Performance Enhancing Drugs

The scars of MLB's recent past are beginning to heal and fade. The Steroids Era is growing smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror.

It's been over six years since Major League Baseball was first embarrassed on Capitol Hill in the "steroids hearings" of March 2005. Over three years have passed since the release of the Mitchell Report.

Despite the march of time, there are still a handful of retired MLB stars who, well, we simply wish would just go away—Jose Canseco and Roger Clemens among them.

There's not much to say about Barry Bonds and the legal situation he's wrapped up in. The former “best player in baseball” and current home run champ has been under the microscope of Congress since he claimed to never knowingly use steroids during his 22-year career.

It seems like an eternity since Major League Baseball finally got around to admitting it had a problem of the performance enhancing variety, but in reality it has barely been a half a decade.

Players once thought to be first-ballot Hall of Famers are struggling to garner more than a pittance of support from sports writers and fans alike as the sport carries on the best it can.

We’ve all heard of Roger Clemens and Manny Ramirez and their “alleged” flirtation with performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). We know about Andy Pettitte (just seems like an inordinate amount of t’s in his name), and his admitted drug abuse in order to get a leg up on the competition in Major League Baseball.

Alex Rodriguez has been called “A-Roid” more times in a season than there are pennies in his ridiculously bloated contract. PEDs were, and probably will continue to be, a big problem in the big leagues.

Earlier this week, I saw a list of the top 25 baseball quotes of all time. Not one of them has taken place since the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run battle of 1998.

It got me to thinking that as wonderful as that chase to Roger Maris' record was, it seems to have done more harm than good.

Dear Barry,

I can now say it with a clear conscience: you're a BUM, Mr. Bonds. I know, I know, you'll probably tell me that there's been no conviction yet and that the perjury/obstruction charges you now face are STILL bogus; after all, you're Barry Lamar Bonds—home run king, big-shot.

It's almost too easy to recall Rafael Palmeiro's wagging finger at the Congressional trials in March 2005 over steroid use as he memorably said: "I have never used steroids. Period."

That July it was announced he tested positive for steroids and was suspended 10 games.

Palmeiro insisted this was true in a phone interview with SI.com posted Wednesday, saying "I was telling the truth then, and I am telling the truth now."

As we rapidly approach January, members the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) are filling out their ballots for the 2011 inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  With the Winter Meetings over, January's HOF announcement is the biggest story until pitchers and catchers report in about six weeks.

2011 marks another Hall of Fame ballot featuring one of the MLB’s most villainous characters:  Rafael Palmeiro. 

Palmeiro can be remembered for three things:

I love me some Timmy Jim, but I don’t want him in my house.      

Before you start in about the fact that Tim Lincecum wouldn't want to come over to my dumb house in the first place, he would. It’s close to the ballpark, always has a full fridge, is smoker friendly (on deck) and he could relax on my sectional pregame.

So save it—he’d want to hang out...but he can’t, because he’s covered in disgusting dog hair.