The game of baseball has been a staple of American life and culture for more than a century. While American life has undergone tremendous change and transformation since baseball’s creation, the game’s nuances have remained largely intact and unscathed. With every spring, fans and fanatics head to the ballpark to watch their favorite team emerge victorious or crumble (as my Mets have for so long).

However, all of this may change instantaneously, as the game’s reputation for purity becomes harder and harder to acknowledge.

Baseball has been mired by allegations of steroid abuse for the last four years. As home-run records change, change and then change again, baseball players have begun to resemble pro-wrestling characters in their physiques. Bulging biceps and mountainous deltoids, synonymous with football for so long, have now become an integral part of baseball, a game that is almost entirely void of physical contact.

Superstars such as Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield and Barry Bonds have all been investigated for their relationship with Bay-Area Laboratory-Co-Operative (BALCO), a nutrition sports center that has allegedly provided anabolic steroids to world-class athletes. According to court testimony acquired by the San Francisco Chronicle, Giambi admitted using steroids repeatedly and injected himself with human growth hormone during 2003. Afflicted by a benign tumor that kept him out of action for much of 2004, Giambi also allegedly consumed Clomid, a female fertility drug, which doctors say can aggravate a tumor of the pituitary gland.

Additionally, according to “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big,” a new tell-all written by Jose Canseco, the former Oakland Athletics star, Canseco injected Mark McGwire in the bathroom stalls of the A’s clubhouse. Canseco also admits introducing all-stars Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro to performance enhancers while with the Texas Rangers in 1992. Though McGwire and Palmeiro have categorically denied using and abusing and Canseco is surely a sad soul, the mere fact that sports fans talk more about steroids now that they do about the game itself is sad and disgusting.

Though the issue of steroids has only become prominent the last few years, hushed discussion regarding steroids dates back to the 1980s, when owners, Major League Baseball representatives and players were cognizant of what was going on in baseball’s clubhouses. However, nothing was done to eradicate the problem, as home runs and potent offenses put more and more fannies in the seats, resulting in booming revenues for owners and gargantuan contracts for the players. Sadly, the problem has evolved into an epidemic that threatens the integrity of the entire game.

As the rumors and whispers became more and more part of baseball discourse a few years ago, baseball continually refused to combat this glaring problem. In terms of monitoring individual steroid abuse, the MLB tested players once during the season and if they tested positive, they were subject to receive counseling. Additionally, they were never tested during the offseason, when players condition their bodies for the upcoming year. Compare that to the NFL’s drug policy, which mandates a four-game suspension without pay when a player tests for steroids.

If there aren’t any teeth in an enforcement policy, then why comply? Baseball players continually tarnished the game’s image and depleted their bodies as they laughed their way to the bank.

Only with Sen. John McCain’s intervention did the MLB strengthen its steroid testing in early January 2005. Distraught and saddened by all the allegations, McCain threatened to create Congressional legislation that would strengthen steroid-testing policy, regardless of where the player’s union and the MLB stood. Astounded by McCain’s demands, the player’s union finally acquiesced, allowing for random testing year-round and an automatic 10-day suspension if an individual tested positive for steroids.

While the MLB and players’ union should be commended for creating a more stringent steroid program, there is absolutely nothing they can do about the past. A past that will forever taint the hard work of individuals who played by the rules and not with pharmaceuticals.

Josh Moskowitz ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and journalism.