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New information has emerged in the South Florida performance-enhancing-drug scandal that has implicated MLB stars Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera and Nelson Cruz.

According to an ESPN report from Mike Fish and T.J. Quinn, the Miami clinic in question used forged documents and prescription slips to buy PEDs and then avoid a paper trail, unbeknownst to the doctors and medical professionals whose names were on the forms:

Anthony Bosch, the self-described biochemist who operated a series of wellness clinics, used prescription forms that contained forged signatures, stamped with the names and license numbers of legitimate physicians who apparently were unaware of the scheme, sources and documents indicate. Those drugs were prescribed to Bosch’s friends and associates and then delivered to professional athletes in order to avoid a paper trail, sources said.

As Quinn notes on Twitter when linking to the story, the latest information surrounding this three-month-long saga could mean severe legal action is swiftly approaching:

The detailed report goes on to describe the step-by-step process Bosch and his associates used to get the PEDs from pharmaceutical representatives to the players in question, and includes information about the documents that link Dr. Daniel Carpman—an “anti-aging” specialist located in Coral Gables, Fla.—as the forged signature on most of the documents.

Carpman denies all culpability in the forged signatures—a position a Miami handwriting specialist confirmed in the report—but does not deny knowing of Bosch or his now-defunct clinic.

Carpman is now a big piece of the Bosch puzzle, as he has witnessed Bosch’s self-proclaimed greatness with respect to helping clients for quite some time now. In the article, he notes how Bosch’s ego has kept his PED pipe dream alive, at one point reportedly telling the clinic director, “Listen Tony, you’re not a doctor.”

The intricate plan to deceive both suspicious parties and medical professionals on documents involves differing telephone information, address listings and falsified signatures, and includes the elder Bosch, Pedro, being used as a contact and the clinic’s principle medical director on most forms.

Avoiding a paper trail meant Bosch did not keep computer records or accept benefits like Medicare, which he felt would just further complicate keeping his clinic under the radar (per the report):

Bosch was known to deal only in performance-enhancing and anti-aging substances, not narcotics or prescription pills, sources said. He also was known to favor maintaining written records and logs, fearing computer files would leave a more traceable trail. He didn’t accept insurance or Medicare, which would have created another level of legal trouble. Instead, multiple sources said he dealt only in cash.

Tim Elfrink of the Miami New Times first reported in January that MLB stars had been tied to PED use in connection with the Biogenesis of America offices in Miami.

MLB filed a lawsuit against Bosch in March (h/t New York Daily News) citing “intentional interference” with league players in regard to a ban on PEDs. The MLB investigation surrounding Bosch and players implicated in Elfrink’s and other media outlets’ subsequent reports is ongoing.

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Over the past several years, baseball has proven with multiple reports and documents that it still has further to go in order to rid the sport of performance enhancing drugs. 

First time offenders in baseball currently receive a 50-game suspension, second-time offenders receive a 100-game suspension, and a third-time offender is banished from baseball. 

While this may deter a handful of players, it definitely does not deter all players.  With the different masking agents and assistance of personal physicians, athletes are slipping by the current testing methods.

The risk of being caught currently does not outweigh the benefits that are reaped from performing at the Major League level.  Contracts for everyday players are in the millions, and if you are an all-star you could be looking at anywhere from 10-20 million a season.   

Melky Cabrera gets caught on a one year deal with the Giants where he was arguably the mid-season NL MVP and was looking like he was in line for a mammoth contract extension where he would have seen more than $10 million per season over the next 5 years, and still came away after his drama with a 2-year, $16 million deal from the Blue Jays. 

Last off-season, Ryan Braun had a positive test, fought the system, and avoided his 50-game suspension.  With the recent Bio-genesis reports that are being released, it appears he is deeper in the PED underground than previously thought. 

I believe MLB could handle this ongoing issue with some of baseball’s best players by trying a few different things.

Blood Testing During Season

The most recent collective bargaining agreement from the Players Union and Major League Baseball will include blood testing for human growth hormone only for spring training and offseason. 

While this helps, HGH is not going to be used during this time frame.  HGH is being used to help players recover from injuries and stay fresh during the long season.  Players during spring training are already fresh from the off season. 

Baseball is not jumping two feet into this new testing to study the effects on the players, however if you aren’t willing to be all in, do not commit yourself to the pot. Baseball will be the first of the four major U.S. sports to incorporate any blood testing into their testing program. 

