Prep Stars Lectured on Steroids

A former steroid user told a group of about 50 elite high school baseball players competing in the Long Beach Area Code Games this week about the frightening psychological cycle of the illegal substance.

“Once you start taking steroids, you’re not going to want to perform without them,” said Michael Zumpano, who co-wrote “The Underground Steroid Handbook” in 1981. “You feel a difference, and you’re not going to even feel like getting on the field if you can’t have them.”

Zumpano, 45, used steroids in an attempt to become a bodybuilder, but he saw some of the damage they caused shortly after his book came out. Now a vehement critic of their use who runs a Concord-based nutritional supplement company, he addressed the players as part of the first steroid-alternative clinic at the Area Code Games. Over two days, Zumpano spoke to 250 players selected by major league scouts to compete in the weeklong event at Blair Field.

Twenty-four former Area Code players were taken in the first round of the 2001 amateur draft.

Zumpano acknowledged the allure of steroid use--”When you see [major league players] hitting home runs and getting bigger bucks, it’s quite a temptation,” he said--but listed nutritional alternatives that contribute to the maintenance of a strong, healthy body.

He endorsed nutritional supplements containing creatine, which is purported to boost muscle mass, and cited a number of recent studies that showed there were no adverse health effects related to creatine use.

Zumpano’s products have been used by four-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, Arizona Diamondback star pitcher Randy Johnson and the Concord De La Salle High football team, which has posted a national-record 125-game winning streak.

But Jason Dominguez, a junior pitcher for Chatsworth High, said he doesn’t see the need for supplement use.

“I personally will never put that stuff in my body,” said Dominguez, who is playing for a team selected by Milwaukee Brewer scouts. “That’s just not me. I’ve gotten this far doing what I do, so I might as well keep doing it.”

Daniel Perales, a senior center fielder for Santa Ana Mater Dei High, said he doesn’t understand why players, even at the major league level, use steroids and told himself he wouldn’t ever take them.

But Zumpano cautioned that the teenage players might not recognize the need for steroids because they haven’t reached the point where their bodies stop functioning at optimal levels.

“When they start to get up to 26, 28, 30, their body isn’t going to work the same way that it works now when they’re 18 or 19,” he said. “But they have to keep the same schedule they always had to keep. And that’s when they’re starting to make the big bucks. They don’t want to end their career then. They’ve got to keep their performance high at that point. So [steroid use] is a big temptation.”