The steroid era in baseball is not over. Not by a long shot. You'd think that the BALCO scandal could never be topped considering that so many ridiculous records were tainted with HGH and insane testosterone levels. Baseball officials even had to go to thesupreme court and be evaluated on whether or not they were running the sport correctly. But the Biogenesis clinic may take the cake, even over BALCO, for the worst PED scandal of all time.
In 2005 Bud Selig, along with other officials of the sport were evaluated by the supreme court if they were fit to run the sportefficiently. The result of this, in light of BALCO selling millions of dollars of steroids to MLB players, was the most strict drug testing program in all of sports. From that point on players have been caught from time to time but players weren't "juiced" to the level they once were. Supposedly.
Atleast 20 players have been linked to Tony Bosch's Miami-based Biogenesis clinic that sold PED's. Ryan Braun has been tested every year since he entered the league in 2006 but has somehow evaded a suspension. Another linked player, Jesus Montero, was 16 when the MLB initiated their drug program.
While this scandal may not have the superstar-power that the BALCO mess did, it comes off as even more embarrassing forbaseball. The whole world assumed that we've been in the post steroid-era for a few years now. Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking HGH back in 2009, but to know that he's continued to do it while being tested randomly is scary. With this scandal occurring, it puts into question whether or not MLB's drug-testing program is actually effective or terribly hit or miss. One thing is for certain though,players will do whatever it takes to win. And winning in this sport is making hundreds of millions of dollars. Until punishments are radically increased, players will continue to search for new ways to cheat the system.
