In the March 2007 Play, which I got with my New York Times, Bobby Valentine said
I always thought I was a smart guy. And then I realized I’m a dumb guy - because I was managing against the Oakland A’s and I was firing our conditioning guys because our guys weren’t getting as strong as the A’s. If I knew what was going on, I probably would have gotten very upset and either insisted that all my guys do it or I would have blown the whistle, I’m not sure. But I was stupid.
To start, Valentine’s a candid guy, and I took this as if he was serious.
When Valentine managed the Rangers between 1985-1992, he saw the rise of the steroid-fueled Canseco A’s, starting in 1985 but really catching on the next year. I wasn’t able to find a citation for Valentine firing his conditioning guys, which would have been great, but assume it’s true.
It means, at least, that during the initial rise of steroids, when the A’s were really the only team with more than one guy juicing and lifting, it was not widely known what was going on, and Valentine, in the same division and, as he notes, a smart guy, didn’t get wind of it for a while, long enough to get frustrated and can some people.
It also means, if Valentine fired more than one coach, that there were conditioning coaches who hadn’t figured it out, or at least didn’t tell Valentine, which seems unlikely.
It’s interesting if only to put these things on a timeline. 1985-?, the degree to which other teams realized what was going on and adopted use varies, but we know that it
Rafael Pamleiro, who late in his career failed a steroid test, saw a power spike that people have pointed me to during Valentine’s stay (pre-1990 vs post-1990). The 1991-1992 teams have a couple players (Sierra, Gonzalez) I’ve heard mentioned as possible steroid users. So if you accept that, it wouldn’t seem to have taken more than a few years for Valentine to pick up his own, though it doesn’t look like the whole team was on them (though… Jeff Huson did hit two home runs in 1991…).
The other interesting thing in his statement is his reaction: that he either would have encouraged everyone to use, or he’d have finked them out. We know reasonably that it didn’t take Valentine all that long to figure out what was going out, and as far as I know having read all the history-of-steroid books (which are quite depressing) Valentine didn’t go after the system. That leads us back to that last paragraph: when he figured it out, was it around 1990, and did he then encourage his big guys to get a-juicing?
Oh, for a chance at a follow-up question.
Also in the interview, Valentine talks about how the tight-knit, insular nature of Japanese baseball essentially prevented players from using steroids: it was too hard to go undetected, and the peer pressure against it was so strong that it never caught on. I’d add that the nature of Japanese baseball, where they play a lot faster, with more run-and-gun, bunt-for-a-hit strategies. If the game doesn’t encourage - and teams don’t financially reward - bulking up and hitting for power, players won’t do it.
Coincidentally, the Rangers fired Valentine 86 games into the 1992 season and not long afterwards traded for Jose Canseco.
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