MLB Betting: Needle and the Damage Done

Illegal drug use puts the feats of Roger Clemens and a generation of baseball stars under scrutiny. (AI Wire photo)

What we know about baseball's view of performance-enhancing drugs is this: Viagra's OK. Pop as many as you want, especially if you're on the road and the groupies are squealing your name. Get 'em straight from Keith Hernandez if you can figure out which hot tub he's in.

Everything else is taboo, including performance-inhibiting drugs like pot and coke and whatever it was Bill Lee inhaled when he played. Booze is OK, but it's bad for the public image. So don't let anyone see you drinking any — unless it's champagne in October.

And for Ruth's sake, don't you ever dare think of taking steroids again. Note the "again," because an entire generation of baseball players, including the greatest hitter and pitcher of the past 20 years, is now under one very large black asterisk. If you're a major league baseball player today, it's assumed you've been exposed to steroids or human-growth hormone, if not partaken yourself.

For a sport that's marketed as an idyllic component of American life, the prevalence of illegal drug use is nothing but catastrophic. You thought Eight Men Out was revealing, wait until the fallout from "Eighty-something Men Outed" becomes clear. The George Mitchell Report dwarfs, in terms of importance, the Black Sox Scandal, the Pete Rose gambling debacle, owner collusion and every other controversy that's befallen the nation's pastime. Media coverage on this topic has been disappointing so far, because so many know-it-all reporters have said that the revelations aren't a surprise. They saw it coming. It's been going on forever. Big deal.

Read more on illegal drug use and MLB betting at Bodog Nation!