More than about asterisks and cheating: Steroids, major league baseball, and high school suicides

Taylor Hooton was a junior in high school, a tall, thin pitcher on his baseball team in Plano, Texas. His coach told him he needed to get bigger for his senior year to compete effectively, so Taylor took steroids, as did many of his teammates. He rapidly gained more than 25 pounds. And he began to display the aggressiveness that is characteristic of steroid abuse. He confessed his "aggressive depression" to his brother.

He experienced the depression in coming off the steroids. He committed suicide, leaving the vial of steroids wrapped in an American flag.

His father, Don Hooton, said, "Taylor was a top-notch student. He, like so many, was doing it because he thought it might make him better."

Today we read about the Mitchell Report on the use of steroids by 89 of major league baseball's top players – Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Ken Caminiti, Jose Canseco, Mo Vaughn, Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi…

As Taylor's father said, "This is more than about asterisks and cheating; it's about the lives and health of our kids."

Advice to parents of high school athletes: Become an impassioned patient advocate like Don Hooton.

Browse for similar stories in our index at the very bottom of this page, or read an athlete’s story.

The source story comes from today’s New York Times and the London Times of Dec. 1. Thanks, Owen Slot.