Why was the Players Union so headstrong as to not allowing it during the season? Because that’s when players will be using the HGH. You do not go to the store unless you know it is open. 

Major League Baseball is taking baby steps in getting their end result which is full testing, but the owners should be pushing this harder in order to protect their investments and know what they are actually investing in.  If you knew a stock was only worth 40 bucks and it is on the market for 50 bucks, you wouldn’t buy it—just like you wouldn’t pay a 40 HR player the same as a 10 HR player.

2.)  Increase Testing

Going hand in hand with the blood testing, the athletes need to be tested more often. 

Athletes in their contract years and rising through the minor leagues especially need additional testing.  The main reason the players are cheating is for a huge pay day, and the athletes that are the closest to that money will break the rules in order to break the bank. 

Players at the AAA level in 2012 earned slightly over $2,000 a month assuming that it was not their first year in AAA and did not receive large signing bonuses. A major league minimum salary in 2012 was $480,000 per year. 

The fact is, the borderline “4A” type players and utility players look to make huge gains just by getting onto the major league roster and sticking there.  If you show promise in the upper levels of the minors they will generally give you a shot, and the longer you stick around the longer you make nearly a half million dollars per year. 

The players in the top levels of the minor league system and especially guys in the final year of their contract should receive additional testing.  Testing is not cheap, but Major League Baseball is a billion business and the way to keep fans in the stands is to protect their brand and catch players. 

The worst thing for the MLB brand is to let superstars like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens get through their careers without a positive test, and then be caught from lab documents and testimonies.

 Terminating Contacts

Through the recent years, baseball has shown that the suspensions are not a big enough deterrent to eliminate PED use.  However, what if these teams were able to completely null and void these massive contracts upon one of their players failing a drug test?   Braun in 2011 signed a $105 million, five-year contract extension that added onto a seven-year deal he signed in May 2008, which resulted in $145.5 million dollars through 2020. 

What if once his positive test was revealed, the Brewers could void his remaining contract, say “see ya,” and waive him without having to eat his “guaranteed contract?”  The owners and general Managers are signing for the “enhanced” player hitting 40 home runs player and not the actual real life player that may only hit 25 home runs.

Teams are taking the risk by signing these players, and the fact of the matter is they are getting burned.  Att the time of his extension, Braun was the face of the Brewers franchise and a media darling. 

Fast forward to today. 

Braun is regarded as one of the least-liked players in all of sports.  He went from being a marketing asset for the Brewers to an alleged cheater using PEDs and then lying about it. 

The point is, these teams will sign these great players to long term deals dump all this money on them, the player will get suspended, and while they are without pay during the suspension, they come back and make their guaranteed salary for the rest of the contract. 

Even if the blood testing and additional testing does not catch all the players in their “contract year” it would still hopefully eliminate their use from then on knowing the players could lose their huge multi-year deals.

4.) Increase Suspensions

Currently the first offense for a 50-game suspension does not seem to do justice when that is less than 1/3 of a season. The first test should result in a minimum of being suspended for the year in which you tested positive, but also be a minimum of 100 games.

If you get popped in Spring Training, well, you just missed the entire season to your positive test.  If you get popped in September, you will miss the rest of the season and into the next season totaling 100 games.

A second positive test should just result in being banned. 

These players testing positive have to realize by now the severity of the testing.  As Jose Bautista mentioned in an interview this spring, there are many different resources and outlets to these players to verify if what they are putting in their bodies is allowed or not.

The fact you can get popped at the after the all-star break like Melky Cabrera did last year, and potentially could have come back for the playoffs, is not right.  Any stats or awards that were won in a season which a player tested positive should be forfeited.

While I do believe Major League Baseball is trying to push stricter testing and clean up the sport, I believe it could be accelerated greatly.  If the Players Union is serious about protecting its players—and by players, I mean “clean” players —they should have no issues with anything in this article.  Playing baseball for a living should be an honor and a privilege, not a right.

The fact that greedy players are able to cheat to get ahead of “clean” players should be dealt with an iron fist.

I will leave you with this scenario.

Suppose two men walk into a gas station and each purchase a lottery ticket.  The first man scratches off his lottery ticket and almost won, but missed on his last two numbers.  The second man scratched his off and WON the half million dollar jackpot!  When the first man found out the second man won the jackpot, he stole his ticket, he cashed the ticket in, and he received the grand prize.  Once the first man found out what happened he finally caught up with the second man getting out of his new Ferrari, and asked, “What the hell are you doing with the winnings from my ticket? That was my dream to win the lottery,” the second man replied, “Sorry, man. It happens all the time. It is called baseball.”

