Here’s just one of the news items that illustrates baseball’s alliance with steroids. From Miami Herald:

Major League Baseball suspended Cincinnati Reds minor league pitcher Renny Amador and Arizona Diamondbacks minor league shortstop Bernardino Jimenez for 50 games after each tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance.

Amador tested positive for metabolites of Stanozolol and Jimenez tested positive for Boldenone.

Both players are members of their organization’s Dominican summer league teams.
The suspensions are effective immediately.

Use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball grabbed national attention starting in the 1990s, when the record-breaking era of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire took place.

During the 1998 season, Sosa hit 66 home runs while McGwire McGwire earned the single season record by hitting 70 home runs as Major League fans watched in open-mouthed disbelief.  It was alleged that these two players had been getting some help from performance boosters – androstenedione for McGwire and creatine for Sosa. Then Barry Bonds came, easily breaking the home run record established by McGwire. Bonds’ sensational performance had caused many to speculate on his possible use of steroids.

In 2003, the Balco Affair exploded implicating Bonds of use of steroid and PEDs along with other elite athletes in diverse sports. Subsequently, the Major League and its affiliates (including the Minor League) have adopted stricter anti-doping policy.

The organization has implemented harsher penalties for steroid users, commencing at its 2005 season.

A first positive test results in a suspension of 10 games. A second and third positive test result in a suspension of 30 and 60 games, respectively. A fourth offense results in a one-year suspension. A fifth offense results in a penalty at the commissioner’s discretion, which could mean saying ta-ta to the game permanently.

Prior to this implementation, a first-time offense would only call for the treatment of the player and the player would not even be named.

Tags: androstenedione, baseball, boldenone, creatine, Major League, Minor League, PEDs, penalty, stanozolol, steroids, suspension

Posted in steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Baseball, Steroids in Sports