Bigger Stronger Faster Page #3

in my conscious thought.

When I first met him

he was against steroids.

He was like,

"you don't need to do it.

I've never done 'em. I

just don't believe in 'em. "

MARK:
I was pretty upset about it

Because I didn't want it to come

to that. I was kind of scared.

I didn't want to inject

this oil into my body.

I thought

it was weird.

He's not a huge guy,

you know.

He's 6' if he's lucky

and so I knew that it was

definitely going to help

because that's

what it does,

what steroids do-

make you bigger.

She basically said,

"do what you need to do. "

ANDEE:

Here's Jake with the daddy.

CHRIS:
After their son

was born Smelly decided

The life of a pro wrestler was

not exactly what he wanted anymore.

Here's my little Jake

in his swing.

Mark:
Looking back, I don't

really know what the hell I wanted.

Having a contract means

that you belong to W.W.E.

And you have to travel.

I was married with a kid.

I mean, that's really

all I need-

A house, a kid and a wife. I'm set.

One, two, three!

CHRIS:
They settled

down in the suburbs

and Smelly even

opened up his own gym.

Yeah, my little brother

gave up

the wrestling dream for

a respectable family life,

but he didn't quite

give up everything.

MARK:

Now that I'm into it

I realize it's not really

all that bad. I love steroids.

I think I'll probably be

on and off of them

probably forever.

This is what you trained

for! This is what you do!

Come on, boy!

ANDEE:
I thought that

we had an agreement

that he did it

for wrestling.

Now he's not

wrestling anymore

so naturally I thought

he would just stop.

MARK:
In my mind there's no excuse

for not being as strong

as you possibly can be.

You do what you gotta do

to win.

ANNOUNCER:
Come on, Chris,

let's do this now.

ANNOUNCER:
Let's give it up

for him. It's a lot of weight.

MAN:

There it is.

Come on now!

ANNOUNCER:
Smoke

show! Come on, Chris.

- Take it, take it.

- MEN:
Take it, take it.

ANNOUNCER:
Nice

try, Chris, nice try.

MARK:

If you are apprehensive

about taking a steroid

or you're apprehensive

about trying

some new methods

then maybe you're not

cut out to be a champion.

ANNOUNCER:
In first

place, Mark Bell.

CHRIS:
I guess I'm not

cut out to be a champion,

because I tried steroids but

I felt so guilty I had to stop.

- Are you gonna win worst overall lifter?

- Yeah.

CHRIS:
And now I can't even compete

In the sport

I grew up loving.

I mean, my baby brother

just beat me by 130 Ibs.

We all grew up

in the same house,

so why are my brothers fine

with steroids but I'm not?

What would you say

the differences are

- between the three kids.

- Between the three?

Well, I always kind of

say it like this-

you were in the middle

of two guys

that were very

strapping, athletic,

and you were tiny

and short in stature,

so I worked extra hard to

make you feel extra special.

One day I took you

in your room-

I don't know if you remember

this conversation where I said,

"Christopher, what's the

best part of an Oreo cookie?"

What is the best part

of an Oreo cookie?

- The middle.

- The middle. That's right.

So even though you have two

sides of a cookie on this end,

the middle part is

the most delicious.

Everybody wants the middle.

They even made double stuff.

CHRIS:
Yep, this is pretty

much how it was growing up.

Mom stayed at home

with the kids

while Dad wore a suit

and tie and went to work.

He was at I.B.M. for 20

years until he was downsized.

But now he has his own

business doing taxes.

SHELDON:
Everybody thinks

that success in America

is in the amount of dollars that

you have. And that's not true.

The real true heroes

are people

who go to work every day

and do their job

and bring up their kids to

the best of their ability.

CHRIS:

I wanted to be Hulk Hogan.

I wanted to be Arnold. I

wanted to be Sylvester Stallone.

Did you have heroes like that

growing up, when you were a kid?

SHELDON:
Yeah, we

did. We had heroes

like Mickey Mantle,

Roger Maris.

But I knew I could

never aspire to it

because back then

you grew up,

you graduated, you got

married and you had kids.

CHRIS:
Yeah, my dad

had the American dream-

you know, marry your

high-school sweetheart,

buy a house and take your

kids to see the Yankees.

But things are

different now.

And even baseball's changed

from when my dad was growing up.

And now when I think

of baseball

I don't think about the

Babe or Hammerin' Hank.

I think of steroids.

COMMENTATOR:
This one is a

monster! It is out of here!

CHRIS:
After the strike of

'94 baseball was almost dead.

But then Mark McGuire

and Sammy Sosa

started smashing

home runs,

racing toward the

single-season record.

You see,

about 1000 years ago

Babe Ruth had 60 home

runs in one season.

And then when my

parents were still kids

Roger Maris hit

number 61.

He was the home-run champ

for 37 years

until Big Mac came along

and crushed that record

with 70 home runs

and baseball was saved.

COMMENTATOR:

Gone!

Mark McGuire, you have just

broken the home-run record.

What are you going

to do next?

We're going

to Disney World.

CHRIS:
I guess Barry Bonds

wanted to go to Disney world too

'cause in 2001

he smashed 73 bombs

to break McGuire's record.

COMMENTATOR:

This is the one!

There's a new

record homer!

CHRIS:
See, baseball

players used to be scrawny,

but now these guys were

jacked and it was cool.

They started looking

like pro wrestlers.

JOE BUCK:
If you were to

construct a home-run hitter

in a lab, put him together,

he'd look like that.

CHRIS:
Turns out, that was

kind of what was going on.

The man with ties

to some big-name athletes

has been charged

with providing

performance-enhancing

drugs to the pros.

CHRIS:
The guy with the pencil-thin

mustache is Victor Conte.

He used to be the bass

player for Tower of Power,

but when that career

didn't work out

he did what any failed

musician would do-

he started selling undetectable

steroids to athletes.

REPORTER:

Will you name names?

There will be

naming of names.

CHRIS:
Conte's files

named over 250 athletes,

including the home-run

king himself, Barry Bonds.

And then something

even crazier happened-

Jose Canseco

wrote a book.

The surprise wasn't that he was

literate, it's what he wrote about.

He said he'd been taking

steroids since '86,

that 80% of baseball

was on the juice

and that he personally

injected his former bash brother

Mark McGuire

in the ass.

But why, Mr. McGuire?

Do you want to know

the terrifying truth

or do you want to see me

sock a few dingers?

Dingers!

Dingers!

Ooh.

All right,

Congress wants to haul

a bunch of baseball players

up to Capitol Hill

to talk about steroids.

CHRIS:
In 2005 Congress

spent 151 days in session.

They spent eight of those days

debating steroids in sports.

That's more time than they

spent on national healthcare,

why the levees broke

in New Orleans,

and more than ending

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