Notes+and+Sources

The Steroid Eraby Ryan Gallagher, Cincinnati, OH Over the years, baseball has been played by everyone from the noblest athletes to downright dirt bags. The past 20 years, known as the Steroid Era, are a time in baseball’s history I wish I had not witnessed. If I could, I would erase these two decades from the records. Players including Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, and Manny Ramirez – all linked to alleged steroid use – have tarnished the game’s reputation. They are undeservedly breaking records set by greats like Hank Aaron, Roger Maris, and Babe Ruth. These legends are losing their place in history to cheaters. Bonds now holds the record for the most career homeruns, and A-Rod is on pace to finish in the top five on that list. Maris no longer holds the record for most single-season homeruns, and the clean players of our time, like Jim Thome and Javy Lopez, are being overlooked. The big question baseball’s steroids scandal raises is whether a player suspected of cheating should be allowed in the Hall of Fame. Some say yes, some no. Some say it would be fine with an asterisk next to the name. Mark McGwire, who recently admitted to using steroids, was rejected in the past, and José Canseco is out, but there could be future openings.ESPN.com’s Rob Neyer, quoting the Hall ofFame rule book, put it this way: “Voting shall bebased upon the player’s record, playing ability,integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributionsto the team(s) on which the player played.”Character. Integrity. Sportsmanship.Is pumping yourself full of illegal testosterone to hit a few bombers displayingany of these qualities? Some players do this to boost their careers, not to help theirteams or promote the game. And through their actions they hurt not just their reputations,but their opponents’ reputations as well. One homerun earned as a resultof performance-enhancing drugs could spell the difference between the team thattakes a long bus ride home to watch the playoffs on TV and the one that plays inthe championship. Every homerun hit by a juiced-up batter hurts a pitcher’srecord. And every strike-out a jacked-up pitcher throws hurts a batter’s résumé.We will never know if some of these players really deserved the Hall of Fameor the bench. They annihilated their chance to prove their real talent when theytook illegal substances. Now we have no choice but to assume it was all due to thedrugs. The Steroid Era is a disgrace to the game of baseball. Players who chose to cheat and lie have not only marred their own places in history, but also the records mlr address- []

Non-medical use of anabolic steroids is illegal and banned by most major sports organizations. In January 2005, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act was amended with the Controlled Substance Act that added anabolic steroids and prohormones (a precursor to a hormone) to the list of controlled substances and makes possession of the substances a federal crime. Still, some athletes continue to use them illegally despite evidence that using them this way can cause many serious health problems.

Why Athletes Take Steroids
The widespread use of anabolic steroids among athletes is in the hopes of improving performance. Although drug testing is widespread, new designer drugs are made specifically to avoid detection. However, technology continually evolves, blood and urine samples from years earlier are now being retested with new science and exposing athletes who used illegal substances in the past. []

Steroids, strength and scandal have gone hand in hand across the landscape of modern sports for decades. In recent years, much of the focus has fallen on Major League Baseball. Anabolic steroids are synthetic hormones that promote the retention of protein and the growth of tissue, and their use - or abuse - can help an athlete build bigger muscles far faster than with workouts alone. The benefits? Both strength and stamina, and the fame and riches enhanced performance can bring. The risks? For athletes, they range from infertility to psychological changes to cancer; for the sports they participate in, the risks include a loss of confidence in the fairness that is the basis of all successful competitive sports. As a result, most sports have banned steroid use. But committed underground suppliers and users of steroids have often stayed a step ahead of even the most stringent testing programs. []

This article focuses on baseball's new drug-testing program and its flaws. Major League Baseball said last week that it was doing something about the hitters and pitchers--yes, pitchers, who gain velocity and hasten muscle recovery--using illegal steroids. Baseball and union officials had agreed on the survey testing in August 2002, two months after SI revealed prevalent steroid use in the **//sport//**. Officials on both sides tore rotator cuffs slapping themselves on the back when the survey did not show, in their words, "rampant use," as if it's good that baseball could field two to three teams of **//steriod//** users dumb enough to flunk a test they saw coming five months in advance. Baseball's methodology has been so flawed it's as if the **//sport//** isn't trying to police itself. The program it announced last week is no improvement.In the opinion of Dr. Gary Wadler, a professor at NYU's medical school and an expert on performance-enhancing drugs, baseball's program amounts to a p.r. campaign. []