The Juiced Era (1986-2005)

By Patrick Mondout

The "Juiced Era" is the era in baseball known for rampant abuse of steroids and many other "sports supplements," such as HGH (which is why it is improper to simply call it the "steroid era") The era is notorious for inflated offensive statistics, and the unwillingness of Major League Baseball to so much as acknowledge the issue.

The era can be said to have started in 1987, when Mark McGwire set a Major League rookie record with 49 home runs and many others set career highs for homers, but we measure it from 1986, when Jose Canseco was Rookie of the Year and both Rafael Palmeiro and Barry Bonds made their Major League debuts.

Highlights of the era include:

• Mark McGwire hitting 70 home runs in 1998
• Sammy Sosa averaging more than 60 home runs from 1998-2001
• Rafael Palmeiro "quietly" hitting 550+ homers after averaging just 15 a year for his first five complete seasons
• Palmeiro's teammate Brady Anderson suddenly hitting 50 home runs in 1996 while never hitting more than 24 in any other year.
• Roger Clemens pitching much better in his early 40s than his early 30s.
• Ken Caminiti hitting 40 homers and winning MVP after averaging 12 per year for his first six years.
• Barry Bonds (where to start?)

While there is no evidence (by design) that the vast majority of players (including Anderson) took anything, baseball purists are nonplussed about the damage the Juiced Era has done to the record books. Some have called for the exclusion of such records from the books or at least asterisks next to questionable records, though either measures are extremely unlikely. 

The era concluded when Congress stepped in and forced the player's union to accept a MLB proposal for the first ever steroids testing. Before this intervention, Major League Baseball - which was enjoying unprecedented economic success as a result of increased offense - wasn't about to ask the players to submit to drug testing as:

• It might lead to superstars (the product MLB is trying to sell) being suspended
• It would require the owners to give up something to the players in collective bargaining

Ironically, it was one of the most notorious steroid users who put focus on the largely ignored issue. Jose Canseco released a then-dismissed tell-all book about his days in the majors, including allegations that he taught teammate Rafael Palmeiro and others how to use them by personally sticking the needles into them. Very few people have a desire to credit to Canseco for anything, so disagreeable a character he is. But this book was the catalyst and is the other reason this era is to be known as the "Juiced Era" rather than simply the "steroid era."

Embarrassing Congressional testimony included Sammy Sosa pretending not to be able to understand English in order to avoid answering questions, Palmeiro vehemently stating "Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period" just months before he was suspended by baseball for failing the drug testing program, and Mark McGwire avoiding the questions by repeatedly answering "I'm not here to talk about the past." The latter cost himself a sport in Cooperstown - at least in the short term - with his ridiculous "testimony."

Notably absent from the proceedings was Barry Bonds, who was involved in the Federal BALCO case. Bonds would soon be exposed in another book by a pair of San Francisco Chronicle writers who used illegally leaked grand jury testimony and, as of this writing, seem prepared to go to prison rather than expose their source.

With the revelations of rampant performance enhancements use, the climate was such by 2005, the the player's union had little choice but to agree to such testing and 377 less home runs were hit (see table on right). Although players continue to test positive and receive suspensions, the testing itself has largely brought about the end to the Juiced Era. However, there is apparently no reliable test for human growth hormone (HGH) and that seems to be the next scandal.