February 7 was the day that changed baseball history when Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez admitted that he used steroids in 2001-2003 while playing for the Texas Rangers. This left many fans, supporters and even those in the MLB dumbfounded. They had high hopes for A-Rod, who was predicted to surpass Barry Bonds’ home run record. However, when he was named one of the 104 MLB players tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, his baseball career is looking rather dim.

College fans that looked up to him as one of the most admired baseball heroes were disappointed and shocked. They could not believe that he was capable of cheating because he seemed to be one of the model players fit to be emulated.

From The Batt:

“A-Rod was one of those players that we all had no doubt that he wasn’t taking steroids,” said Texas A&M junior pitcher Travis Starling. “He was kind of the poster child of the perfect baseball player. He worked hard. He showed up every day and he played hard every day and he produced good numbers off of purely his talent and his work ethic, and now we are being told that he did take steroids. So for me individually, as a baseball player, and as someone who enjoys the game of baseball, it is still a shock to me.”

“I think when it’s admitted, you get it out of the way,” said A&M junior infielder Brodie Greene. “People are obviously not going to forget it. You admitted it, and you came out and told your side and that helps you. That’s why I think Bonds and [Roger] Clemens are going to end up hurting themselves in the long run because they are just denying it. I guess they are innocent until proven guilty. I feel that they are on the guilty side but haven’t really admitted it yet.”

For the fans, the players are no longer very believable when they say that they are not taking any performance enhancing drugs. It can be said that they have become disillusioned and some would definitely find it difficult to accept that the icons they used to see playing on the field would lie or cheat. There are 103 more names to be revealed. The fans will just have to brace themselves for more shocking news.

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There is an outcry to oust Fehr as the union chief and replace him with someone who cares for the welfare of the players and baseball. As he is booted out of the office, his sidekick Gene Orza should follow suit. His arrogance is not doing the Major League any good. He was cornered at a Mets game last month and asked by the media to comment on the state of baseball and what he plans to do about it he evades the questions with a refusal to answer. This speaks a lot about how much he cares about the union. The steroids controversy has placed him in hot waters because of all people in the MLB he should have been the one to know that the players had been doping.

There had been suggestions on who should replace Fehr as the union chief. One is Hank Aaron who had an exemplary performance during his baseball career.

From The Daily News:

Even if he were only a figurehead who would surround himself with lawyers and accountants, baseball needs people like Aaron to let fans trust the game again.

He would be a logical replacement as commissioner as well, except Aaron would have the most to gain by striking Barry Bonds from the record books and re-establishing himself as baseball’s home run king. Better to let someone else make that call.

Therefore, let us do the next best thing and put Aaron in charge of rebuilding the tattered image of the union.

Orza is responsible for the mess why Alex Rodriguez’s results leaked to the press. When the random drug testing was done the MLB players were promised that the evidence would be destroyed but not soon enough for the media to get hold of them. Now the FBI is going to subpoena the results and more names are going to come out. Could this be the end of for some of the players’ careers?

Marvin Miller, the former executive director of the MLB, said that they should not have submitted to the drug testing. This simply means that the union does not care what the Congress thinks, leadership is not going to change, and they had not feeling of regret or remorse.

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More and more people are becoming aware of the dangerous effects of steroids. The use of performance enhancing drugs had been exclusively in the field of professional sports. However, because high school athletes are also subjected to the intense pressure of winning and staying in the game, the use of steroids among teenagers have become alarming.

In 2007 an alarming number of 580,000 high school students, majority are athletes, have been known to be taking steroids. This is according to the survey done by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are students who know that steroids are illegal but many more are unaware.

From CBS News:

They’re ingesting what they think are perfectly legal supplements. Instead, says one expert interviewed by Cobiella, the pills are really steroids masquerading as supplements.

The expert adds, “I want parents to know that these are highly dangerous anabolic drugs. … They make you big and strong, but underneath, they cause all kinds of problems.”

Cobiella pointed out that certain words buried in the fine print of such substances could tip off potential purchasers to their actual contents.

Despite the numbers that appeared in the survey, drug tests that were conducted in the states of New Jersey, Illinois, Texas and Florida did not reconcile. In the four states alone out of approximately 30,000 high school students only 20 came back positive. The drug tests were eventually dropped in 2008 because it was costing the government so much money at $200 per student. If the CDCP’s survey reflected the alarming numbers the method of testing them could be flawed. Or the survey is not accurate. Either way the numbers are saying something.

To prevent the epidemic of steroid overdose to spread among teenagers there should be a campaign to educate them on the harmful effects of performance enhancing drugs.

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As a friend, the Boston Red Sox hitter David Ortiz fully commends Alex Rodriguez for admitting that he had used anabolic steroids back in 2003. As a lover of the game, however, Ortiz believes that it is time for a change in Major League Baseball’s policies in steroid testing. Ortiz said that players who have tested positive for banned substances shouldn’t just be suspended for 50 games. That’s too light even for a first offense punishment. Instead, these players should be banned from participating in the sport the entire year. That should be traumatizing enough to scare them from using performance enhancing drugs.

From Daily News:

Ortiz, who emerged as one of the premier sluggers in the game in 2003 with Boston after spending six largely forgettable years in Minnesota, believes all players on all teams should be tested three or four times a year, and any players testing positive should be banned for the rest of that season.

“If I test positive by using any kind of banned substance, I’m going to disrespect my family, the game, the fans and everybody,” Ortiz said. “And I don’t want to be put in that situation. So what I will do, I won’t use it. I’m pretty sure everybody is on the same page.”

Even if Ortiz is a good friend of Rodriguez, he said that when the news first broke out, he did end up judging the latter. Fortunately, the steroid use was six years ago and should be left there in the past. It is time to move forward. Ortiz believes that Rodriguez is a very talented player and that he has been performing well and has been training hard even without the steroids. According to Ortiz, Rodriguez is clean now. A-Rod is still young and it is inevitable that he would make mistakes. Nevertheless, Rodriguez will pull through and still be one of the best players there ever was.

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While some Major League Baseball athletes have turned to the use of anabolic steroids in order to reach the top, other great players have shown their love for the game by staying clean. Jeff Kent is the epitome of the latter. Kent has been an advocate of MLB steroid testing throughout his career. When he was giving his retirement speech last week, he even commended the Major League and the players’ union for the developments in the drug testing policy.

Kent has been quoted several times by other supporters of anti-steroid programs such as Bud Selig and Sen. George Mitchell. For Kent, though, the battle against steroids and illegal drugs shouldn’t stop with what the committee now has. The tests could be much better. Kent even suggested adding blood tests to the routine urine samples taken from athletes since more drugs will be detected.

From San Francisco Chronicle:

“Major League Baseball and the union created a drug policy that’s on the right path. Baseball has brought the game to a better level playing field than it ever was,” Kent said. “Whether I personally had anything to do with that . . . I wanted to put this game in a better place, and I hope younger players just don’t give up and say, ‘We’re in a good spot’ and not make more progress.

“The integrity of the game always needs to be in question.”

Kent added the game’s integrity “was jeopardized for so many years, and I’m completely embarrassed about the steroid era.”

He hit more home runs than any other second baseman in history, and they all came in a tainted era.

Kent is proud that he has treated the sports he loved with the respect it deserves. He is a winner in all aspects of the game and he has never cheated. His accomplishments, both in the field and outside, could give him the chance to put his name in the Hall of Fame.

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Just last week, Gov. Rick Perry agreed that the $6 million drug testing program for local high school athletes is a bit too pricey and could be rolled back. The first batch of results is from 10,000 students participating in spring activities and only four yielded positive results. While the 2nd batch of results isn’t in, Perry stated that anabolic steroids aren’t a major problem among Texas teens since the tests only had very low positive results. This comment caused a mixed reaction among the people.

From Dallas Morning News

Yet those results may prove the program’s worth, said Don Hooton, the Plano man who became an anti-steroids crusader after his son committed suicide in 2003.

“This program isn’t designed to tell you if you’ve got a problem or not,” Hooton said. “This program is designed to be a deterrent. That we had low positive results suggest maybe the program is working just as it should be.”

Don Hooton thinks that the low positive count is the result of the steroid testing program. Without the program, students will be less aware of the consequences of using performance enhancing drugs. Hooton wants for the state to wait for the second batch of results before jumping into any conclusions. He also wants to have enough time for his experts under the Taylor Hooton Foundation to analyze the results and review the protocol. He is disappointed that Perry and some critics support the stand that the program has to be removed.

The governor’s office said that there is no official decision on the program yet. Perry also said that he had no issues with the program per se, just the high budget that went along with it.

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The high school athletes of Palm Beach County now don’t have to wonder how it would be like to be in the Major Leagues or in the Olympics. The school board is highly considering having their athletes tested for use of alcohol and of illegal drugs. All that is needed is the board’s final approval for the tests (similar to those district employees receive) to be randomly used on the baseball and softball teams of six high schools.

From Palm Beach Post:

The nearly $198,000 three-year pilot program, funded by a U.S. Department of Education grant, eventually would expand to more sports and all high schools. That would make it one of Florida’s largest athletic drug testing ventures.

Testing would ensure that students are safe on and off the fields and that they get treatment if needed, said Kim Williams, assistant director of the prevention center in the department of Safe Schools.

Tests to detect anabolic steroid use will be added to the program later on and had already gotten the support of Elaine Taulé, the writer of the grant and also the president of to company who would do the tests.

Students who test positive for alcohol, steroids or any illegal drugs will not be removed from the team at first. They will not be able to play for 10 days, although they would be allowed to practice. They will only be booted out of their teams when tested positive for the second time. Coaches and other officials believe that the tests would teach the students discipline and hopefully, help them in guiding these students to the right path. This seems to be working since only one athlete was found positive for steroids among the 600 samples tested last year.

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Philadelphia Phillies reliever J.C. Romero chose to explain his side before the announcement of his 50-game suspension becomes public. He was charged for his negligence in taking over the counter  sporting supplements he had bought in a store in Cherry Hill. According to an arbitrator, Romero opted to take the supplements without even knowing what they were.

Romero recalls that he was intrigued by the new supplements being sold in the retail store where he bought his usual supplements. He went on to try these and even had his nutritionist check for any banned components in the product’s label. When the nutritionist he had been working with for several years had cleared the drug, Romero was sure he was not breaking any rules. When Phillies strength coach Dong Lien sent a sample of the supplement to Major League Baseball for testing, however, tests showed that the supplement contained a substance that could lead to a positive drug test reading. No one informed Romero though. It was only after his urine was tested when Romero had found out that there was a problem with the supplements he was taking. The question is who should really be labeled negligent?

Romero is convinced that he had done nothing wrong. According to Romero, he owes it to himself and to his supporters to speak the truth.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Romero got the impression from players association lawyers that the hearings went very well for him and that he would likely get off with a warning. Clearly, he had taken a supplement he believed was OK and MLB seemed to grasp that.
“They knew the intention wasn’t there,” Romero said. “They knew I wasn’t taking anabolic steroids. They continued to pursue the fact that they thought it was negligence to not send my supplements in and going with my nutritionist, the guy I’ve been working with since I’ve been in major-league baseball. They made a big issue of that.”

Romero better pray that his gut is right otherwise he would be facing a scandal that might tarnish the name he had worked so hard for to establish.

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Sometimes, it’s tough to be Lance Armstrong.

The seven-time Tour de France champion has been on the radar of international drug testers since he announced his comeback in September.

The 37-year-old rider says he’s been drug tested 11 times in the past 18 weeks and two days in the past four days. His most recent test was conducted by officials from the International Cycling Union on Thursday at his Texas home according to AFP.

“UCI control. They flew a guy from Germany for it. That makes a ton of sense,” Armstrong wrote on Twitter, a social networking website.
Twitter allows users to send short messages which are then posted on subscribers’ cell phones and the Internet.

Armstrong even let his Twitter readers know that he was on his way to meet with the drug testers.

“I am back from the shop after riding four hours. I hear the drug testers are waiting at the house. #11,” he wrote.

Armstrong, who plans to resume his cycling career next year, was placed under a six-month probation period by the United States Anti-doping Agency at the beginning of August.

Armstrong needs to pass USADA’s out-of-competition testing pool before his cycling comeback can become official.

News of his return has drawn mixed reviews in cycling circles.

Armstrong’s career has been dogged by doping accusations, prompting him to file several lawsuits in the past years against his detractors to refute the allegations. Most explosive of the accusations was the report published in a French sports newspaper L’Equipe in 2005 which claimed that the six urine samples obtained from Armstrong from his 1999 Tour victory tested positive for the blood booster EPO.

Last month, Armstrong said that should he decide to join the Tour next year he said he fears for his personal safety due to a lot of resentment towards him France caused by negative publicity.

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BALCO prosecutors put MLB drug testing program in jeopardy, says commissioner Bud Selig in his letter addressed to legislators.

The letter dated June 27 was a response to the request of Reps. Henry Waxman and Tom Davis, leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, who demanded an explanation last month for a loophole in the league’s testing programs for anabolic steroids and other banned drugs.

Selig strongly stated in his letter that the seizure of more than 100 drug test results at the height of the BALCO investigation jeopardized the anonymity promised to players for the 2003 survey testing.

“To the best of our knowledge, the seizure of baseball’s testing records in the BALCO investigation was the first time that law-enforcement officials had sought large numbers of records from a private employer’s workplace drug-testing program as part of a criminal investigation,” Selig wrote in his letter to Waxman and Davis. “As a result, Major League players faced the realistic prospect of criminal prosecution based on evidence from a drug test that they were promised would be anonymous.

“In addition,” Selig continued, “the seizure undermined representations made to players that drug-testing records would be confidential…. It is no exaggeration to say that the seizure threatened the continued viability of the entire drug-testing program.”

The representatives also asked Selig why a union official gave some players advance notice of testing in 2004, as alleged in the Mitchell Report. Selig answered that the allegation “came as a complete surprise to me and to all of us in the commissioner’s office.”

The BALCO investigation is considered to be the biggest steroid scandal in US sporting history. In June 2003, sprint coach Trevor Graham made an anonymous call to the United States Anti-Doping Agency. Graham spoke of a designer steroid that was being used by a number of athletes. The designer steroid was called The Clear, which was later identified as tetrahydrogestrinone.

Subsequent investigations came up with paper trail and other evidence of prevalent steroid use in professional sports. Soon, notable athletes from diverse sporting fields had emerged, including those in MLB.

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