Houston Astros: Ranking them among other cheaters in MLB history
Ranking Houston Astros vs Other Cheater in MLB history
The Mitchell Report
You can’t have a discussion about cheating in the MLB without mentioning the lengthy list of performance-enhancing drug-based scandals. The best place to start is the Mitchell Report, as it largely served the purpose of amending the MLB’s performance-enhancing drug use protocol.
On March 30th, 2006, former MLB Commissioner Bud Selig appointed former US Senator George Mitchell to openly investigate the use of performance-enhancing drugs around the league. In years prior, more and more allegations were coming out about some of the league’s top players using illegal substances including steroids to gain a competitive edge on the field. The book Game of Shadows about Barry Bonds and the BALCO scandal, which we’ll get to later, was the straw that broke the camels back. Thus, Selig took the initiative to get to the bottom of this crisis.
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The investigation concluded after 20 months and was published and released in December of 2007. The findings implicated 89 major league players that allegedly used some form of performance-enhancing drugs. Many high-profile players were included in the report, including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, Andy Pettite, and Eric Gagne, just to name a few.
Some of the accused have since admitted their guilt, such as Jason Giambi and Gagne, while others still vehemently deny their use of performance-enhancing drugs, most famously Clemens and Bonds. Regardless, the aftermath of the Mitchell Report caused significant changes in MLB’s performance-enhancing drug use policy. Every player is now subject to two unannounced drug tests each season, and they now test for a much wider array of drugs. Additionally, the punishment for positive drug tests is much harsher. Now, a first-time violator receives an automatic 80 game suspension, a full season for a repeat offense, and a lifetime ban for a third. Jenrry Mejía is the only player to receive a permanent suspension under the new rules, although he was reinstated in 2018 by Commissioner Manfred.
This scandal has changed the game for the better, and while it exposed a large number of players, none were directly suspended in the aftermath of the report. For this reason, it ranks lower than the other performance-enhancing drug-related scandals on this list.