Year of the cheat

News of the Year | News of the Year - December 2007 | Mark Bergin

George Mitchell's long-awaited report on performance-enhancing drug use in baseball sent shock waves around the league on Dec. 13

Baseball fans young and old will remember the day their worst suspicions proved true—the day that dozens of the nation's greatest athletes and childhood role models turned out to be common cheats.

The results of former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell's 21-month investigation into performance-enhancing drug use in baseball sent shock waves around the league on Dec. 13. The report links 88 active and former players to banned substances over the past decade and rebukes the game's owners, commissioners, front office officials, and players union for their "collective failure" to resist the advent of this steroid culture.

Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Miguel Tejada, Andy Petite, and Gary Sheffield are among the biggest names of a list that includes 31 All-Stars, seven MVPs, and two Cy Young Award winners. What's more, Mitchell considers his report far from comprehensive, a mere scratch to the surface of a problem that has infected every clubhouse in Major League Baseball.