Yankees: Performance enhancing drugs, and the baseball hall of shame

Since the late 1800s ballplayers have been known to try to gain chemical advantages. In 1889 Pud Galvin became widely known for his use of Brown-Sequard Elixir, a testosterone supplement produced from testicles of live animals.

Babe Ruth was thought to once have injected himself with a similar extract from sheep testicles, but it made him ill and he never used it again.

In 1961 Mickey Mantle was believed to have injected himself with a chemical cocktail that included steroids and amphetamines in an effort to keep up with Roger Maris during their famous home run competition.

Former Yanks relief pitcher and HOF member Goose Gossage have admitted to using amphetamines during his playing career (1972-1994), which was illegal at the time.

Finally, Willie Mays was rumored to have used a powerful liquid amphetamine he referred to as “red juice” during his New York Mets days.

Public admissions by Jose Conseco and Mark McGuire of their heavy dependence on steroids at the turn of the 21st Century shined a bright national spotlight on the use of steroids in baseball, leading to questions about the validity of their accomplishments on the field.

In the early 2000s, a federal government investigation of a nutrition center, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), was found to have distributed anabolic steroids to a number of professional athletes (e.g., Olympic track star Marion Jones), including prominent baseball players such as Barry Bonds and former Yankee Jason Giambi.

As a result, several star players such as Conseco, McGuire, former Yankee Alex Rodriquez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Sammy Sosa were summoned to testify in front of a congressional committee in 2005. The committee was deeply concerned about the accepted use of steroids by baseball players and other elite athletes.

After hearing the testimony of the players, Congressional representatives accused MLB of failing to confront the issue of PEDs and were worried that drug use in baseball created a bad persona of players who in many cases are role models to the nation’s youth. A major fear was that the use of PEDs by MLB players would encourage high school and college students to do the same, with possible long-term, negative health effects as a result.

Bowing to congressional pressure and ensuing negative media coverage, MLB and the MLB Players Association worked closely together to review current drug policy and develop stricter regulations and penalties. They agreed to pursue a zero-tolerance approach involving the use of PEDs in November 2005.

At the same time, baseball commissioner Bud Selig appointed former Senator George J. Mitchell in 2006 to conduct an investigation into steroid use by MLB players. Mitchell’s 311-page report was released on December 13, 2007, and identified more than 80 former and current baseball players, including Bonds. (Despite Bonds’ denials, there is overwhelming circumstantial evidence that he used various types of steroids and human growth hormones during his playing days.) The integrity of America’s national pastime was at stake.

In 2013, not a single player involved with drug use was elected to the HOF. This included marquee players such as McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds, all of whom were appearing on the ballot for the first time. While some HOF voters have been forgiving with the passage of time, a large block has continued to vote to exclude drug users from inclusion in Cooperstown.

At the end of 2017, Cincinnati Reds Hall of Famer and HOF board vice chair Joe Morgan sent out a letter titled, “The Hall of Fame is Special.” In the letter, Morgan strongly urged HOF voters to reject PEDs users.

He wrote, “We hope the day never comes when known steroid users are voted into the Hall of Fame. They cheated. Steroid users don’t belong here.”

Today MLB players are tested at least twice a year, including some randomly during the offseason. Urine tests are used to catch offenders of drug use rules. A large number of players have been caught and have served lengthy suspensions, costing them huge portions of their salary. Despite their extraordinary performance on the diamond during their illustrious careers, they may never be admitted into the HOF as a result of their drug use.

Unfortunately, a number of former Yanks have used PEDs to gain an advantage on the field.

Most recently, former Bomber Robinson Cano was slapped with an 80-game suspension following a positive test for furosemide, a diuretic that masks detection of other PEDs, in violation of MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Although he denied knowing that it was a PED, he did not challenge the suspension.

Prior to 2009, Rodriquez maintained that he never used PEDs. Then in 2009, he admitted that he used steroids from 2001 to 2003 while he played with the Texas Rangers.

