The Mitchell Report blew the lid off baseball’s steroid era, rocking MLB to its core. It was the first time the sport took the bull by the horns in their battle against PEDs. This epidemic was combated with testing and penalties. However, former Red Sox slugger Mo Vaughn’s recent admission of HGH use late in his career paints a clear picture. The war has neither been won nor is it over. In fact, if former Marlins president David Samson is to be believed, PED use continues to challenge the integrity of professional sports.
In a recent interview with the Athletic, Vaughn revealed that he used HGH when attempting to prolong his career and manage a degenerative knee condition. “I knew I had a bad degenerative knee,” the former Red Sox star said. “I was shooting HGH in my knee. Whatever I could do to help the process.” This desperate attempt to get back to the field after an injury is usually met with “reckless indifference,” according to David Samson, which ensures that players continue to use PEDs in baseball.
Teams only care about performance, not player health. If you can recover fast, great—if not, you’re expendable. And according to Samson, this isn’t just an MLB problem—it’s everywhere in sports. “Steroid use is still happening,” he said on his Nothing Personal with David Samson podcast. “It happens in the Dominican; it happens in the big leagues. It happens in every sport.”
Aaron Ekblad’s 20-game suspension? A brutal reminder of how athletes push through injuries. He says it was accidental, but Samson insists this is just the reality of pro sports. “The Mitchell report was the beginning of putting players on notice. But here we are a quarter of a century later and things aren’t changing cuz players want to play. It’s how they get paid. Teams want players to play. That’s how you win,” Samson said.
Despite the Mitchell Report’s impact, cleaning up baseball is still an uphill battle. With huge money on the line for teams and players, the fight is far from over. The game faced its darkest chapter, but a truly level playing field? Still a dream—and if Samson’s right, nowhere close.
The Unending War on Doping
The battle against PEDs is a constant game of cat and mouse. The more sophisticated measures scientists come up with, the players continue to find new ways to get past it. One example is micro dosing. This is the practice of taking small amounts of PEDs to avoid detection. Then you have designer drugs that are specifically created to evade detection. Athletes can also use masking agents to interfere with testing. All of these pose significant challenges in the war against doping.
This fight is hampered by the limited resources available to anti-doping agencies. The fact that testing is expensive and time-consuming further hinders its potency. It is simply not feasible to test every athlete. This means that testing strategies must be carefully targeted. Despite all these disadvantages, however, it is important to keep looking for ways to combat this problem. An aspect of prevention would be to address the root causes of doping. If there is a way to reduce the incentives of using PEDs, the use will also naturally come down. Athletes should also be educated on the health consequences in a bid to make them understand the long-term sacrifice they will be making.
The good news in all of this, though, is that while PED use is still rampant, the numbers have come down significantly over the years. Since the MLB and the MLBPA implemented their drug testing program, there have been double-digit suspensions in a year 12 times. The highest was in 2013 when 21 players were suspended. However, the last time the suspensions were in double digits was back in 2020 with 10. Since then, the league has witnessed single-digit suspensions for 4 consecutive years. It will be interesting to see if the streak continues in 2025.
The post “Things Aren’t Changing” – Ex-Red Sox Star’s Doping Confession Sparks Bombshell Revelation from MLB Insider with Shocking Details appeared first on EssentiallySports.