Baseball over the past few years has captured many headlines that it did not want as steroid testing in baseball became a major issue. It’s hard to gauge whether the sport of baseball has any more steroid users than other sports but its lax approach to testing and the lateness of the rules banning their use has lead to a slow parade of current and ex-players being outed as users. Baseball steroid testing has evolved into a program with some backbone now and the proposed plan is even stricter.

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Why baseball steroid use has become such a major focus comes for a few reasons. First, even though every other major sport was struggling with the issue in the early 1990s and even before, baseball steroid policy did not come into existence until 2005. The reasons for this late start are not exactly clear but it was probably a mix of naiveté along with a hope that baseball, as an American staple, was above the plagues that were hitting other leagues. Another possible reason is the strong players union of baseball that resisted and still resists a strict policy.

Baseball’s head-in-the-sand approach came to a rapid end when the BALCO scandal exploded into newspaper headlines and mass consciousness in 2003. The Bay Area Lab Cooperative in the San Francisco area was raided in September of that year and it was discovered that this center was a major creator, distributor and innovator in the use of steroids and other synthetic performance enhancing drugs. Almost immediately, the largest player in the area, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, was dragged into the scandal since he was a client of BALCO. Bonds, a leading hitter who has since broken Hank Aaron’s record for home runs, became a blueprint for many cheats that followed when he confessed that he may of used steroids but he was not aware of it at the time. Though this “unaware” excuse has worked for Bonds and several others since in the eyes of the league, it did not satisfy the federal government which indicted Bonds on 14 counts including perjury. The trial is set for May of 2009.

In response to this, Major League Baseball came up with a policy that allowed steroid testing in baseball beginning in the 2005 season. Each player, under these rules, will be tested at least once during the season with players allowed to be tested multiple times. The feeling is that the problem with steroid testing in baseball is the punishment that follows discovery: players may have 5 steroid offenses before suspension by the league can occur. Commissioner Bud Selig has proposed much tougher regulation and punishment but it needs the approval of league owners and players, both whom have an interest in the bigger hitting and pitching that comes from unnatural enhancements to the players.

So baseball is still at an uneasy crossroads when it comes to their baseball steroid policy: they know that it is a problem but they turn a blind eye to the most obvious offenders. The iconic case in point was the home run ball hit by Bond’s to shatter Aaron’s record was, decided by an online fan vote, branded with an asterisk before going into the Hall of Fame.