Steroids End Now.

"There will always be a steroid era of baseball as surely as there was a dead ball era once. But steroids in baseball end now. They end because in three years, the sport has gone from having no drug policy to having the toughest in major American sports."

Steroids end now because Mike Lupica said so.


I think it may be time for my first blog poll. Maybe I can get it on ESPN's Sports Nation.

What's the largest thing?

a) Grand Canyon.

b) The galaxy.

c) Mike Lupica's Stupidity.

d) Mike Lupica's Arrogance.


I mean, I'm not even sure if this steroid agreement has been ratified, much less enforced, much less enforced over an extended period of time, much less challenged in court, much less expanded to include steroid analogs, much less addressing the decades of improvement in cheating and chicanery, which move in lock step with every improvement in testing.

But Mike Lupica claims the steroid era ends now.

Hey, if Mike Lupica says something, people listen. Like Tony Womack is going to be a fan favorite in New York and the Rangers are going to be better without Alex Rodriguez.

As for myself, if I were Andy Phillips, I still might be willing to risk a 50-game suspension.

Think about it. I know the world only pays attention to Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, but most of the steroids users who've been caught have been terrible players. A 50-game suspension doesn't hurt Randy Velarde too much. He was sitting on the bench, anyway. He has little to lose and, potentially, $millions to gain. Especially if he can just get to that sweet free agency.

But the steroid era ends now.