Caminiti was a warrior - one of those guys who'd run through a wall to help his team win. Cocaine and 'roids did him in...excellent bad example to all young kids about how substance abuse can ruin even the greatest of athletes.
P.S. The diving play he made a few years back where he threw the guy out at 1st from his rear is still a Sportscenter top 10 in my book!
Caminiti was a local guy out of San Jose City and State College. I played against him in HS football. He was a punishing DB/RB also. A shame he could never control his demons.
Posts: 183 | Location: ca | Registered: December 30, 2002
I used it as an opportunity to talk to my 16 year old about steroids and drugs. Like you said SBK, if it stops even one young athlete from using them, his death was not in vain. The pressure on these boys to be bigger and stronger is pretty intense, even in high school.
Posts: 41 | Location: East Coast, Florida, USA | Registered: January 25, 2004
Preliminary results of the autopsy performed on Ken Caminiti show that the former National League MVP died of a drug overdose, a New York City police source told ESPN's Jeremy Schaap. Caminiti, 41, reportedly collapsed in a Bronx apartment on Sunday and was pronounced dead at Lincoln Hospital. His agent, Rick Licht, said at the time Caminiti died of a heart attack. The medical examiner's office performed the autopsy on Monday, but a spokesperson for the medical examiner said Thursday that no official cause of death would be announced until the completion of a toxicology report, which could take up to 10 days.
Caminiti battled drug and alcohol problems during his 15-year major-league career. In May 2002, he told Sports Illustrated he used steroids during his career. On Tuesday, Newsday (N.Y.) reported that Caminiti was "depressed" and "edgy," and wanted to talk about "life, love and everything," during the last half day of his life, according to Rob Silva, a 35-year-old ex-con from Brooklyn, who had met Caminiti about a year and a half ago.
Dealing with very high expectations and the stress that it brings is dealt with very differently amongst athletes.
There has been a history in the game of baseball and other sports where players have succumbed to overindulgence to stimulants and depressants.
With some having to deal with the very intense modulations between the adrenaline highs which the body can only sustain for a short time, causes some players to seek supplementals to maintain that "feeling" of being on top.
It is something that the leagues have not dealt with very effectively. They have not come to understand the associative relationship between the players "game" psyche and the post-game need to maintain the "game" psyche which leads to abusive drug use (including alcoholism) and the psychological dependence they find in what the drugs provide to supplement that requirement.
Here is where education again comes to play a key role in the instruction for the players in how to deal with this dichotomy. With proper counseling I think a lot of what is happening in professional sports and college sports can be avoided once this associative relationship between the "adrenaline rush" is understood in relationship to the players "id" and his feelings about his self-image.
It is an aspect of the "game" that is poorly understood for the underlying reason for abusive drug use. Even Ken Caminiti's desire to excel at all cost by using "roids" is a symptom of this relationship between the "id" and feelings of inadequacy which replaces the "adrenaline rush" of the "game".
Unless the aspect of the "game" is understood in the relationship to players "id" or the "ego" and their feelings that they achieve during the "adrenaline rush" and its affect on the self-image of the player which is experienced during the "adrenaline rush" no rules, nor sanctions, nor punitive measures are ever going to stop the use of drugs in sports.
To think otherwise is just wishful thinking.
Posts: 709 | Location: Marin | Registered: April 10, 2004
I think PIC has presented some very valid reasons, not "excuses". And what is the point if he was 41.
Being "grown" does not shield you from the factors that lead to these tragedies nor the human frailties that underlie them; and, neither those factors nor his "status" in life provide a basis for his being judged with such dismissal. From black and white "judgment" others will never learn from what befell this man.
Having had the opportunity to meet Ken Caminiti and witness his most kind nature, this is a horrific and sad situation. IMO both he AND his family are deserving of sympathy.
Posts: 1349 | Location: Los Angeles, Ca, USA | Registered: May 29, 2003