He was later caught using drugs as a Yankee, and he was banned for the entire 2014 season. Initially, he vehemently denied using PEDs, hired lawyers to defend him, and aggressively fought the ban. He eventually admitted that he had indeed used drugs as a Yankee.

Conseco, in a book published in 2005, accused Clemens of using steroids. Clemens’ name was mentioned 82 times in the Mitchell Report. Former Yanks Pettitte, who admitted that he once used a human growth hormone, was a close friend of Clemens. He said that Clemens’ trainer at the time, Brian McNamee, injected the star pitcher with PEDs. Conseco himself admitted to being a consistent user of PEDs.

Giambi also admitted to using steroids and a human growth hormone. He was identified by the FBI in the BALCO case along with Bonds.

Melky Cabrera, who played with the Yanks from 2005 to 2009, received a 50-game suspension after testing positive for high levels of testosterone while with the San Francisco Giants in 2012.

Francisco Cervelli was suspended 50 games as a result of the Biogenesis of America scandal in 2013. Although he maintained that he never received any drugs from Biogenesis, he didn’t fight the suspension.

Gary Sheffield admitted in 2004 to using a testosterone-based steroid that was given to him by BALCO after Bonds connected him to the laboratory. He said that he didn’t know that he was using a banned drug.

Chuck Knoblauch, a former Yanks second baseman, was identified in the Mitchell Report as a customer of Clemens’ trainer McNamee.

Should former Yanks and other baseball players be excluded from the HOF if there is strong evidence that they used PEDs during their careers? This is a complicated question.

First, how far back should we look? As we strongly suspect, several old-timer greats are known to have used drugs. Should Gossage and others be removed from the HOF? What if players used drugs during a period when they were illegal but MLB enforcement was lax? Should they be punished? Should players who used them when they were illegal, tested positive, and were suspended be selected for the HOF or even included on HOF ballots?

Some might ask, what’s the big deal if baseball players used PEDS? Isn’t this like taking vitamin supplements, adhering to good nutrition, and using expensive exercise equipment in order to increase muscle mass and strength? And if they want to risk their future health, so what, that’s their choice. It won’t harm anyone else except them. Perhaps drugs are only being banned because they are tabu in our society.

Others, however, will argue that scientific evidence clearly shows that, in addition to providing players an unfair advantage, PEDs have serious negative health effects and must be banned. Allowing MLB players to use PEDs will encourage teenagers and college students to do the same, and such substances will likely have an adverse effect on their health as well.

This will also undermine the integrity of the game, and Americans will no longer want to attend games and watch them on television (or through other electronic devices). Aggressive testing and harsh penalties, including permanent elimination from the HOF ballot, will act as a strong deterrence for young MLB players to consume PEDs.

In my view, it is ludicrous to argue that baseball players should be allowed to use PEDs. The potential to earn more money and provide players more freedom to do as they please are distorted incentives for players to use PEDs, particularly given their well-known, long-term deleterious effects on their health. Such a policy would especially harm the youth of the country who worship MLB players and would destroy the integrity of the game.

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In my opinion, those who used PEDs before they were banned should be given a pass. These players were not doing anything illegal, and we didn’t really know about the positive and negative effects of using PEDs at the time.

However, those who used PEDs after they were banned, regardless of how aggressive the MLB was in enforcing existing drug-use rules and regulation, should be barred from the HOF.

These players, such as former Yanks Rodriguez and Cano, broke the law and cheated by gaining an unfair advantage over other players on the playing field. They engaged in this act secretly, hoping they would never get caught, in order to gain an unfair advantage over other baseball players.

No doubt, the use of PEDs by certain notable ballplayers will be in the back of the minds of the baseball writers as they select players in the modern era for the 2019 HOF. The results of this vote will tell us a lot about how much the writers are willing to forgive or penalize those who used PEDs illegally during their careers.