MCROLE MODEL

Give up the androstenedione -- it would be a classy move ``PSSSSST, kid!
Wanna hit 70 homeruns? Then don't take androstenedione.''

What a classy thing it would be for super-slugger Mark McGwire to issue
that advice.

Obviously, he'd have to stop taking the diet supplement himself, to have
any credibility. And that's the point.

As he belts balls out of parks almost daily and closes in on the
single-season home run record, Big Mac may be America's highest-profile
athlete. What he does or doesn't do will influence thousands of young
wannabes. That's why we wish he would rise to even greater stature by
voluntarily dis-endorsing the controversial product he has been using.

McGwire's example would be all the more powerful because it would be
motivated solely by recognition of his influence as a role model. And
because nobody can make him do it.

Androstenedione is a legal, over-the-counter product. While the National
46ootball League and some amateur athletic organizations forbid its use,
professional baseball has no rule against it. McGwire's team, the St. Louis
Cardinals, defends his use of it.

But even the label on Andro-6, the brand name under which the supplement is
sold, says it should not be used by anyone under age 18. And there is
anecdotal evidence that when young athletes bulk up their bodies, they risk
impairing their long-range health.

You can make a case that androstenedione contributes to injuries in
football while preventing them in baseball. The supplement stimulates the
body's production of testosterone, which enables an athlete to train harder
and build more lean muscle. That, in turn, is said to produce strength and
speed.

46ootball, especially in the NFL, is a contact sport. Stronger athletes,
smashing into each other at higher speeds, could sustain more injuries.

By contrast, baseball injuries are more likely to result from the body's
wearing down over the course of the season. And this, McGwire says, is what
androstenedione helps him avoid. If the strength supplement helps him
hammer home runs, it is probably in this indirect sense.

There's no hard evidence that it helps him at all. Nor is there any
identified evidence that it hurts anyone. But if the label itself says
young people shouldn't take it, there's certainly cause for concern.

McGwire did not attain his 6-foot-5, 250-pound size by taking
androstenedione over the last year. He established himself as one of the
great hitters of all time back when he played for Oakland.

He surely doesn't want this year's performance attributed to pills out of a
bottle. And he already has demonstrated a concern for kids, establishing a
foundation to help victims of child abuse.

Combine those factors and you have a good case for his getting off the
supplement and setting an example for young people. A better case than
McGwire's rationalization, the other day, that ``Everybody that I know in
the game of baseball uses the same stuff I use.''

Not quite. Sammy Sosa, McGwire's neck-and-neck competitor for the home run
record, says he doesn't.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan