Columnist Dean Juipe: Rebels devouring creatine

DEAN JUIPE is a Las Vegas SUN sportswriter. His office phone number is 259-4084. He can be reached on the Internet at [email protected]

It's estimated that half of the players in the National Football League use it. So do a quarter of the players in Major League Baseball, as well as a quarter of the players in the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League.

Creatine, obviously, is becoming very popular. Its worldwide sales supposedly will double from $100 million last year to $200 million in 1998.

Athletes want to build muscle mass and creatine, a protein supplement available as a powder, is a hot commodity. Now here's the problem: There has never been a study to gauge the long-term effects, or side effects, of creatine, a fact that has been pointed out in more than one national publication in recent weeks.

"At this time, we feel it's OK but we're going to look into it," said UNLV head football coach Jeff Horton, adding that he would ask his program's strength and conditioning coordinator, Mark Philippi, for additional input.

Horton was his typical matter-of-fact self when asked how many of his players were presently using creatine.

"It's 70 to 80 percent," he said. "We're like everyone else: We're into it. It's obvious it increases strength and muscle mass. I'll bet 100 percent of the college football teams in the country have players using creatine."

Horton is aware of the questions pertaining to creatine and its long-term use, but said "it's not a panic situation. We wouldn't be involved if we thought there was something wrong and, to this point, we're led to believe everything's OK."

Everything's not OK with former UNLV basketball star Larry Johnson, whose name appears in the opening graph of a Sports Illustrated story this week as having fathered five children by four different women. Johnson, now with the New York Knicks, is one of many NBA players fathering numerous children out of wedlock, with Cleveland's Shawn Kemp the greatest offender with seven children by six women. ... The story also said Johnson had fellow ex-Rebel Stacy Augmon try to intervene on his behalf with a woman who was threatening legal action after saying Johnson impregnated her. It was intimated that Augmon attempted to coerce the woman into dropping her claim. ... Johnson compounded his weekend woes by getting into a wimpy, slap-happy fight with Miami's Alonzo Mourning that led to each man receiving a suspension. ... Supposedly an even better fight took place on the floor of Italy's parliament last week when two representatives got into a scuffle over a soccer dispute. The elected officials disagreed as to whether the referee made the correct call in not awarding a penalty shot during a championship match. ... Former Eldorado and UNLV pitcher Eric Ludwick, now a starter with the Florida Marlins, had his season come to an abrupt end Sunday when he was struck by a line drive off the bat of San Diego's Wally Joyner. Ludwick, a right-hander, suffered a broken right arm and is out at least three months.

Baseball players and executives have a pitiful sense of humor. Example A: Matt Williams, UNLV's best player and now a star with the Arizona Diamondbacks, thought it was funny to steal the clothes of his team's rookies while they showered after a game last week and before the club headed for the airport to start a road trip. Williams brought dresses for the guys to wear. ... Example B: Cincinnati general manager Jim Bowden had Reds manager Jack McKeon "arrested" by stadium security personnel in his office last week on the pretense that McKeon was past due on two parking violations. They handcuffed McKeon, took him out to a car and drove around the block before returning to the stadium and telling him it was a hoax. Boy, what laughs. ... Meanwhile, major leaguers are striking out at a record pace -- and this after consecutive years of record strikeouts in the big leagues. ... One player who almost never struck out was Joe DiMaggio. He hit 361 home runs yet whiffed only 369 times, proof that things were better in the old days. ... The typical major leaguer breaks 80 bats a year. ... Aided by using aluminum bats, college baseball players are having a record year when it comes to offensive stats. The average player is hitting .289 this season and the average team is scoring 6.2 runs per game. Compare that to 1973, the last year college players used wooden bats: .266 and 5.1 runs per game.

Kentucky-bred horses continue to dominate the Kentucky Derby. When Real Quiet won Saturday's race it was the 93rd time in the 124-year history of the race that a native horse took the roses. (Florida, with six Derby champions, is a distant second.) ... Real Quiet doesn't seem to be a horse capable of winning the Triple Crown, and, if he doesn't, it will stretch that drought to 21 years. The last Triple Crown winner was Affirmed in 1978. ... The under-construction UNLV track facility looks sharp and should give the women's program a significant boost when it opens next fall. ... The Winter Olympics in Nagano broke even financially and "may even have a little surplus" organizers said as they prepared a final report. ... Since the pro golf tours started keeping the Greens In Regulation stat in 1980, the best average was turned in last year by the LPGA's Kelly Robbins. She was accurate 78.7 percent of the time. ... PGA Tour veteran John Mahaffey turns 50 Friday and he's not wasting any time switching to the PGA Senior Tour. He'll meet up with the Senior Tour next week in Missouri and is scheduled to play eight consecutive weeks with his old friends. ... Baseball teams going the longest without winning a world title: Chicago Cubs, 1908; Chicago White Sox, 1917; Boston Red Sox, 1918, Cleveland Indians, 1948.

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