Ken Caminiti

This obituary appeared in some editions of Monday's Times. NEW YORK -- Ken Caminiti, the National League's 1996 most valuable player who admitted using steroids during his major league baseball career, has died. He was 41. Caminiti died Sunday of a heart attack while visiting friends in New York City, according to Rick Licht, his agent and lawyer.

Reporting from Phoenix — How long has it been since the National League won consecutive All-Star games? The Arizona Diamondbacks did not exist the last time it happened. However, with Prince Fielder launching a long home run on the Diamondbacks' home field and Roy Halladay setting the pitching tone with two perfect innings, the NL posted a 5-1 victory over the American League in Tuesday's All-Star game. Fielder was selected as most valuable player of the All-Star game, the first Milwaukee Brewers player to win that honor.

The third baseman of the San Diego Padres has played through a bad back that sent him to a chiropractor, a pulled chest muscle, a groin strain that kept buckling his knees, a torn rotator cuff that will require surgery, and dehydration so severe that an IV needle was still in his left arm only minutes before Ken Caminiti got off the trainer's table that day and played, prompting disbelieving General Manager Kevin Towers to think of the movie "Bang the Drum Slowly." Tough?

If Bud Selig wanted to do something "in the best interests of baseball," he would have investigated androstenedione the day it was spotted in Mark McGwire's locker back in 1998, rather than discrediting the reporter who found it and trying to pull his credential. Or, in 2000, he could have looked into the accusations of Gary Sheffield, who said on HBO's "Real Sports" that "six or seven" members of every major league baseball team were on the juice. Or he could have reacted to the 2002 allegations made by Ken Caminiti, who not only told Sports Illustrated that he was juicing in 1996 -- the year he won the National League MVP award -- but that fully half the players in the league were.

Houston third baseman Ken Caminiti agreed to a one-year contract worth $665,000, a raise of $425,000.

Ken Caminiti, a former National League most valuable player, was arrested Wednesday on drug possession charges after authorities said he was found in a hotel room with crack cocaine. Early Wednesday afternoon, officers from a drug task force stopped a 2001 Mercedes registered to Caminiti. The vehicle was being driven by another individual. Deputies with the Harris County Sheriff's Department were asked to go to the hotel to check on Caminiti's welfare.

On a day when city officials showed up at Qualcomm Stadium to push for voter passage of a measure that would fund a new stadium downtown, Towers admitted he would push for it other ways. He said he felt he needs to sign at least one of the club's four big-name free agents--Kevin Brown, Ken Caminiti, Steve Finley and Wally Joyner--before the Nov. 3 election. "You want to show voters, 'This guy is coming back, we are still going to be good,' " Towers said.

The National League West-leading San Diego Padres will be without one of their top offensive players after All-Star third baseman Ken Caminiti was put on the disabled list Tuesday because of an injury to his left quadriceps. Caminiti, the 1996 National League most valuable player, has been bothered by the injury for several weeks and left Thursday's game against Florida after running the bases. He played Friday but was then sent back to San Diego for an additional examination.

San Diego Padre third baseman Ken Caminiti returned to San Diego Saturday to have his strained right quadriceps examined. Caminiti, batting .229 and in an 0-for-15 slide, aggravated his leg Thursday against the Marlins. He played Friday night, but left in the ninth inning of an 11-inning loss to Florida. Caminiti, 35, was scheduled to be examined by team physician Dr. Jan Fronek. Caminiti has endured back stiffness this season along with the quadriceps problem.

The San Diego Padres placed third baseman Ken Caminiti on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring, sidelining the 1996 National League Most Valuable Player. The 34-year-old Caminiti was batting .241 with four home runs and 18 runs batted in during 32 games this season. He originally injured the hamstring on April 20, when the Padres played the St. Louis Cardinals in Honolulu, and missed two games. He'll be eligible to return to San Diego's active roster on May 27.

Kevin Towers, the San Diego Padre general manager, cast himself into baseball's steroid furor by revealing he'd had dark suspicions about Ken Caminiti, and was called with a handful of fellow executives before the House Government Reform Committee. Steroids, as it turned out, were not Caminiti's ruin. Five months after his friend had died in a drug-ridden quarter of the Bronx, Towers would sit before Congress to take questions about the steroid era, as a face on the Caminiti experience.

There were moments of silence observed before the starts of both the National League and American League championship series last October. As ordered by baseball's commissioner, Bud Selig, those moments were in memory of Ken Caminiti. It might even be said that baseball's new attitude about steroid use began with those Caminiti moments. Look, maybe the prospect of impotence and urinary tract pain doesn't scare you. Maybe you're certain you'll never develop heart, kidney or liver disease.

The images of Ken Caminiti are familiar and indelible: * The scowl of the former National League most valuable player who once threatened to take a teammate outside and cure his attitude problem. * The determination of the competitor who once stumbled out of his clubhouse into 100-degree temperatures and shook off the effects of severe food poisoning long enough to smack two home runs and drive in four runs.

Less than 24 hours after former teammate Ken Caminiti died of a heart attack, veteran Houston Astros Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell lamented that their troubled friend did not turn to those who could have helped him overcome the drug abuse that may have contributed to his death. "I think the one thing that he didn't understand really is how many people out there loved him," Biggio said before Houston played Atlanta in Game 5 of the National League division series.

This obituary appeared in some editions of Monday's Times. NEW YORK -- Ken Caminiti, the National League's 1996 most valuable player who admitted using steroids during his major league baseball career, has died. He was 41. Caminiti died Sunday of a heart attack while visiting friends in New York City, according to Rick Licht, his agent and lawyer.

Ken Caminiti, the 1996 National League most valuable player who later admitted using steroids during his major league career, died Sunday. He was 41. Caminiti died of a heart attack in the Bronx, said his agent-lawyer Rick Licht. The city medical examiner's office said an autopsy would be performed today, spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said. "I'm still in shock," San Diego Padre General Manager Kevin Towers said. "He was one of my favorite all-time players."

Opponent--Colorado Rockies, two games. Site--San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Tonight's game--7. Radio--KFMB (760). Records--Padres 88-69, Rockies 80-77. Record vs. Rockies--4-6. Next Series--Dodgers, three games, Friday-Sunday at Dodger Stadium. Padre update--The Padres have won 21 of their last 29 games and 13 of their last 17 at home.

Ken Caminiti now travels with what he calls his "nice little phone book." An Alcoholics Anonymous directory of meeting times and places. A listing of sponsors and counselors. The ultimate gamer has played through virtually every injury in the trainer's manual. Even now, as the Texas Rangers pray that he will be able to continue plugging their leak at third base, Caminiti is believed to have a tear in his right shoulder that would normally require surgery.

Ken Caminiti, the former San Diego Padre and National League most valuable player, acknowledged Tuesday in Houston that he violated his probation by testing positive for cocaine last month and was sentenced to 180 days in jail. State District Judge William Harmon, however, gave Caminiti credit for time he already has served in jail or a treatment center since he received three years deferred adjudication for felony cocaine possession in March 2001.

Public health officials are worried that admissions by two former baseball league most valuable players about steroids will cause more young athletes to risk dangerous side effects for a shortcut to a career in professional sports. "Kids are seeing how, in the great American sport, home runs are getting very long and pitches are getting faster because of steroids, and they figure, 'Hey, why not use?'