Progress report

Mitchell study prompts gains, not solution

When Bud Selig was alerted in 1998 that Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire stocked his locker with anabolic steroids while he was smashing the season record with 70 home runs, the baseball commissioner all but ignored the warning sign.

"The Cardinals are a disciplined organization and I don't think anything goes on there that shouldn't," Selig was quoted as saying, his faith as blind as Custer's at the last stand.

Selig was far from alone in the dark, as nearly every other baseball watchdog slumbered after steroid abuse began to corrupt the game in the 1980s.

They all know better now. In the countdown to today's first anniversary of former US Senator George Mitchell's landmark report on Major League Baseball's decades-long steroid epidemic, no one in the commissioner's office was brazen enough to declare unilateral victory over drug cheats in the national pastime. As long as there have been sports, after all, there have been cheaters.

But Selig and Co., thanks in part to Mitchell's explosive investigation, have made gains in trying to free baseball from the scourge of performance-enhancing drugs, according to Mitchell and several anti-doping specialists.

Mitchell released his findings last Dec. 13, a day that will live in infamy for Roger Clemens and numerous other purported illegal drug users who were unmasked in the report.

While Clemens remains tainted by the findings, baseball appears to be better off for confronting Mitchell's disturbing revelations and acting on most of his recommendations to crack down on cheaters.

"Major League Baseball and the Players Association have responded positively to the report, and they've taken significant steps to improve the approach to the problem of performance-enhancing substances," Mitchell wrote by e-mail to the Globe yesterday.

Serious concerns remain, however, about the independence of baseball's anti-doping policy and gaps in its testing program, according to several specialists who said it would be foolish to believe the sport is winning the battle against cheaters.

"The era of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball is still in its infancy," said Dr. Charles Yesalis, an anti-doping researcher at Penn State who has testified in Congress about steroid abuse. "It hasn't died by any means, and to think otherwise is terribly naíve."

Only three players were suspended last season for violating the major league anti-doping policy: Henry Owens of the Marlins, Humberto Cota of the Rockies, and Eliezer Alfonzo of the Giants. In 2003, the first year of random testing, 104 major leaguers tested positive for performanceenhancing substances.

But Mitchell also cautioned against proclaiming an end to baseball's Steroid Era. With the rise of masking agents and the suspected proliferation of human growth hormone, which remains undetectable in urine tests, cheaters can still prosper.

"It appears that [steroid] use is down, but it's probably too early to make a definitive statement," Mitchell wrote. "Our investigation provided further evidence of what has been a widely held belief - that some athletes will use substances that they think will enhance their performance if they believe they won't be caught. Because of the money involved, there will always be persons seeking to develop new and undetectable illegal performance-enhancing substances."

Several analysts cited a decline in home run production as anecdotal evidence that baseball is winning the battle against illegal muscle enhancers. From 1988, when Jose Canseco became the poster boy for steroids in baseball, to 2000, the number of home runs in the major leagues spiked 79 percent, to a record 5,693 from 3,180. Since 2004, when players became subject to suspensions for positive steroid tests, the number has dropped 11.7 percent, to 4,878 from 5,451.

The assault on season home run records also has abated. After many years of players slugging 50 or more homers, Detroit's Miguel Cabrera led the American League last season with 37, the fewest for an AL leader since Fred McGriff hit 36 for the Blue Jays in 1989. In the National League, only one player hit more than 40 home runs - Ryan Howard had 48 - for the first time in a full season since Barry Bonds hit 46 in 1993.

"Nothing is ever perfect in the world of doping and sports, but baseball is taking action on a lot of fronts and hasn't ignored any of them," said Dr. Don Catlin, CEO of Anti-Doping Research, Inc., and professor emeritus at the UCLA School of Medicine. "I think they have made a lot of progress."

Mitchell's 311-page report provided a searing account of baseball's descent into a netherworld of illegal drug activity. In all, nearly 90 players were implicated in the scandal, including seven MVPs, 31 All-Stars, and a seven-time Cy Young winner, Clemens. Canseco and Clemens were among 13 players named in the report who wore Red Sox uniforms at some point in their careers.

Selig, who was cited in the report as one of many baseball executives who responded slowly to the crisis, has worked with the players' union to implement all 20 of Mitchell's recommendations, at least in part. But critics say some of the major initiatives lack the teeth Mitchell envisioned.

The testing program, for instance, lacks the full independence Mitchell sought. The administrator largely remains bound by standards and practices collectively bargained by baseball owners and players, according to several specialists.

"Baseball has made giant strides since 2003, but they are nowhere near where they need to be," said Dr. Gary Wadler, a committee chairman for the World Anti-Doping Agency, who has testified in Congress on baseball's steroid scandal.

To Yesalis, baseball's testing program effectively remains a case "of the fox guarding the henhouse."

"Independent oversight means there is a totally independent third party running the program, which they don't have," he said.

Selig and other Major League Baseball officials did not respond to requests for interviews. But Selig recently has been quoted praising baseball's response to the Mitchell Report and expressing confidence in the testing program.

While Clemens spent much of the last year trying to reclaim his reputation - he is pursuing a defamation suit against Brian McNamee, his chief accuser - MLB moved to restore its image by establishing a Department of Investigations as well as beefing up its testing regimens and clubhouse security and addressing Mitchell's other recommendations. The players' union cooperated on many of the initiatives.

"The parties moved very strongly in the direction of my report," Mitchell said. "I'm pleased with the result, and hope that there will be continued improvement in the future."