01:00 AM EST on Sunday, March 20, 2005

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Fresh off his testimony before a congressional committee Thursday, Curt Schilling reiterated yesterday that Major League Baseball needs to eliminate loopholes in its current steroid-testing program, steps he deems necessary if the game is to regain the confidence of fans and forestall future intervention from Washington.

At the same time, Schilling continued to back off statements that he made in the past -- when he hinted that steroid use was widespread -- and warned against exaggerating the extent of the problem.

"My biggest dilemma Thursday," said Schilling at a press conference, "was that I didn't want to sit there and defend baseball as not having a steroid issue. Because it does. But for it to be stated that 8 out of 10 players (are using), I thought was absolutely a lie.

"I believe in my heart of hearts that the number is a lot closer to 1.7 percent (the number of major-leaguers testing positive last season) than it is to 80. Again, that's not to absolve the game or not to say there isn't a problem."

Schilling said baseball is now paying the price -- from scrutiny by politicians and ridicule from fans -- for ignoring the issue for too long.

"For 17 years," he said, "there has been this elephant in the room that has been danced around -- by a lot of (the media) as well as us. The same players (the media) are villifying and crushing now are the same guys you touted to the world for the last 15-20 years, with the same suspicions (players) had."

He cited Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds -- all but Bonds were subpoenaed to testify Thursday -- as high-profile players whose suspected link to steroids has damaged baseball's reputation.

"You have four guys in the last 18 years that have done something that's never been done, starting in 1988 when Jose went 40-40 (40 homers and 40 steals)," Schilling said. "(Canseco is) now an admitted cheater who took steroids his entire career. Then, you have Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, who in 1998 did something that's never been done before. Sammy's hit 60 homers three times. You have Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs. All four guys in the court of public opinion are accused of, or suspected of, using steroids.

"To the fans of the game, that's 100 percent. The four best players in the game -- not one of them or two of them, but all of them -- everybody suspected. So I see where it's (tough) for people to make that leap from 100 percent of those guys (having been suspected of use) to (1.7) percent of everybody (testing positive).

"That's what's happened -- our four best players have been going under scrutiny and all four had one thing in common: physically, they all drastically changed. So everybody began to accuse or suspect. And that became what it became."

Then, in an uncharacteristic gesture of good will toward Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez, with whom he's frequently sparred, Schilling added: "If anything, it makes me appreciate the fact that Alex Rodriguez is more of a genetic freak that we ever thought, that's he truly the only (legitimate) 40-40 guy to play the game."

Schilling said the vast majority of players want the game rid of steroids, both to ensure a level playing field and to remove the stain from the sport.

"I'm one of the 98.3 percent that passed my test," he said. "I don't think that point was made, or may not have been relevant. But as a player who hasn't taken steroids, I think it would be naive of me, or you in the media, to think we don't want these players caught and fixed and cut out."

Emphasizing that there was plenty of blame to go around for the predicament the game now finds itself in, Schilling said some players -- including himself -- had tried to call attention to the problem in the past.

"Could we have done more? In hindsight, absolutely," he said. "But we didn't. And we're where we're at because of the lack of activity by both sides."

But he quickly added that using the bully pulpit could only achieve so much, saying fixing the problem isn't as "cut and dried as you would like to believe it is."

"When you're talking about something that's negotiated in a collective bargaining agreement," Schilling said, "there are dynamics to that that I don't think are visible or apparent or normal to everybody."

Schilling and Frank Thomas were the only players subpoenaed who hadn't been linked to steroid use, so he was in no danger of implicating himself with his testimony. But he couldn't help but feel sympathy for McGwire, who gave an emotional opening statement, then dodged most questions.

"Mark is a friend," said Schilling, "he made decisions based on advice. I can only speak about my situation and how I would have acted. It's tough when you have a guy sitting there, refusing to talk and the guy sitting next to him (Rafael Palmeiro) absolutely denying. . . . It made for some very uncomfortable situations. As a person, not as a player, I felt bad for him to have to go through that."

When asked whether he interpreted McGwire's refusal to answer questions as a tacit admission of guilt, Schilling wouldn't say.

"To me," he said, "I can only put myself in that situation and try to decide how I would have acted or reacted. That's all any of us can do. I can say that if my name had been in Jose Canseco's book as a steroid user, two things would have happened: I would have issued a press release to deny it and called him a liar. And, I would have sued him."

Schilling added that it was unfortunate that some of the players called to testify were considered guilty before being given the opportunity to prove otherwise.

But he had no qualms about judging Canseco, because the former slugger has somewhat proudly and defiantly acknowledged his own steroid use in his book, Juiced, which helped prompt the hearings.

"He admitted to being a cheater," said Schilling. "His whole career was a sham. He never did anything on the field with his God-given ability."

The veteran pitcher doubted that a "whistle-blower" law, which would give immunity to players who turn in suspected users and which is being drafted by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), would be an effective deterrent.

"In 19 years I've been in the game, I have never seen steroids in pill form or in liquid form," he said. "I've never seen a player inject (himself) with steroids. I absolutely believe players have taken it and are taking it. But I could not sit here and tell you who."

As he noted Thursday, Schilling now believes he overestimated the degree of steroid use in the game.

"I didn't retract my comments -- I was in error when I made them," he said. "They were made under the guise that we wanted tougher testing. But I can not tell you with any degree of certainty one player that I know for sure, other than Jose Canseco, that has used steroids. Anything else by me, or you or anybody in the media, is speculation.

"I made a mistake. And I can't take it back -- I said it. In my mind, I now believe I was wrong -- not in just saying it, but what I said. I made a comment in an environment very different from the one we were in Thursday. That doesn't make it OK. It doesn't make it right. . . . It was an irresponsible mistake."

Commissioner Bud Selig repeatedly cited on Thursday that only 1.7 percent of major-leaguers had tested positive in 2004 as evidence that baseball has already taken steps to clean up the sport.

But Schilling pointed out that that figure came "under the former testing program, which a lot of people don't even want to give credence to," since the old program didn't include, among other things, year-round testing.

"I think no one views it as working because they don't look at the test as valid testing," he said. "The whole basis for the hearing or for the arguments from the congressionsal side were that our program was a joke and you heard the medical people talk to that effect."

"I understand why Congress got (upset). I think the situation has improved. That's falling on deaf ears. . . . I believe there are holes in the agreement that need to be fixed. And I believe that every single player in the big leagues who's playing on an even playing field and not cheating, believes the same thing. Things like that need to be cleaned up now, so, a year from now when we come out and say, 'Hey, the numbers are now this and this is a good thing,' you at least have a basis to argue from. People can't just dismiss it."