The above scenario would actually be illegal and make headlines.

It’s commonplace in baseball. 

Major League Baseball and the Players Union need to do all they can do to protect their clean athletes, and stop caring about the cheaters. Baseball had the blinders on when it came to drug testing over the past 25 years, but hopefully in the next 25 years it will set new standards in protecting the blue collar athlete and lead other sports into the next era.

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Do a quick Internet search for the term Steroid Era and the call backs include headlines like “Baseball Pays the Price for Steroid Era,” “Hall of Fame shuts out steroid-era stars” and, my personal favorite, “Baseball’s Steroid Era put in perspective,” as if that time in the history of the game is over, a time long since passed.

The Steroid Era isn’t over. It’s never going to be over.

There’s no way to put the Steroid Era into perspective because we have no idea when it’s going to end. We are acres into the performance-enhancing forest, with no idea how deep this thing will go.

Now Tim Elfrink of the Miami New Times has published a damning report that links the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz, Gio Gonzalez and a host of other major leaguers to businessman Anthony Bosch and his Miami-based company Biogenesis, an organization the report calls “the East Coast version of BALCO“: 

The names are all included in an extraordinary batch of records from Biogenesis, an anti-aging clinic tucked into a two-story office building just a hard line drive’s distance from the UM campus. They were given to New Times by an employee who worked at Biogenesis before it closed last month and its owner abruptly disappeared. The records are clear in describing the firm’s real business: selling performance-enhancing drugs, from human growth hormone (HGH) to testosterone to anabolic steroids.

The report chronicles Bosch’s dealings with professional athletes, as documented in hand-written notebooks he kept with specific records of which steroids and performance enhancers he provided for which athletes, and how much money he was charging them. 

Per the report, some of the drugs he provided include HGH, IGF-1—a banned substance in baseball—and something called “pink cream” that includes testosterone. 

When exactly did the Steroid Era end?

Maybe all the people who pronounced the end of the Steroid Era in baseball when MLB finally put in actual punishments for failing drug tests just wanted us to stop using the term “steroid.” In fact, per the Miami New Times report and many documented cases over the last decade, anabolic steroids have become one of many different drugs to fall under the classification of performance enhancers. Perhaps, technically, the Steroid Era is over and we’ve reclassified it to a broader “PED Era.” 

That has to be it, because the darn thing isn’t over nor will it be any time soon.

The truth is, baseball players have been cheating for generations. Players would routinely pop greenies on their way out to the field. Greenies, for those unfamiliar with the term, were amphetamines and weren’t banned in the game until 2006. From a 2006 New York Times story on the ban:

But a practice that was essentially winked at will no longer go unpunished now that Major League Baseball has rules banning the use of amphetamines. For the first time, baseball will test for them, meaning that any number of players will have to adjust.

The suggestion by a host of Major Leaguers interviewed for that 2006 story was that coffee and energy drinks would become the replacement for greenies. Turns out, in addition to caffeine drinks, bogus prescriptions were the unspoken answer. 

So many players were hepped up on drugs like Adderall that MLB had to change the classification after last season to consider the drug a performance enhancer.

The drug of choice may be new, but the concept surely isn’t. Players have often been one or two steps ahead of the process. Hell, Rodriguez admitted in 2009 to taking drugs during the early part of his career while with the Texas Rangers.

Did Rodriguez publicly admit to taking drugs because he failed a drug test and was suspended? No. Sports Illustrated published a detailed report that said he had failed a test in 2003, back when MLB’s testing came with no enforceable punishment. Still, it took six years for that news to come out, and when it did, Rodriguez swore it was something he no longer did.

This era will never end, and reports like the Miami New Times one will continue to come out year after year after year because players will continue to find shady opportunists who will happily supply whatever they need to stay ahead of the competition, and the league. 

This wasn’t even a sophisticated system in Miami. Records were kept in hand-written notebooks by a fake doctor who was reportedly dumb enough to keep client nicknames right next to the players’ actual names.

Take a page in another notebook, which is labeled “2012” and looks to have been written last spring. Under the heading “A-Rod/Cacique,” Bosch writes, “He is paid through April 30th. He will owe May 1 $4,000… I need to see him between April 13-19, deliver troches, pink cream, and… May meds. Has three weeks of Sub-Q (as of April).”

