The Mitchell Report

I am taking some time to digest the Mitchell Report before writing a full post.

However a few initial points.

First, please go back and read my previous posts The History of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports.

First, Mitchell did try to correct one frequently cited mistake. He stated correctly that steroids have been illegal since 1971 and the controlled substances act. Use of a prescription medication for any purpose other than it's FDA approved usage is illegal.

Steroids are currently not approved for use in the United States for any purpose.

Hgh is ONLY legal for conditions of low growth hormone. Not injury rehab or anything else.

Second, the names. He also correctly stated that the names are simply the beginning.

However, the report itself will create a situation in which people think this is it.

As many of you will note in my previous posts on the issue of Drug use in sports, Roger Clememns stands out, and is an obvious user of HgH.

However, as I have pointed out repeatedly, their use is far more rampant, not just in baseball, but in all sports than anyone would like to believe.

For anyone working in the health and fitness field, it is quite simple to detect a Drug user.

Unfortunately, their use has become so ubiqitous, that most people no longer recognize them.

Steroids became prevalent in the 1950's and '60's.

Yes, 50 or sixty years ago.

Their use in baseball became obvious, not in the 1990's as Major League Baseball would have you believe, but in the late 1970's and 1980's. They were used during my time in the sport.

They became rampant in the late 1980's. People have forgotten the home run year of 1987. Formerly known as singles hitters, people like Brady Anderson of the Orioles, Lenny Dykstra, Juan Samuel, all became home run hitters.

Finally, what continues to be overlooked, is the ease in beating the tests.

Regardless of how often, how unannounced, or otherwise secure the tests are, as long as a ratio of 4 to 1 epitestosterone to testosterone is used (see my previous posts on the explanation of this) the tests will always be a joke.