Steve Wilstein - Major League Baseball's "Steroids Era"

Major League Baseball's "Steroids Era"

The use of steroids by players had been only hinted at until Wilstein’s story on August 21, 1998, when McGwire and the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa were closing in on Roger Maris’ 1961 record of 61 homers—a chase that captivated the country. After Wilstein saw the bottle of andro in McGwire’s open locker while covering the chase, McGwire first denied using it, then admitted he’d been taking it for more than a year. McGwire commented, "Everybody that I know in the game of baseball uses the same stuff I use."

Wilstein’s story focused on the disparity of steroid rules in different sports. Andro, sold at the time as an over-the-counter supplement that boosted testosterone levels, was allowed in baseball but not in the Olympics, the NFL, pro tennis and all college sports. Shot putter Randy Barnes, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist and world record-holder, had recently drawn a lifetime ban for using andro, reported Wilstein, who had written extensively about steroids in the Olympics since the mid-1980s.

"The ensuing AP news story led to renewed scrutiny of the use of 'andro' and other substances by major league players," the Mitchell Report said. "... commissioner (Bud) Selig and others in baseball have said that this incident more than any other caused them to focus on the use of performance-enhancing substances as a possible problem."

Wilstein had witnessed an episode of “roid rage” by Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson after a preliminary heat at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and watched from the finish line as Johnson beat Carl Lewis in the 100-meter final. Johnson soon lost his gold and was sent home in disgrace after testing positive for an anabolic steroid. Andro, Wilstein wrote in the story about McGwire, “is seen outside baseball as cheating and potentially dangerous.”

The story set off a controversy that has gone on for more than a decade of follow-ups by Wilstein and those who joined in about steroids and the related sports and social issues, among them McGwire’s former “Bash Brother,” Jose Canseco, in his tell-all books, and reporters covering the BALCO federal investigation in San Francisco.

McGwire was the first among numerous stars on various teams - including pitcher Roger Clemens, sluggers Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro, and former MVP Ken Caminiti—whose reputations and records were tainted as revelations appeared about their alleged or admitted performance-enhancing drug use.

Washington Post baseball writer Thomas Boswell in 1988 and the Los Angeles Times’ Bob Nightengale in 1995 had touched on the baseball steroids issue, but without specifics were largely ignored. “Instead of sparking a wave of follow-up articles or investigations to ferret out the details of steroid use in baseball … sports writers essentially left the story alone,” Editor & Publisher writer Joe Strupp wrote in a 2006 report headlined, “Sports writers say they dropped the ball on steroids in major league sports.”

Strupp noted in an earlier E&P report in 2006 that “Wilstein’s discovery marked the first real press probe into which substances and supplements baseball players were using, and what effect they were having on their accomplishments, abilities and health.” “But then a funny thing happened,” Strupp wrote in his account of the media’s response. “Instead of being praised for discovering a questionable act by a baseball star in the middle of a record-breaking season, Wilstein was vilified.”

Wilstein "noticed a bottle of androstenedione and opened up a can of worms," USA Today baseball columnist Hal Bodley wrote in 2005. "This was baseball's feel-good story that no one, including Selig and the union, wanted tainted by a performance-enhancing supplement few of us knew anything about."

Wilstein, Bianchi wrote, “deserves a spot in Cooperstown for setting the record straight on a bogus record; for uncovering baseball’s dirty little secret when nobody else would … “Back then, baseball, the national media and everybody else associated with the game buried their heads in the euphoric sands of the time and ignored what was literally right in front of their eyes. While everybody else rooted for the story, Steve Wilstein rooted out the truth.”

Wilstein, in several columns, criticized the weak early testing by baseball. “Baseball may think it’s satisfying Congress and fooling the public with its drug-testing plan, but it’s probably doing neither,” Wilstein wrote on August 27, 2002 as the sport shaped its first stab at testing _ anonymous and without punishments. “More than likely, it will result in greater drug use, not less, as players figure out how and when they can take steroids and beat the tests.

“It will do nothing to reduce the perception, suggested by several players, that steroid use is rampant. Worst of all, it sends the message to young fans and prospects that the national pastime has a high tolerance for steroids.” Those tests ultimately found 104 players using performance-enhancing drugs, but all the names were kept anonymous—until it was revealed by Sports Illustrated in 2009 that Alex Rodriguez was among them. A-Rod then admitted he had been injected with a steroid from 2001 through 2003. Wilstein criticized players and owners when they reached agreement on a new drug-testing program in January, 2005, calling for more banned substances, a 10-day penalty for first time users, and the release of the names of those who test positive.

“Don’t be fooled,” Wilstein wrote the same day. “The new policy … is progress but it’s still just a bunt, not a home run in the effort to rid baseball of performance-enhancing drugs. … It’s more PR and a dangerous delay in acting decisively.” The penalties were paltry, Wilstein wrote, and the program still didn’t call for random, unannounced, year-round testing, nor did it include amphetamines. Wilstein’s lengthy investigation of amphetamine use by players in 2005 was followed a few months later by baseball’s strongest testing program, which included amphetamines for the first time and much stronger penalties for failed tests.

On January 11, 2010, Wilstein's suspicions and Jose Canseco's allegations of McGwire's steroid use were confirmed by Mark McGwire in a statement to and interview with the Associated Press and later interviews with Bob Costas and others by McGwire. Upon the news, many sports columnists and media spoke of Wilstein's vindication and CNN.com asked Wilstein to provide his views in an op-ed piece. Wilstein wrote that McGwire should be banned from Major League Baseball for life and that his acts hurt baseball more than those of Pete Rose.