We all know that steroid use is a problem in baseball. We heard it during the BALCO Affair and read it in the book Game of Shadows. But it looks like steroid statistics in baseball continue to rise. And those who say the 1990s were the ‘steroid era’ in baseball, they better think again.

This year, in just the past month to be more precise, 41 players from the minor leagues have tested positive for banned compounds, 33 of them from the Dominican summer league.

Then another batch of dopers was netted on Friday August 29. Miami Herald pitches this news:

A pair of New York Yankees minor league pitchers and a Chicago Cubs minor league hurler were each suspended 50 games Friday for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

All three suspensions will begin at the start of next season.

Next season?! Why not now? Sean Connolly at Baseball 180! endorses the same question.

The suspension will be for 50 games beginning next season, which seems to make no sense at all. The drugs they took were meant to help them this season, so how can you allow them to continue to play? That makes an unfair playing field as players who are clean will be up against cheaters.

I don’t see why Major League Baseball has to wait until next season. Just suspend them for the rest of this season and carry over whatever’s left into next season. I don’t get why MLB keeps messing this drug problem up and continue to make it worse.

We say Connelly got valid points.

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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.

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With the recent conviction of Trevor Graham, all eyes are now turned to slugger Barry Bonds. Bonds was indicted November 15 last year on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. His trial is expected to take place not until next year.

Bonds was accused of lying when he said he was unaware that he was using steroids provided to him by his trainer Greg Anderson. He was also accused of committing perjury when he denied that his trainer never injected him with steroids. Anderson, meanwhile, has served prison term for refusing to testify against Bonds.

In the book Game of Shadows, authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams have chronicled Bonds’ use of steroids and other banned substances. The controversial book described how and why Bonds turned to steroids after the 1998 season to enhance his performance in the Major League. The book alleged he was jealous of Mark McGwire’s popularity because of the latter’s impressive record. At that time, McGwire was the proud holder of the single-season home run record.

In 2001, he beat McGwire’s 70 home runs – Bonds hit 73. The book reported that at that time Bonds was already into two designer steroids called as “The Cream” and “The Clear”. The book further alleged that aside from the two designer steroids, Bonds was also using insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast-acting steroid known as Mexican beans) and trenbolone, a steroid developed to improve the muscle quality of livestock.

In September 2003, federal investigators raided the Bay Area Laboratories Co-Operative (BALCO), in Burlingame, California. BALCO was tipped on by Trevor Graham as the source of steroids of many American and European athletes. In said raid, financial and medical records were seized. Two days after, authorities searched Anderson’s home and found documents that suggested Bonds was using steroids and other banned drugs.

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