Steroid scandal puts a blemish on baseball

We long ago disabused ourselves of the notion that professional athletes as a whole would put high honor in a cardinal rule of competition -- don't cheat.

In baseball, it's cutting corners with chemicals.

And for a long time, Barry Bonds has been the poster child for steroid abuse, having recently been indicted on charges of lying about such.

Today, though, he has plenty of company. Any impression that use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs has been confined to Bonds and a handful of other players, most with marginal skills, has been dashed with the release of a report by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell. He is investigating use of illegal substances in baseball.

It identifies 80 players and former players -- including some who used to play for the White Sox and the Cubs -- as having used banned drugs to improve performance. It includes All-Star players and baseball record holders. This is, arguably, the worst scandal in the history of professional sports. Certainly in baseball.

The suspicion of steroid abuse was always there. But instead of reacting with a preemptive strike to get a fix on the problem and assure it wouldn't put a stain on the game, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and the players union were slow to enact a drug testing program with any deterrent value. There is such a program, now. But it comes too late to have saved the game from the embarrassment it faces today.

The shame is not just on the game. It is on those individual players who have been accused in the Mitchell report of using these drugs -- illegal drugs. At least you'd hope that character flaws that led them to use these drugs aren't so deep that they are incapable of feeling disgraced.

It has to be noted that some players are denying Mitchell's allegations of steroid abuse, and they should have the benefit of being able to present their case.

But for those who have unquestionably used these drugs, every boo they will hear in games or public appearances in the months ahead will be well-deserved. And those who are still in the game will have to answer to fellow teammates who have played the game straight and rejected the pressure to cheat.

But don't just blame the players, their union and Selig. The baseball clubs themselves, managers and the sports media could have been more vigilant.

This is going to haunt the game for many seasons to come. Not only in the stadiums and locker rooms, but in the record books.

If asterisks aren't put next to the names of players who have conclusively been found to have used drugs to perform at a record-breaking level, something has to be arranged to denote that they reached their milestones through medicinal chemistry. It is only fair to the Henry Aarons of the baseball world, who hit heights of accomplishment without such help.

As to the Hall of Fame for such players? Not unless they're put in a Chemical Corridor in Cooperstown.

And in their selfish illegal acts to build up their bodies to gain stardom and riches, did these baseball players ever think they were becoming the wrong kind of role models to high school athletes who might similarly put their health at risk? Mitchell drove that point home.

Surveys of teens themselves have anywhere from 2 percent to 7 percent self-reporting anabolic steroid use. In percentages, that's small. But in total, that is still a lot of teens using dangerous drugs. The Mitchell report should give cause to take a harder look at use of performance enhancing drugs in high school sports, and improve education programs and testing if necessary.

But there is no joy in baseball today, because the Mighty Caseys -- made mighty by drugs -- have struck an embarrassing blow against the game. Reforms must come that never again allow the syringe to puncture the honesty and dignity of the game.