I'm a big baseball fan, so frankly this steroid scandal ticks me off. Jason Giambi was once my favorite player in the game when he was with the A's (and quickly became my least favorite when the Yankees bought him). One of the great baseball moments in my life occured when Giambi hit the game winning homer to beat the Yankees a few years ago (2001?). Now even that memory has an asterisk by it. Even more depressing is to think of the possibility that Giambi's former mentor in the mid-90s, Mark McGwire, may have juiced as well. We'll obviously never know for sure who did what, which makes it even more frustrating.

However, despite my angry assumption that they're all guilty, I have to admit that there is a decent chance that many of the freakishly bulked-up players did not use steroids to get as muscular and strong as they are. The reason for my doubt is quite simple: walk into a "health" store some day and look at the alternatives available. In particular, creatine can certainly (in my experience and experience of peers) increase strength if you are in a proper weight-lifting program. Furthermore, simply following a good training and nutrition program can help a person achieve substantial strength gains. Modern training programs also seem to put increased emphasis on proper stretching to maintain flexibility and prevent injury. So it's quite possible that baseball players in "the old days" simply did not work out as much or follow as sound of nutrition and exercise programs as today's players. This, complimented with the drastically more convenient sources of protein (e.g. a player can drink a protein shake after a workout instead of chug a glass of raw eggs or cook a steak) and the extremely popular creatine supplements, could account for a large portion of the increased size and strength of today's baseball players.

That being said, I don't buy for a minute that Bonds thought the creams were "the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis." Why was he rubbing flaxseed oil on his skin? Is he a model or something? Needs vibrant, glowing skin? Well maybe there is a good reason.. but anyway, I don't buy it. Also, Bonds' attorney, Michael Rains, said

"This is Barry's best friend in the world. Barry trusted him. He trusts him today. He trusts that he never got anything illegal from Greg Anderson."

Ok, so Bonds took something from a guy he trusts, but this guy didn't even know what he was giving him? Yeah, that's it.