Baseball, Performance-enhancing Drugs | featured news

How did the most extraordinary young player of his generation, a handsome young man who three times (three times!) was named one of People Magazine’s Most Beautiful People, a phenom who was the best shortstop in the game more or less the day he showed up — how did that guy become this A-Rod?

Major League Baseball, which has been investigating the link of performance-enhancing drugs to players with South Florida ties for much of the last year, may be faced with its most significant doping case since the BALCO scandal rocked the sport one decade ago. All-Stars Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, pitcher Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals, Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers and Melky Cabrera of the Toronto Blue Jays, along with other MLB players and athletes in other sports, were strongly connected to performance-enhancing drug use in an investigative report by the Miami New Times.

Roger Clemens has been acquitted on all charges by a jury that decided he didn't lie to Congress when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs. Jurors returned their verdict Monday after close to 10 hours of deliberation. The outcome brings an end to a 10-week trial that capped an expensive, five-year investigation into one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball.

A prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that Roger Clemens covered up his use of performance-enhancing drugs, and he urged them to hold the former star pitcher accountable for lying to Congress....

A judge declared a mistrial on Thursday in the perjury trial of baseball pitching great Roger Clemens because the lead prosecutor gave jurors information that had been barred from the courtroom.

Prosecutors say needles and cotton balls that Roger Clemens' former trainer says he used to inject the star pitcher in the middle of his career tested positive for Clemens' DNA and anabolic steroids.

Turns out Wild Thing's fastball had a little extra juice. Actor Charlie Sheen tells Sports Illustrated in its latest issue that he took steroids "for like six or eight weeks" while filming the 1989 movie "Major League." He adds that the performance-enhancing drugs helped his fastball go from 79 mph to 85 mph....

Barry Bonds' defense rested Wednesday without calling a single witness in the federal perjury trial.

Legal analysts say the testimony of former Bonds aide Kathy Hoskins, who testified she saw the slugger's personal trainer inject him in the navel, may be a key point in the trial.

Roger Clemens, the larger-than-life pitcher who appeared destined for the Baseball Hall of Fame, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington on Thursday on charges that he lied to Congress when he said he never used performance-enhancing drugs.