Shuba not surprised; Hehr hopes for future

By JOE SCALZO

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

When George “Shotgun” Shuba was a player with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948, he met one of his teammates, Erv Palica, at Grand Central Station one afternoon to catch a train for Philadelphia for that night’s game against the Phillies.

“Herb said to me, ‘Hey, let’s have a beer at that tavern over there,’ ” said Shuba, a Chaney High graduate who now lives in Austintown. “It was 2 o’clock and we had a night game, but I went and had a beer with him.

“On my way down, I told Erv I felt bad about that, even though the game wasn’t going to be played until 8 o’clock. It seems kind of silly now.”

It’s been nearly 60 years since that afternoon, but Shuba thought about it Thursday as he sat in front of his TV watching news coverage of the Mitchell Report, which detailed steroid use in the major leagues over the past decade.

Shuba wasn’t surprised by the details of Mitchell’s report — “Everybody knew it,” he said, “it wasn’t as if everyone just woke up yesterday and found out about this situation” — but he was worried about the implications it might have on athletes, particularly younger ones.

“It’s really sad,” he said. “Especially for young kids, high school kids who feel like they have to take these steroids.

“I remember watching Barry Bonds in Pittsburgh and he was as thin as my index finger. Then I saw him on TV and I yell over at my wife [Kathryn] and said, ‘Look at this guy. Look how big he is.’ He reminds me of a balloon in the Macy’s parade.”

There were no steroids in Shuba’s day and baseball training methods have gotten much more sophisticated over the past half-century.

“One time at the end of the season, I asked our manager, Charlie Dressen, what I should do in the winter time,” said Shuba, who played seven seasons with the Dodgers. “He said, ‘Go out in the woods and chop down a few trees.’

“If I had to do it over again, I certainly would be conditioning myself much better during my playing career.”

Hehr’s view

Mooney High graduate Jeff Hehr, who began his professional career with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers last summer, also watched coverage of the Mitchell Report.

“I was reading the front page and I saw a quote from Jeff Kent that I agreed with. He said they’re not so much trying to hunt down guys and look at the past as they are trying to fix it for the future,” Hehr said. “If you keep digging, you’re going to keep finding guys. The important thing is to get it fixed.”

One of the former players mentioned in the Mitchell Report was Tim Laker, who served as the Scrappers manager in 2007. He has since moved onto a position as a roving instructor in the Indians’ organization.

“He never brought [steroids] up,” Hehr said. “I didn’t even know about it until one of my friends [just] called me.”

Hehr said steroid use isn’t a popular subject in the clubhouse.

“It’s not really something guys talk about,” he said. “I’ve had college coaches along the way talk to me about it. When stuff first started coming out a few years ago, I had a few coaches who were pro guys that talked about it, but it’s not exactly a starting point for a conversation [with pro players].”

He’s hopeful the investigation will clean up the game.

“I think it will. Mr. Mitchell said in the report that one of the biggest things they needed to fix came from guys who were complaining about the guy next to him who was on steroids that was taking his spot. So they knew the only choice they had was to use them if they wanted to get the spot back. I think this [the Mr. Mitchell report] will level the field back out.”

Punishment

Andy Kosco, who played for seven major-league teams from 1965-74 and was a member of the Cincinnati Reds team that won the National League West in 1973, wants to see the offenders punished.

“In what respect, I really don’t know,” he said. “This whole steroid thing has really turned me off baseball.”

Kosco said he’s upset that many of baseball’s most hallowed records have been broken by players who were mentioned in the Mitchell Report.

“When I was playing ball there wasn’t any of this going on,” Kosco said. “I feel sorry for guys like Hank Aaron, who had his [all-time home run] record broken because of drugs.

“I’ve heard guys like Hank Greenberg say that he goes to games now to see home runs hit. Well, there were a lot of home runs hit when I was playing; maybe not as many, but still a lot and without drugs.”

Several other former major leaguers from the Valley were contacted for their reaction.

Former San Diego Padres pitcher Dave Dravecky, a native of Boardman and graduate of Youngstown State, was contacted at his Colorado Springs, Colo., residence. He said he hadn’t had time to study the Mitchell Report and did not wish to comment on it at this time.

XVindicator sports reporter Pete Mollica contributed to this story.