The All-Steroids Team

For many baseball fans, watching Barry Bonds circle the bases after crushing home run #756 to dead center field is the lasting image of the Steroid Era: Hammerin' Hank's mighty tower toppled on a cold San Francisco night. For others, it's the frozen rope to left McGwire hit off Steve Trachsel for #62 in 1998, the Cubs infielders getting caught up in the moment and defying convention (and their pitcher) to congratulate him as he rounded the bases, and rival Sammy Sosa even sprinting in from right field to give him a hug. For those who didn't witness these events live, images of Sosa, McGwire, and Rafael Palmeiro at the subsequent Congressional hearings come to mind. These fallen icons will forever bear the burden of banishment from baseball, blackballed from the Hall with their legacies forever muddied; ugly reminders of an embarrassing past.

Players like these, however are only half the story. They were already perennial All-Stars, who used PEDs to take their game to previously unimaginable heights. Lost in all the bile and derision directed at Bonds and McGwire are the unsung contributers to the Steroid Era: the players who used steroids to rip off obscene power numbers for a couple of seasons, then faded back into oblivion when drug testing began. In some cases, players who had no business even being in the league were getting MVP votes, all thanks to absurd amounts of steroids and a complete lack of concern for any long-term health effects. These are the players who make up BL's All-Steroids Team. Ridiculous steroid-enhanced power numbers alone weren't enough to make this team, we looked for shockingly terrible pre-steroids years, precipitous dropoffs once testing started, and ignominious exits from the game when their body completely deteriorated. Bonus points if their steroid-inflated seasons occurred in their mid-30's after an unremarkable 12 years in the league. These legends wanting to put up superstar numbers after a half of a decidedly mediocre career is something we can identify with, even while we publicly disparage their actions. We are simultaneously sympathetic and incensed, we marvel at them while we shake our heads in judgement.

Over the next few days, we'll be going position by position as we name the Boston Legends All-Steroids Team.