Mark McGwire admits to long-term steroid use!

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Ump153

Stick to the topic. You have been claiming that there was no ban on steroids. That is patently false.

If you want to talk about enforcement, that's a different issue. What everyone here has been saying is that McGwire violated MLB policy and Federal law by using steroids without a prescription. And that is the truth.

The fact that he wasn't caught or or wasn't punished has nothing to do with it.

Just becuase you don't get a ticket everytime you speed doesn't mean you didn't speed.

You're starting to sound like a coach...."It's only illegal if you get caught."

I did not say there was absolutely no steroids ban, I said that there was not testing and they were not illegal to use for all kinds of reasons. And to say there is a ban, but we are going to look the other way is not much of a ban. You can play the semantics game all you want to, but there was no way to find out who was using and how as other sports had drug testing in place that clearly banned not only steroids but many other substances as well. And there was no policy to suspend players for such usage. The union and the owners had not agreed to such a policy so it was allowed no matter if MLB tried to say it was illegal in a memo. To make something illegal you have to have a policy and a standing punishment in place. Maybe I am missing something, but I have never seen a law that makes something illegal, but we have no punishment for the crime. That is basically what MLB did. And BTW, Big Mac took Androstenedione and had the substance in his locker in 1998. It is a steroid or has steroid substances in it and Big Mac was never suspended for it and was never told to stop using it. Bud Selig even was asked about this substance and he knew nothing about it and claimed there was no steroid problem in baseball. Mac even openly talked about it in interviews and talked about how it "helped me recover quicker from working out." Then I believe the following year MLB outlawed it, but as before did not test for it to catch people that were using the substance.

You can call it whatever you want to, unless they test for a substance, it is not illegal. Memos do not make them illegal unless you have a way to prove someone is using something. MLB turned the other way until Congress called them to the carpet and Canseco wrote a book on the topic.

Peace