Steroids are 'OK'

When former major league slugger-turned-tattle-tale Jose Canseco released his book of sensational steroid stories last year, Congress, seizing the chance to prove “ethics” was still part of its vernacular, quickly admonished the accused. Summoned to Washington, disgraced record setters sat aside less-accomplished players as politicians pontificated on the virtues of fairness, heroism and leadership.

Some players denied using steroids, while others indirectly pled the fifth. Shame was cast equally among them, as were the indignities of their receding greatness. The asterisk on Roger Maris’ homerun record indicating he played a longer season than record-setter Babe Ruth paled to the humility of one that now branded them cheaters.

The national uproar fanned by accusations that super-sluggers Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs never materialized into a rational debate about steroid use. Rather, players were scolded, they’re legacies tarnished and their wrists slapped. The hearings concluded without having changed much. And as the 2005 baseball season came and went, the steroid scandal had all but fallen to a murmur.

Until now. A new book tracing Barry Bonds’ alleged tango with steroids to the McGwire-Sosa homerun race revisits the issue. “Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports” was excerpted earlier this month in Sports Illustrated and hits bookstores March 27. Written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, the book alleges, among other things, that Bonds lied to a San Francisco Grand Jury in December 2003. Bonds hasn’t commented publicly on the book.