From a tragedy, a lesson

Ken Caminiti was an accomplished major league baseball player, considered by his teammates and coaches to be a leader on the field and in the clubhouse, and a hero to his thousands of young fans.
Today, as you read this, Caminiti lay on a cold, metal table in a New York City morgue.
He is the victim of what his representative called a heart attack, allegedly suffered a week ago tomorrow.
Increasingly, however, unsubstantiated media reports are surfacing that Caminiti, at the age of 41, died of a drug overdose.
A three-time All-Star with the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres, Caminiti revealed in a 2002 Sports Illustrated interview that he used steroids during the 1996 season in which he hit a career high .326 and was named National League MVP.
An MVP seasontainted by abuse
That season, he also set career highs with 40 home runs and 130 RBIs. In a 15-year major league career, Caminiti never approached those numbers before or after, reaching at most 29 homers and 94 RBIs.
His steroid abuse led to addictions to alcohol and cocaine.
In the days since his death, Caminiti has been eulogized in many ways. For instance, his then-Astros teammate Luis Gonzalez called Caminiti "one of the most intense players I've ever seen."
But, as Astros manager Phil Garner noted, "What we all loved about Cammy was his devotion to the game and his desire for the game. "But it went into uncontrollable levels with no discipline."
That is the decision that many athletes are faced with -- what price are they willing to pay to achieve their goals and ambitions.
The lure of steroids and performance-enhancing agents is that it provides a quick and marked boost. The problems are two-fold: often, the athlete is unable or unwilling to stop taking, and even if he or she can, the inevitable downward performance spiral.
How sincereare the efforts?
His agent and lawyer, Rick Licht, said Caminiti hoped to get back into baseball, preferably as a mentor to younger players. Caminiti wanted to pass along the knowledge he had gained through his own mistakes.
To see that happen would have been surprising, to say the least.
Major League Baseball has tried to educate its players about the dangers of steroids and tobacco use. How effective that education has been -- or more to the point, how genuine MLB's efforts have been (after all, more power means more home runs, which means more attraction to the game by the fans, which means more paying customers) -- is a matter of debate.
And, Caminiti broke "the code," which is basically, "What happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse."
When he spoke with SI, Caminiti not only admitted to his own use but estimated that as many as half of the players in the majors were using.
Everything filtersdown from the pros
But there is no question that steroid use is not a problem confined only to the domain of professional sports. Everything we see -- for better or worse -- on the Game of the Week -- the talent and ability, along with the showmanship and the selfishness, eventually filters down to the college game, then high school and even youth fields.
If Major League Baseball is serious about stopping steroid use -- as it should be, as it must be -- Ken Caminiti needs to be an example to our youth that a quick fix cannot replace hard work and dedication to improvement and ultimately reaching one's goal.
It must start at the top. Major League Baseball and the players union should embark on a non-stop campaign to warn its young fans about the dangers of steroids and performance-enhancements, then vigorous work together to clean up the sport.
Ken Caminiti enjoyed the adulation of millions of fans while he played. Hopefully, some good can come from his untimely and tragic death.
XRob Todor is sports editor of The Vindicator. Write to him at todor@vindy.com.