton was a pitcher for Plano High School, near Dallas, whose experiment with steroids apparently was an attempt to mimic professional stars' urge to build strength and size. He experienced bouts of anger and depression and eventually hanged himself in his bedroom.
His death, one of three suicides by young athletes linked by their parents to steroid use since 2002, shocked his parents into starting the Taylor Hooton Foundation to raise awareness of steroids, particularly among parents and coaches.
Don Hooton will appear before the House Government Reform Committee, which has demanded the presence of baseball's top executives and some marquee players. The Yankees' Jason Giambi was excused from testifying because of his involvement in the ongoing federal investigation into illegal steroid distribution, but current and former sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, commissioner Bud Selig and union chief Donald Fehr have been called. Former player Jose Canseco, who recently released a tell-all book on the subject, also will testify.
When Don Hooton's turn comes, "I'm going to say, 'Guys, I don't care if you want to be role models or not. Get used to it. Kids all over America look up to you,'" he said.
"As a parent, it's difficult enough to raise kids without having to compete with idols that are setting an example that threatens their health and is felonious behavior. It's cheating. It goes to the very moral fiber of what we're trying to teach our kids."
Speaking by telephone yesterday from his Texas office as marketing executive for Hewlett-Packard, Hooton said, "Somebody's got to dress these guys down."
Hooton created the foundation following a discussion with Dr. Gary Wadler, the Manhasset-based expert and member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, who told him, "It may sound awful, but in many ways your son's message from the grave can be more powerful than any current user; it could have enormous impact."
The foundation has connected with parents of two other suicide victims, both from the San Francisco Bay area, college baseball player Rob Garibaldi, 24, and junior college football player Efrain Marrero, 19. Wadler and the Garibaldis will testify tomorrow, and the Marreros plan to attend.
"We didn't pick this fight," Hooton said. "But they want my opinion, and guess what they're going to get."
To Hooton, the punishment baseball proposes for a first positive steroid test, a 10-day suspension, "is a joke. It sends one more message to the kids that they're not taking this thing seriously."
The players union's long-standing opposition to testing as a privacy issue, he said, is "bull." Hooton believes there should be testing down to the junior high level because "without it, we'll never know how many kids are using. And the positive side to testing is, for the good kids, it's all they need as an excuse to say no."
Observations that tomorrow's hearings will be nothing more than a media circus are rejected by Hooton.
"You've got around a million kids upstairs in their bedrooms injecting themselves with anabolic steroids," he said. "We need to get that clearly sighted on the radar screen."
To make his arguments, he said, "I've got five minutes. They're going to have to stop me."
