All time "Drug Stars"

As if baseball's image wasn't tarnished enough, yesterday’s news of Manny Ramirez receiving a 50 game suspension for using a banned substance has me thinking about an idea I have thought about for quite sometime now. A juiced league. Back to the nineties the time of steroids being fair game, monster home run numbers, fired up pitchers throwing flames, and more bench clearing brawls due to roid rage. Welcome to the WWE meets baseball.

This applies to more than just baseball. Track and field should open up the medicine cabinets too. Just think, maybe someone can run the 100 metre dash in under 5 seconds!Yes it can shrink your genitals and make them retract (just ask Ken Caminiti), and there is always the matter of being a high risk for a heart attack liver failure, or a stroke, but hey, it's for the good of their careers. Their risk is our (as fans) reward.

To honour yet another baseball "hero" getting caught cheating, I am pleased to announce my all-time Major League Baseball "Juiced" All Star team.

Pitcher:

Roger Clemens - The "Rocket" will deny till he dies, but the fact is he was on the juice and was considered one of the best, if not the best pitcher of all time. Now we know how he did it.

Catcher:

Mike Piazza - Regarded as the best hitting catcher of all time, Piazza holds the MLB record for most home runs by a catcher. Nuff said.

First Base:

Mark McGwire - This was tough as there have been a few really good juiced up first baggers. McGwire was a childhood hero of mine. The man's forearms at the end of his career were as big as his head at the start of his career. The androstenedione made him a freak, one that crushed baseballs!

Second Base:

Bret Boone - The little man who overnight became a slugger. Back in 2001 at the age of 32 Boone had a career year in which he drove in 141 RBI's with 37 home runs. His numbers improved by 22 homers and 67 ribs from the season before, this at the age of 32. Once steroid testing became mandatory a couple of seasons later, not surprisingly Boone's numbers declined, as did his career.

Shortstop:

Alex Rodriguez - Maybe the biggest name on this team. His excuse of "being young and stupid" may have justified his actions in his mind, but baseball fans all over America mourned this one. Suspected for years but never proven till now, his amazing career will forever be questioned by his drug use.

Third Base:

Ken Caminiti - One of the few who flat out admitted his steroid use. The 1996 NL MVP once told Sports Illustrated about the effects the steroid use had on him, stating "my testicles shrank and retracted; doctors found my body had virtually stopped producing its own testosterone and that my level of the hormone had fallen to 20% of normal." Sound like a worthy sacrifice to improve your swing? Not bloody likely.

Left Field:

Barry Bonds - Though it has really has yet to be proven if Bonds is a juicer, it is apparent that he didn't just take aspirin. How else do you explain his head growing (I mean literally) in his thirties! Look at pictures of Bonds when he was with the Pirates early in his career compared to later years in San Fran. If that's not an effect of HGH then what has Bonds been eating?

Center Field:

Lenny Dysktra - Charlie Hustle in his playing days. Dyk was the epitome of a baseball player. Apparently he too was also the epitome of a player of the steroid era.

Right Field:

Sammy Sosa - Sammy and Big Mac brought baseball back to life after the '94 strike, with their pursuit of Roger Maris’s home run record. Unfortunately for Sammy, his steroid use will always be remembered over that magical time in baseball.

There you have it. The all-time juiced team. Hard to argue with a line up that stacked, better yet that jacked!

If you think the starters were good, you should see the bench.