Spring Training Shadowed by Steroids

Tom Weir and Mel Antonen write about the cloud under which baseball begins spring training because of former player Jose Canseco's book. It's not what players and owners thought would happen after they agreed on a new steroid policy designed to usher in a new era of untainted power hitting a few weeks ago. Weir and Antonen write:

Canseco's book, which opens with a disclaimer about encouraging steroids and then goes on to salute their effects, is a perfectly timed rally killer for the start of baseball's reform era. Under a new agreement between the players association and owners, players will be drug-tested year-round and the veil of confidentiality will be lifted, with the guilty facing full disclosure.

And regardless of test outcomes, suspicions might be recycled for years, as players from the pre-testing era reach career milestones or face debates on their Hall of Fame candidacies.