Doping in baseball
After repeated use by some of the most successful professional baseball players in MLB history, these banned substances found their way to the collegiate level.
At the junior college level, due to lack of funding and NCAA drug testing, the abuse of PEDs is most common, but they are also an issue in Division I, II and III.
[3] In February 2009, after reports emerged alleging that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003, a year in which he was American League MVP, he admitted to having used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) between 2001 and 2003.
[4] Mark McGwire, dogged by allegations of PED use for years, admitted in January 2010 that he had used steroids and human growth hormone off and on for over a decade, including in 1998 when he set the single-season home run record.
[6] Galvin was a user and vocal proponent of the Brown-Séquard Elixir, a testosterone supplement derived from the testicles of live animals such as dogs and guinea pigs.
[7] The experimental concoction allegedly proved ineffective, making Ruth ill and leading the Yankees to attribute his absence from the lineup to "a bellyache".
[7] During World War II, both the Allied and Axis powers systematically provided amphetamines to their troops, in order to improve soldiers' endurance and mental focus.
[9] Chafets alleges that Mantle was hampered by an abscess created by a botched injection of a chemical cocktail administered by a "quack" doctor, Max Jacobsen.
[9] In his autobiography I Had a Hammer, which was co-written with Lonnie Wheeler and published in 1992, outfielder Hank Aaron wrote that he accepted an amphetamine pill from an unnamed teammate and took it before a game during the 1968 season, after becoming frustrated about his lack of offensive performance.
[10] Former pitcher Tom House, drafted in 1967 and active in MLB from 1971–1978, has admitted to using "steroids they wouldn't give to horses" during his playing career.
[11] He estimates that "six or seven" pitchers on every team were at least experimental users of steroids or human growth hormone, and says that after losses, players would frequently joke that they'd been "out-milligrammed" rather than beaten.
[16] Outfielder John Milner testified that while he was playing for the New York Mets, he had seen in the locker of teammate Willie Mays a powerful liquid amphetamine he called the "red juice".
[18] Steroids finally made it to baseball's banned substance list in 1991, however testing for major league players did not begin until the 2003 season.
In the book, Canseco named several other players, including Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez and Jason Giambi, as steroid users.
The book caused great controversy, and most of these players claimed Canseco's implications to be false, though McGwire and Giambi later admitted to using PEDs, and Palmeiro has tested positive.
The claim was proven true with Rodriguez's admission in 2009, just after his name was leaked as being on the list of 103 players who tested positive for banned substances in Major League Baseball.
[25] The nutrition center BALCO was accused of distributing steroids to many star players, most notably Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi.
The committee was disturbed by the accepted use of steroids by athletes because it created a bad persona of players who in many cases are role models to many of the aspiring youth.
During the testimonies the players called to Congress offered their condolences for youthful athletes who had committed suicide after using performance-enhancing drugs.
Five months after the Congressional hearing, information came out indicating Palmeiro had already tested positive for steroids and knew it when he spoke before Congress.
During this period, Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson and BALCO head Victor Conte (also connected to Jason Giambi and Canseco) were not subpoenaed in California by the House Committee for investigation.
[26] Once thought to be a lock for the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of only four players to have both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, Palmeiro's legacy has since been called into question.
On March 29, 2006, ESPN learned that former Senator, Boston Red Sox board member, and Disney chairman George J. Mitchell would head an investigation into past steroid use by Major League Baseball players, including San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds.
However, Selig acknowledged that the book, by way of calling attention to the issue, was in part responsible for the league's decision to commission an independent investigation.
[33] Steven Hoskins, on Wednesday, March 23, 2010, testified against Barry Bonds as a government witness in the perjury and obstruction of justice case against the former baseball star.
The notebooks he kept made it clear that he supplied human growth hormones, anabolic steroids, and performance-enhancing drug lozenges to his clients, which not only included professional athletes but teenagers as well.
Two former LSU baseball players admitted that it was much easier to cheat the drug test at their junior colleges and that they had suspicions about certain teams that they played.
With players such as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa making their first appearance on the ballot, there was great debate on the use of steroids surrounding the legitimacy of their performance toward election.
[39] Fans of the sport continue to debate whether or not these players should be elected, with some thinking that if they were to be, it might send a message to the world of baseball that it is acceptable to use steroids.