Cabrera was listed 14 times in Bosch’s notebooks, sometimes under the nickname “Mostro.” Nelson Cruz was nicknamed “Mohamad.” Bosch also had a player he called “Josmany” and “Springs,” which was likely code for Yasmani Grandal, the former Miami Hurricanes catcher who played scholastically for the Miami Springs and now plies his trade for the San Diego Padres.

Think about this for a second: Baseball was being outwitted by a fake doctor dumb enough to put his clients’ actual names into a hand-written notebook, and the guy can’t even spell the names right.

Though to be fair, MLB did catch both Cabrera and Grandal last season, slapping them each with a 50-game suspension. Still, a lot of other players, even some named in this report, weren’t careless enough to get caught. 

That’s what the Steroid Era has become—it’s no longer about which players are cheating, it’s about which players are careless (read: dumb) enough to get caught. 

Baseball needs some players to get caught. Frankly, MLB needs enough players to get caught to justify the testing process but not too many to warrant further action. The testing will surely continue to get better, with the understanding it’s only in place to serve as a deterrent, and not a method of policing the game.

There is no way Bud Selig and those in charge at Major League Baseball want to catch the players who are cheating. They simply want to make it harder for those who are cheating to continue to circumvent the rules and hope it turns some players off the idea altogether.

While that’s a noble task, we can’t really believe the players are suddenly going to stop cheating because testing got a little bit harder. They’re just going to find better drugs and better ways to beat the tests. Those “troches” listed in the report are akin to throat lozenges. That’s how advanced the sciences have become that performance enhancers can come with a side of soothing throat relief.

The cheating will never stop. Those who can’t figure out a way to beat the system will continue to get caught, becoming the sacrificial lambs of the testing process.

Those who can beat the system—those who will never get caught and never get suspended despite a career fueled by PEDs—will probably end up in the Hall of Fame.

At least, well, those players will get voted into the Hall of Fame once the stigma of the Steroid Era finally disappears for the voters. Whenever that will be.  

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Almost two years ago, it was beginning to seem like steroids were becoming a part of Major League Baseball’s past. Commissioner Bud Selig had come out and said that the Steroid Era was coming to an end (h/t Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times).

It is clear that is nowhere close to the truth. Since Selig issued that statement, a number of big-name players have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Manny Ramirez tested positive for the second time in his career and was given a 100-game suspension, which was later reduced to 50 games (h/t Tom Singer of MLB.com).

2011 National League MVP Ryan Braun found himself in the middle of some controversy when it was announced that he had tested positive for a PED. While Braun’s suspension was overturned, it was once again a reminder that performance-enhancing drugs are still very much a part of the game of baseball (h/t ESPN).

In 2012, four major-league players have been suspended for testing positive for PEDs. Guillermo Mota, Freddy Galvis, Bartolo Colon and Melky Cabrera have all been suspended by MLB this season.

After Cabrera’s positive test, Victor Conte, the head of BALCO, discussed how he believed that a significant number of players in the majors still use PEDs (h/t ESPN).

It is clear that this issue has not gone away.

Cabrera’s case presents MLB with a very interesting situation. He was in the middle of a career year this season when he was suspended for 50 games for testing positive for high levels of testosterone (h/t ESPN).

As it currently stands, Cabrera’s .346 batting average leads the National League. Andrew McCutchen is the only player that seems to be within striking distance of the mark as the 2012 MLB season winds to a close.

What this means is that Cabrera, whose performance this year was in some part fueled by performance-enhancing drugs, could end up taking home the National League batting title.

Bud Selig needs to step in to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Baseball cannot clean up its image when one of its prominent statistical leaders failed a drug test that year.

It could take a rule change to make sure that it doesn’t happen, but it is one that should easily be implemented. Selig could propose a rule that any player that tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs is ineligible to be counted as the statistical leader in any category during the same season in which the infraction occurs.

There would likely not be much opposition to such a proposal, as no player wants to be cheated out of something that is rightfully theirs.

Allowing Cabrera to win the title would help set a dangerous precedent. While a 50-game suspension is obviously tough, letting a player be named the season’s leader in a statistical category would show that the league is soft in some areas of its PED enforcement.

Last offseason, there was the debate about whether or not Braun should keep his NL MVP trophy as a result of his positive PED test. That decision did not have to be made, but it is one that should have been simple.

