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Steroids in Sports

When it comes to using performance enhancing drugs, no sport has been more looked into over the past few years than Baseball. Since Jose Canseco admitted to using steroids during his MLB days, and in addition bought down several other big names in the sport, the US has been seriously watching the players. Barry Bonds used a vast array of performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and human growth hormone, for at least five seasons beginning in 1998, according to a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters.

Bonds, who testified before a San Francisco federal grand jury looking into steroid use by top athletes, repeatedly has denied using performance-enhancing drugs. Phone messages left by The Associated Press seeking comment from his attorney and publicist were not immediately returned Tuesday. Authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who led the newspaper`s coverage of the BALCO scandal, recount in remarkable detail the specifics of Bonds` drug regimen, which they write started in 1998 with injections of Winstrol, a powerful steroid also linked to Rafael Palmeiro.

According to the book, Bonds was using two designer steroids, known as the cream and the clear, plus insulin, human growth hormone and other performance enhancers by 2001, when he hit 73 home runs to break Mark McGwire`s single-season record. The reporters, who based the book on a two-year investigation, included an extensive summary on their sources, including court documents, affidavits filed by BALCO investigators, documents written by federal agents, grand jury testimony, audio recordings and interviews with more than 200 people.