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David Gamble
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
11/7/2016
Roid Rage: How Steroids in Baseball Enraged America
It was almost ten years ago when it happened. The most prestigious record in all of sports
had been broken by a man named Barry Bonds. He was in the twilight of his amazing career, an
astounding forty-three years old. He had entered the league as a rather trim outfielder for the
Pittsburgh Pirates, but eventually, and literally, transformed into a home run-slugging
juggernaut. When Bonds played for the Pirates in 1991, he weighed 185 pounds (Fox). By the
year 2000, his body had changed drastically. He gained almost fifty pounds over that timespan.
Before he hit an insane total of seventy-three home runs in 2001, he had never eclipsed fifty in a
single season. Bonds was an excellent player prior to this mysterious weight gain, but became
the best afterwards.
I remember waking up the morning after and being absolutely devastated and furious.
One of my fathers favorite players as a kid was Hank Aaron, and he is still my favorite player
that I never got to watch. It wasnt just my sentimental value of Hank Aaron that made Bonds
756th home run sting so badly. It was the fact that Bonds had cheated to do it. At nine years old,
I didnt completely understand all that was going on with Bonds. I didnt know what obstruction
of justice or perjury was. I just knew that he cheated. I remember going to school the next day
and being furious with my friends that did not categorize steroids as cheating. They brought up
the idea that you still have to be able to hit. Some even denied that he used steroids at all. At

the time, it was shocking to me that someone could really think that using steroids wasnt
cheating.
The dilemma of steroids in baseball is deep and filled with scandals, lies, federal
investigations, and many tarnished reputations. All of these outcomes shed a negative light on
the game and hurt the integrity of baseball in the eyes of many fans; however, there were some
positive effects of steroid use such as reviving the shortened 1994 season in which there was a
strike (The Steroids Era). These controversies occurred throughout the late 1990s and up to
2010 in a time defined as the Steroid Era. There is no specific start or end to the Steroid Era, but
it is widely accepted that it began in the late 1980s and ended after 2010. Since then, not much
has happened except for a few suspensions here and there due to a very refined testing protocol.
Until 2003, Major League Baseball (MLB) did not test the players for performance enhancing
drugs or steroids (The Steroids Era). This neglect and leniency allowed for a widespread use of
a variety of performance enhancing drugs, including several of the games best and most popular
players. Names like Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, and the aforementioned
home run king, Barry Bonds, were all involved in scandals during the Steroid Era. All of these
players enjoyed great success during their respective careers and are all considered talented
players; however, their integrity has been brought into question due to various reasons.
The largest and most well known scandal involving steroids in baseball came about when
The Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), a nutritional supplement firm, was
investigated in August of 2002 by federal agents after being suspected of distributing steroids to
athletes. The three big names in baseball that were involved with BALCO are Barry Bonds, Gary
Sheffield, and Jason Giambi. Bonds and Sheffields cases are different from Giambis because

Giambi confessed to a grand jury that he knowingly took steroids provided by Greg Anderson,
who was a trainer and had ties to BALCO. On the other hand, Bonds and Sheffield similarly
confessed to using the products given to them by Greg Anderson, but added that they were not
aware that they were steroids. One would think that Jason Giambi was reprimanded by the MLB
right away; however, this is not the case. Giambi never tested positively for the human growth
hormone or steroids that he confessed to taking during the 2002 and 2003 seasons. This was also
the case for Barry Bonds. Since the results of Bonds, Sheffields, and Giambis hearings were
not released publicly until a year later, the league did not take action in disciplining them at the
time. The BALCO scandal was a slap in the face and a wake up call to commissioner Bud Selig
and other executives. Although the federal investigators and the USADA eventually sniffed out
what was going on, Victor Conte, the owner of BALCO, and his accomplice Greg Anderson had
made fools out of league executives and a mockery of the MLBs drug testing protocol in the
process.
Gary Sheffield did not face any more allegations after his stint with BALCO, but the plot
only thickened for Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi. After the initial testimony, Bonds side of the
story became very convoluted and drawn out. Over the next four years, Bonds repeatedly denied
his use of any illegal substance. Countless reports were spewing out of news outlets during this
ongoing investigation describing what types of steroids Bonds was using, or what he had said to
someone in his inner circle. In December of 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that
Bonds actually admitted to using steroids referred to as cream and the clear whereas a year
earlier he had testified in front of a grand jury that he did not know that they were steroids. He
was still under investigation by federal agents, as well as Conte and Anderson, and was

