For better or for worse, the sporting public has a collectively short memory, especially when it comes to forgiving and forgetting the past legal and moral transgressions of our athletes.
Though we can be comforted by thoughts of redemption and second chances, baseball's former steroid users may retain an advantage over those without a history of steroid use. For four players once sanctioned for performance-enhancing drug use, their second chance included the 2015 MLB All-Star Game.
But research into the "muscle memory" of anabolic steroids by researchers from the University of Oslo suggests that those once exposed to steroids retain an ergogenic effect, one intended to improve physical performance, that is simply re-activated by exercise, even long after steroid use has stopped. The 2013 findings, presented in the Journal of Physiology, means that All-Stars Ryan Braun, Jhonny Peralta, Yasmani Grandal and Nelson Cruz may all continue to benefit from past steroid use, despite that they now may be playing clean. It may also explain how Alex Rodriguez, also implicated for PED use, is hitting home runs with arthritic hips. Once juiced may equal forever juiced.
While such evidence could've resulted in rule changes from the World Anti-Doping Association, the world's doping watchdog, and other sporting organizations, there's one small detail that is delaying any extension of sanctions: the study was performed using mice. In the study, Dr. Kristian Gundersen and his team of researchers fed mice anabolic steroids for two weeks, and then removed the drug for three months. Despite this extended period of non-use -- even longer in mouse time -- when the mice restarted resistance exercise without the steroids, their muscle mass grew by 30 percent over the six-day period following an exercise session. Mice that never received steroids showed virtually no muscle growth over the same period.
The World Anti-Doping Association, though it funded the original research, is awaiting "more conclusive" evidence before changing any of its doping policy. "We need proof we can transfer such results to humans," said WADA's director of science Dr. Olivier Rabin in an interview with BBC Sport. "In the future, if these results do demonstrate there is an issue beyond two or four years we will bring it to the attention of the members of our committees."
The conclusive evidence may be supplied by ongoing research by Gundersen that now focuses on human subjects. Assuming that these effects can be extrapolated to humans -- and the researchers seem confident they can be -- it would indicate that the performance benefits of steroids (or other muscle enhancing PEDs like Human Growth Hormone) could last for a career, simply requiring a resumption of training for an ergogenic effect to be realized.
Though baseball has tried desperately to shed the ghosts of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, steroids in baseball may still yet have a lingering effect, both literally and historically. Increased penalties haven't stopped steroid use in baseball and it remains difficult to catch PED users. Thus far, suspensions have largely relied on what anti-doping officials call non-analytical positives, or suspensions resulting from the testimony of others or from records of known PED suppliers.
Such was the case with the scandal erupting after several Major League Baseball players were accused of obtaining performance-enhancing drugs from the Biogenesis of America clinic. The subsequent Biogenesis related suspensions to Peralta, Cruz, Rodriguez and Grandal were on the strength of documents linking them to PED use. None of the players actually failed a drug test.
Some could even speculate that a recent spike in steroid use -- the suspensions of four pitchers early this season -- means athletes are taking note of Gundersen's research indicating long-term gain after short-term use. It may be that the pitchers that failed MLB drug tests for the presence of an easily detectable steroid have a career-long benefit in mind, one that will surpass an 80-game suspension. In other words, could steroid use simply be seen as a long-term investment with a short term cost?
What that means for baseball -- and other sports that let convicted steroid users return to play -- is that baseball's past performance enhancing drug users may still be reaping the rewards for the entirety of their careers. Track and field is now asking that question while watching the accomplishments of twice-suspended 33-year old sprinter Justin Gatlin. If baseball doesn't want to field an All-Steroid team for the July classic, it may need to take a hard look at research that suggests former steroid users need longer suspensions.