Any player that tests positive for a PED should lose any award or recognition that he received that season.

The performance-enhancing drug helped him put up better numbers in some capacity that year, and the award deserves to go to a player that was clean.

There is one simple solution that would make the whole issue with Cabrera and the batting title moot. If McCutchen finishes with his batting average above .346, then the batting title will end up in the hands of its rightful owner.

Even if that is the case, this issue shows that there are more areas that Major League Baseball needs to think about when it comes to punishments for violating its PED policy.

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After Melky Cabrera’s shoddy webmaster skills died a timely death, I started thinking about past ruses of steroid explanation. 

Instant comedy seems to be born every time a baseball player is accused or caught red-handed in using performance-enhancing drugs.  Some dopey anecdote is concocted, and the authorities and the fans are supposed to blindly buy it.

So, without further adieu, here is the first installment of “Great Moments in Steroid Scandals.”

“Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period. I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never.”

You remember that one, right? 

Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro looked into the eyes of Congress, wagged his sanctimonious finger and affirmed to the world he wasn’t dirty.

His adamancy spoke volumes, as his performance in Washington was actually worthy of Tinseltown.  The only enhancers Raffy ever took were Viagra pills—and he was paid to tell us that.

But only 135 days after Palmeiro’s fire-and-brimstone speech of innocence, he tested positive for the powerful and MLB-banned supplement stanozolol.  Subsequently, he was suspended for 10 games (the ban at the time in 2005).

So, let’s try this again.

“I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period. Ultimately, although I never intentionally put a banned substance into my body, the independent arbitrator ruled that I had to be suspended under the terms of the program.”

After this statement of desperation, he was mum to the public about his positive test.  But ESPN soon learned that Palmeiro, when talking to an MLB arbitration panel, threw his teammate Miguel Tejada under a massive bus.  He claimed Tejada had given him a dreaded B-12 pill that logically must have been tainted.

With Tejada having his steroid transgressions as well, the case simply looked like a juiced guy trying to save his hide on the laurels of another juiced guy.

Because both guys were dirty, their stories weren’t believable, and the mystery B-12 pill never did any real damage.  Sure, Tejada was convicted of perjury for lying to Congress about Raffy’s checkered steroid past, but it was a minor violation that did no real damage.

As for Palmeiro and that completely legal pill that somehow caused a positive test for an extremely dangerous steroid, well he’s sticking to his story.

In 2006, he told the Baltimore Sun, “Yes sir, that’s what happened. It’s not a story; it’s the reality of what happened,” and “I said what I said before Congress because I meant every word of it.”

I apologize for asking such a silly question, but if Palmeiro regularly took B-12 pills, then why didn’t he buy his own pills?

Follow @brianbuck13  Appeared originally on Sporting Sarcasm

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Love him or hate him, Alex Rodriguez will find himself among the greats at Cooperstown some day. Although it is a dark time for Major League Baseball, we need to learn to accept that the Steroid Era happened, and the only thing we can do about it is to prevent it from happening again.

Alex Rodriguez is one of the many faces and one of the greatest players of the Steroid Era. While many fans won’t acknowledge his records, and no matter how many asterisks are placed next to his name, each and every one of his 644 home runs has happened. Each of his 1,937 RBI are in the books.

Rodriguez, who turned 37 in last week, has an excellent shot of being the next player to reach the 3,000-hit plateau and needs only 128 more to accomplish the feat. He would be one of only five players in the 3,000 hit/500 home run club along with Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Hank Aaron and Rafael Palmeiro. He is also only 17 home runs away from sending another Hall of Famer, this time Willie Mays, down the all-time home run list.

He is also an admitted steroid user and used banned substances while with the Texas Rangers from 2001-03. 

According to an ESPN article published in 2011, the Steroid Era “refers to a period of time in Major League Baseball when a number of players were believed to have used performance-enhancing drugs, resulting in increased offensive output throughout the game.” Although there is no definitive start day like the Dead Ball era (1901-1919), it is credited to have began in the late 1980s through the mid-2000s. 

In 1961, baseball commissioner Ford Frick petitioned to have Roger Maris’ home run record kept separate from Babe Ruth’s, citing the length of schedule (teams played more eight more games when Maris his 61 home runs in 1961 than then did when Ruth hit 60 in 1927. Maris hit home runs 60 and 61 in the last eight games that season). Many baseball traditionalists felt the same way.