constantly scrutinized in the media. Here is a quote from Bonds from March 2005 that many
think proves he used steroids: "You're talking about something that wasn't even illegal at the
time. All this stuff about supplements, protein shakes, whatever. Man, it's not like this is the
Olympics. We don't train four years for, like, a 10-second [event]. We go 162 games. You've got
to come back day after day after day. ... There are far worse things like cocaine, heroin and those
types of things" (Barry Bonds Steroids Timeline). He never said that he willingly used
steroids, but many fans believe the stance he took in this interview tell the truth as to whether he
intentionally used steroids or not. Later that month, his supposed former girlfriend, Kimberly
Bell, was called upon by prosecutors to testify on the subject of Bonds and his steroid use. She
told the grand jury that Bonds admitted to her that his elbow injury in 1999 was caused by his
use of steroids. Days after Kimberly Bells testimony, a variety of popular news outlets reported
that investigators were beginning to look into whether or not Bonds lied to the grand jury in
December of 2003. It seemed like something new was added every other day to the narrative.
This had become a nationwide controversy that encapsulated not only sports news outlets, but
world news stations, tabloids and others.
Over the course of 2006, boatloads of evidence is released against Bonds claims. The
book Game of Shadows exposed Bonds in a detrimental fashion, detailing his jealousy of Mark
McGwires seventy home runs in 1998, and how that propelled him into the use of steroids. The
book also laid out exactly which steroids Bonds used which included: the cream and the
clear, which he confessed to, as well as insulin, cow steroids, Mexican beans, and described
in great detail his use of human growth hormone for which the league did not test for until 2013.
ESPN The Magazine used a quote by Bonds from the book Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds

and the Making of an Antihero by the author Jeff Pearlman. He alleged said this over dinner at
Ken Griffey Jr.s home: "I had a helluva season last year, and nobody gave a crap. Nobody. As
much as I've complained about McGwire and Canseco and all of the bull with steroids, I'm tired
of fighting it. I turn 35 this year. I've got three or four good seasons left, and I wanna get paid.
I'm just gonna start using some hard-core stuff, and hopefully it won't hurt my body. Then I'll get
out of the game and be done with it" (Barry Bonds Steroids Timeline). After these two pieces
of evidence came out, a federal grand jury had called Bonds private surgeon, a San Francisco
Giants trainer, as well as Greg Anderson to testify, and the investigation of whether or not Bonds
committed perjury in his initial testimony had almost fully commenced.
Most news outlets, reporters, journalists, and authors seemed as if they were out to get
Barry Bonds at this point. It was very evident that the investigators felt a strong moral obligation
to try to indict and eventually convict Bonds for perjury.
Every sports fan has an opinion on steroids in baseball. Some will reject the idea of
taking steroids with a passion like 76 year old former minor leaguer named Tex Warfield:
Bonds? I'll cry when he passes Ruth. I'll cry when he passes Aaron. This is the biggest bunch o'
bullcrap ever to come down the pike" (Smith). Some will welcome the use of steroids with the
thought that it brings more excitement to a sport that is considered boring by many and is slowly
losing popularity. I found this quote from a 101 year old former Broadway actress named
Frances Wormser very intriguing: "Baseball's wonderful," she says, "but it's a stupid game. A
player sits there for God knows how long not doing anything--and then he's supposed to get up
and hit a home run? So I'm sure all of them have been taking something But there's nothing
anybody can do. I love the game. I'll put up with anything" (Smith).

After having researched the topic of steroids from a historical and social perspective, it
has only left me more curious than I was beforehand. The depth that each separate instance of
steroids in baseball contains was marveling to me. Before beginning my research, I thought for
sure that all elderly people would be completely against the idea of using steroids; however, that
was just not the case.

Works Cited
"Barry Bonds Steroids Timeline." ESPN.com. ESPN, 7 Dec. 2007. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.

Fox, Maggie. "Bonds Weight Gain Used as Steroid Evidence by Many." Reuters. Ed. Will
Dunham and Philip Barbara. Thomson Reuters, 16 Nov. 2007. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.

Smith, Gary. "What Do We Do Now?" Sports Illustrated. 28 Mar. 2005. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

"The Steroids Era." ESPN.com, ESPN, 5 Dec. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.