Posted at 2:01 a.m., Friday, December 14, 2007
Baseball: McGwire's use of Andro in '98 started it all
Associated Press
A small, brown bottle that popped up during one of baseball's brightest summers helped lead to one of the sport's darkest days.It was during the 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa that Associated Press reporter Steve Wilstein saw it — pills labeled as Androstenedione in Big Mac's locker.
"The ensuing AP news story led to renewed scrutiny of the use of 'andro' and other substances by major league players," the Mitchell Report said yesterday. "As previously mentioned, commissioner (Bud) Selig and others in baseball have said that this incident more than any other caused them to focus on the use of performance-enhancing substances as a possible problem."
Andro is a steroid precursor that was banned by federal law in 2004.
In 1999, McGwire said he stopped taking andro before the season began.
"I got tired of seeing my name associated with it," he said then. "I got tired of hearing about underage kids taking it."