Now, today’s traditionalists feel that Maris is still baseball’s single-season home run king.

“The institution of the asterisk, the most important typographical symbol in American sport, (is) terribly unfair. To take away Ruth’s record was to take away something that was held so close to the hearts of the baseball establishment that they couldn’t see doing it. Nonetheless, Roger Maris, did it. He hit 61 home runs and the fact that it took 162 games; he also had to do it playing at night, to bat against the screwball, having to travel to the west coast for games, and to do it all with a parade of reporters I think is unfair.” -Daniel Okrent in Ken Burns: Baseball

Regardless, there is a huge difference between the extra eight games (and exactly seven at-bats) between Ruth and Maris, and the body-altering drugs and chemicals between Maris and players like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa.

Another rule change that Frick was instrumental in was the widening of the strike zone so that Maris’ mammoth 1961 campaign never happened again, which opened the door to the “Golden Age of Pitching.” This launched the careers of Juan Marichal, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and the dominant pitchers of the 1960s. 

Since there was a rule change implemented before those players started the dominant stages of their careers, should there be asterisks placed next to the names of those players too?

Baseball historians, while determining what records stand and which ones don’t, determined that everything after the year 1900 would be deemed the “Modern Era.” By this time, the strike zone was defined, four ball walks existed, the pitchers mound was 60 feet six inches from the now pentagon-shaped home plate. 

So because of the rules’ stabilization, Major League Baseball does not recognize records and statistics compiled in that era to be comparable to the statistics achieved today. Therefore records like Nap Lajoie’s .427 average in 1901 are the standard, whereas Hugh Duffy’s .440 average in 1894 (which is the highest single-season average since baseball’s inception) are not.

But Hugh Duffy still did it. And he is in the Hall of Fame.

Don’t get me wrong. Rule changes implemented by the Major League Baseball front office is no way comparable to injecting yourself in the butt with HGH and testosterone.

Just a quick disclaimer before we get into the juicy part: steroids are bad. They are wrong. Don’t do them. People who use steroids are cheaters. The damage that steroids users risk to their bodies far outweigh the athletic benefits of using them…not to mention the influence that professional athletes have on young and amateur athletes across the world.

Although there is no definitive start date of the Steroid Era, the pioneers of the era were the Bash Brothers Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, who hit a combined 410 home runs while they were teammates with the Oakland Athletics from 1987 until 1992 when Canseco was traded to the Texas Rangers. McGwire was limited to only 74 games in 1993 and 1994 with foot injuries and the labor dispute…a dispute that would result in the cancellation of almost 950 MLB games, including the entire 1994 postseason.

Fans were disgruntled following the 1994 player strike and the 20 percent decrease in attendance from 1994 to 1995 reflected that.

However, in 1998, the home run phenomenon climaxed.

1998 was about three players: Seattle Mariner Ken Griffey Jr (one of the rare Steroid Era sluggers who hasn’t been linked to steroids), Chicago Cub Sammy Sosa, and McGwire (now with the St. Louis Cardinals)…all three in pursuit of Roger Maris’ single season home run record. Griffey was the early favorite. The reigning AL MVP fell five home runs short of tying Maris the season before and would finish the 1998 season with 56 again.  

The spotlight all summer was on Sosa and McGwire. The NL Central rivals were hitting home runs at a record-breaking rate and stayed almost neck and neck the entire way, and were tied at 55 apiece on August 31. But, while playing Sosa and the Cubs, McGwire hit his record-tying 61st off of Mike Morgan on September 7, then the record-breaking shot off Steve Trachsel the next night. McGwire finished the season with 70 home runs, which stood as the record until Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001.

The excitement of the home run had fans flooding stadium gates. There were 5,064 home runs hit in the major leagues in 1998, which was the most all time and the first time there had been over 5,000 hit in a season. There were more hit the next season (5,528). And even more the next (5,693). The amount of home runs hit in the National League had more than doubled from 1992 (1,262) to 2000 (3,005).

And it was exciting…until it was revealed that players had been using performance-enhancing drugs and all the splendor has turned into bitterness

But players can argue that ball players had been using advantages to get the upper hand over their opponent for decades. After all, Ty Cobb was notorious for sharpening the spikes on his cleats in an attempt to slice open opposing players’ shins, right? Or what about stealing signs? Or Joe Niekro’s emery board? Or Kenny Rogers’ pine tar?

