In fact, at that point nobody will test positive...but that could just as easily be evidence that the program is failing to catch the violators.  Unfortunately, I fear that it will be very hard to put this genie back in the bottle, especially since the lords of baseball are pretty ambivalent about steroids. They hate the negative publicity, but love the gargantuan home run numbers.

That seems pretty straight up to me.

Raffy is being paid millions of dollars a year. He knows full well what it legal and what isn't. If there's ever any doubt, all he has to do is call a club physician, or a trainer, or an MD and ask.

He got busted, and no amount of 'but I didn't know' will ever remove the label of 'cheat' from his back.

As for baseball itself, it's a great game -- the greatest game -- despite what those in charge of MLB have been doing to it.  It will survive. It's nice that external pressure is forcing those in charge of the game to behave slightly more responsibly.  We can only hope that some day the sport gets more thoughtful and responsible custodians.

i honestly believe that he's not on anything and that he's not that stupid. BUT... numbers don't lie, and his numbers are a bit too good to be true.
then again, he hasn't bulked up much again.

come to your own conclusion.

Lo and behold buddy.  You didn't need those 'roids after all.

http://www.athleticsnation.com/story/2005/2/7/143530/6558

from the chronicle:
However, ex-A's pitcher Dave Stewart wouldn't say Canseco's accusations weren't true.

"I could never say 'Josie' is a liar," Stewart said. "I don't like his work ethic, and I don't like him as a teammate. But one thing I can't say about him is he's a liar.

"As far as what Josie's saying, I can't deny it or verify it. I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen because I don't know. We weren't in the same circles, but I'd have to say he definitely knows what's going on in his circle. Nobody I associated with on the team was a steroid user (among the players Stewart mentioned: Lansford, Rickey Henderson, Dave Henderson and Dennis Eckersley).

"If this is all made up, he'll suffer some serious damages. But if you're an admitted steroid user, believe me, you'd know who uses them."

from another article in the chronicle:
For the record, though, none of the reporters who went to Barnes & Noble initiated the steroid talk. Canseco did that himself, hollering to Rickey Henderson's in-laws as they walked away from the table with three signed books: "That's one of the players who's not on steroids."

Rosalind Ono said she and her husband, Ed, lined up outside the store at 4 p.m. to see their son-in-law's former teammate. They entered first, with a cell phone connected to Henderson in Phoenix. They handed the phone to Canseco, who talked for a short time and then signed one of the Onos' books especially for Henderson: "To a great player, a friend."

The Onos stopped to talk to the media and vouched for the author. "One thing Rickey said is Jose does not lie," Rosalind Ono said.

Several of his former teammates have said the same thing, although La Russa has vilified the man he managed during their glorious run in Oakland. Determined to protect the legacy of McGwire, who also played for La Russa when he broke the single-season home run record with St. Louis, the manager has said that Canseco had to resort to steroids because he wasn't willing to work hard enough.

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky."

"We have good information that Saddam Hussein is trying to acquire yellow cake uranium from Africa."

Am I missing any?

And did anyone catch the lack of love between him and his son during the Home Run Derby? I caught what appeared to be Pudge snapping at the little guy a few times too. That poor kid kept looking at his dad like he was biggest prick in the world.

I want to build an authentic German restaurant.  It will benefit the entire city.  Can't they pay for it?

In what other line of business does THAT kind of logic work?

MLB has actually made previous stabs at adopting cosmetic public policies that made feints in the direction of reducing use of the stuff in the minors, but they've dropped the ball on it. If MLB can ban steroids, why can't they ban chaw?

I'd much rather see MLB take up an antismoking/antichaw campaign than the current prostate-cancer prevention one.

in that case, don't let ANY of them in the HoF, that seems like a simple enough solution...