Right. But they haven’t been injecting testosterone and hormones into their bodies to give them a chemically produced edge.

Although the Steroid Era is a black mark on professional baseball history, we need to acknowledge that it happened and take away things that can help improve the game. Steroids saved baseball. The Steroids Era is a part of baseball history, and the players from that era belong in Cooperstown. Perhaps not hanging in the same hallway as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Hank Aaron. But they belong somewhere.

Alex Rodriguez happened. He is a feared hitter that is capable of changing the game with a simple flick of his wrists. And, for that, he is Hall of Fame worthy.

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The hits just keep on coming for the Philadelphia Phillies in a season where they have been decimated by injuries. 

According to an official tweet from Major League Baseball, rookie second baseman Freddy Galvis has been suspended for 50 games after testing positive for a banned substance known as Clostebol—a performance enhancing drug. Though the suspension will begin immediately, Galvis quickly took to the media to claim his innocence through an official statement, passed along by MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki.

“A trace amount of a banned substance – 80 parts in a trillion – was detected in my urine sample. I am extremely disappointed in what has transpired. I cannot understand how even this tiny particle of a banned substance got into my body. I have not and never would knowingly use anything illegal to enhance my performance. I have always tried to follow the team’s strength and conditioning methods, listen to the trainers, work out hard and eat right. Unfortunately, the rules are the rules and I will be suspended.”

Galvis came into the season ranked as the team’s sixth-best prospect by the esteemed prospect gurus at Baseball America. After making the transition from shortstop to second base during spring training, he took over the starting job at second for the Phillies with Chase Utley still injured. 

Though Galvis posted a mediocre slash line of .226/.254/.363 at the plate, he proved to be one of the team’s more productive hitters, recording three homers, 15 doubles and 24 RBI. Most importantly, he was spectacular in the field, picking it clean with a .984 fielding percentage. 

Galvis has been out of action since June 6 with an injury known as a Pars fracture. It is a crack in the vertebra that requires a lengthy healing process. The second baseman could be in a back brace for as long as six weeks and there is currently no timetable on his return from injury.

In response to Galvis’ positive test, the Phillies released an official statement as an organization.

“The Phillies continue to believe in and endorse Major League Baseball’s drug policy.  We also support Freddy Galvis in his determination to put this matter behind him and we look forward to his return as a productive member of the Phillies as soon as possible.”

In all reality, the news could be worse for the Phillies. Galvis’ injury will keep him off the field for, at the very least, a majority of his suspension, and thanks to a loophole in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the suspension has minimal impact on Galvis’ outside of his reputation.

Ruben Amaro Jr.’s response to the suspension seemed to reflect that “it could be worse attitude” as he was questioned by Zolecki, among other members of the media. Amaro admitted that he was “disappointed” about the outcome of the test, but that getting him “back onto the field” was the largest concern.

“It’s disappointing,” Ruben Amaro Jr. said in the Phillies dugout before tonight’s series opener against the Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. “We fully support the program and the decision. At the same time we support the player. We just want him to get healthy and get back onto the field for us. … We believe in the kid. I believe in him. I think he’s still got a great future for us moving forward.”

Asked if he believed Galvis’ claim of innocence by mentioning only 80 parts of the banned substance in a trillion were found in his system, Amaro said, “I don’t know anything about those numbers. It’s kind of foreign to me. As I said, I support the player. I can’t really comment on it because I don’t know much about it.”

The suspension will expire on Aug. 8 when the Phillies take on the Atlanta Braves.

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Jose Canseco, who has been busy on Twitter with his usual rants, has been suspended by the Mexican League for refusing to take a drug test. According to ESPN, Quintana Roo Tigers‘ Team President said,   that doping-control doctors advised Canseco against taking the test because he was using a medicine to produce testosterone.

Canseco has been pledging his innocence, claiming that he has a prescription for testosterone and “can’t live without it.”

With his time in the Independent Leagues finished and now banned from the Mexican League, his playing days may again be officially over. 

In major league news, Jason Pridie, a former second-round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Rays and now a minor leaguer in the Oakland Athletic organization, is faced with the possibility of a 50-game suspension for violating MLB’s drug policy. 

Pridie has had limited success in the pros. 2011 was his best year to date, as he played 101 games for the New York Mets. He batted .240 with four home runs and 20 RBI. 

ESPN reports that Pridie’s suspension was caused by a “drug of abuse,” not performance enhancers.

Devon is the founder of The GM’s Perspective.

Devon is a former professional baseball player with the River City Rascals & Gateway Grizzlies.

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Steroids are like the ghosts of Christmas past in baseball.

Now that testing is solidly in place—even for human growth hormone—the league and possibly the players would probably look at the steroid issue as very old, unwelcome news. They would rather it be swept under a rock—or better, forgotten.

Like the boogeyman or the endless variations of Chucky the killer doll, the issue pops up like an unwanted toy when players from that era come up for the Hall of Fame.

Angst-driven, the writers and former players who follow the game are twisted into all sorts of shapes in trying to come up with their own position over the issue.

Keith Olbermann, who cut his teeth on ESPN before becoming a political commentator, told MLB Network’s Clubhouse Confidential that it is an “awful thing,” but there will be players who will not go into the Hall because of “an assumption” that they were not clean. “But that is going to be the case,” he concluded.

One of the more popular outs is to say that a player was a Hall of Famer before he turned—Darth Vader-like—to the dark side of the game. That’s what some are saying about Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez.

Clemens, who has a 354-184 win-loss mark and a bucket of Cy Youngs, insists he never used ‘roids, no matter what his former trainer says.

Bonds, who has 762 dingers, seven MVP awards and is a 14-time All-Star, said he used a cream but never knowingly juiced.

A-Rod, a career .302 hitter with 629 homers, said he used them in Texas, but never with the Yankees.

One of the tragedies in this whole sorry mess is that a lot of people don’t believe them. The face value of what they say has more holes than the Titanic.

A lot of people think of it this way:

“Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers and gamblers, where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.”

That came from Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the baseball commissioner put in place after the Black Sox scandal almost a century ago. If you put in that statement a phrase that no player who uses steroids will ever be part of baseball, well, you get the idea.

I just cannot chop a player’s career like a pork chop, divvying up the Hall of Fame part where he is clean and the part where he looked like he was juiced, and chuck that into the garbage bin.

These players are all of a piece and not detachable like Lego parts.

The steroid era really jacks up your level of appreciation for a player like Derek Jeter or Pedro Martinez. Their bodies never ballooned like the Michelin man. They aged when they were supposed to and you never got the sense they were cheating the game. 

Pedro put it well when he recently told writers at an event at the Liberty Hotel in Boston:

“I’m glad I didn’t do [steroids], even though I was criticized for missing one or two or three starts a year for sometimes being in pain and expressing it.” (He pointed out how player recovery times were significantly less when they were using steroids.)

“I’m glad I did it clean, and I’m really extremely sorry for those guys that have to make that decision to go the wrong way, because I know baseball is hard enough to play by itself, and now carrying over such a bad reputation is not anything you want to have after such a beautiful job and a beautiful career. It’s sad but it’s your choice and you’re responsible for the steps you take.”

Like the houses, plumbing fixtures and what-have-you from the massive earthquake in Japan that is starting to wash up in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., the fallout of the steroids era is oozing out of a history that the league would rather forget.

Why is this issue so important?

Playing fair and with honor should matter because the numbers are the only tangible legacy a player leaves behind. And those are numbers compiled by players going back to the late 19th century.

Simply put, they are sacred to the game.

Football may be the most popular sport in the country—but baseball is part of the soul and fabric of the United States. 

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Melvin Garcia, a 33^rd round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2010 draft has been suspended for 50 games after allegedly testing positive for “an amphetamine, a performance-enhancing substance, in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program,” according to milb.com.

Garcia is now the third Blue Jay prospect to succumb to a failed test this year. 

19-year-old Garcia has two years of professional experience under his belt, and by the look of things, his situation can only get worse before it gets better. 

In nearly two full seasons, Garcia is batting a scanty .195 with a .275 OBP and .282 SLG. While obviously still in the development stages of his young career, not much sign of power is relevant at this point (2 home runs and 6 doubles).

He originally grabbed tons of attention from the Jays after his phenomenal season at James Monroe High School in the Bronx, N.Y.  Garcia was going to attend Wharton Community College in Texas, at least until the Jays took notice. 

The suspension is set to kick in at the beginning of next season and then we will truly see what Garcia is made of. Will he let this haunt him for the rest of his career or can he admit that this was a huge mistake and move forward? 

Let’s hope it’s the latter.

Devon is the founder of The GM’s Perspective, a former professional baseball player with the River City Rascals& Gateway Grizzlies and is now an independent scout.

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