Steroids

Juan Dixon, the former NBA player and Maryland star who once delivered an anti- steroids message to Congress, believes his positive steroid test while playing overseas resulted from an over-the-counter supplement, his wife said Sunday. The player "took an over-the-counter supplement and had no idea it had any type of steroid in it. It's not like he was injecting steroids," Robyn Dixon, his wife, said in an interview with the Baltimore Sun. Juan Dixon has remained in the Spanish city of Malaga and could not immediately be reached for comment.

CHICAGO - -Another chapter in the seemingly endless steroid-era saga - one played out in locker rooms and court- rooms, the halls of Congress and eventually the Hall of Fame - was rewritten Monday with Mark McGwire's admission that "I used steroids during my playing career, and I apologize." More than a decade after he and Sammy Sosa staged a smashingly successful soap-opera-like home run derby, McGwire confessed that his part was tainted, saying, "After all this time, I want to come clean."

Another chapter in the seemingly endless steroid-era saga - one played out in locker rooms and court- rooms, the halls of Congress and eventually the Hall of Fame - was rewritten Monday with Mark McGwire's admission that "I used steroids during my playing career, and I apologize." More than a decade after he and Sammy Sosa staged a smashingly successful soap-opera-like home run derby, McGwire confessed that his part was tainted, saying, "After all this time, I want to come clean."

The dark shadow that performance-enhancing drugs continue to cast on baseball was picked as the sports Story of the Year by members of the Associated Press, even surpassing the Tiger Woods sex scandal. Some of the biggest names in baseball - Alex Rodriguez , Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz - were linked to performance-enhancing drugs this year, which swayed editors to pick the steroid scandal over Woods' fall from grace. The Woods scandal was fifth behind Jimmie Johnson's historic fourth straight NASCAR championship; Roger Federer winning his 15th Grand Slam and Brett Favre ending his (second)

Not to be overly cynical, but what message, exactly, were the students of Milford Mill Academy supposed to take away from Tuesday's surprise anti-steroid talk by the New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez? He came to the school to discourage students from taking steroids by sharing his story, which goes something like this: From 2001-2003, starting just after signing a contract with the Texas Rangers that made him the highest-paid player in the history of Major League Baseball, Mr. Rodriguez took steroids.

New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez made an unexpected visit to 500 students at a Baltimore County school to deliver an anti-steroid message Tuesday, months after admitting publicly that he used performance-enhancing drugs earlier in his career. At the time of his admission, Rodriguez vowed to turn his past transgressions into a positive lesson for young athletes, and he appears to be attempting to uphold that promise by discreetly speaking to select students this season. It's part of the agreement, however, that the talks not be covered by the news media.

News item: : The New York Times reported Thursday that Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz tested positive for illegal performance-enhancing drugs during Major League Baseball's supposedly anonymous survey testing in 2003, according to lawyers familiar with the results. My take: : OK, enough's enough. I know there is no way that MLB and the players union can justify outing the remaining 100 or so players who tested positive during the 2003 survey, but I think everybody has figured out by now that would be much better than having a couple of names leak out every six months, keeping the sport mired indefinitely in the six-year-old fallout from this tawdry scandal.

BOSTON - -If David Ortiz were to apply his own standards, he could not play baseball for a year. Five months after saying that steroid users should be banned for a full year, Ortiz was snared in baseball's long-running scandal. Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, two integral players in the Boston Red Sox's championship teams of 2004 and '07, were among the 104 players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003, according to a New York Times report. After the Red Sox's 8-5 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Thursday at Fenway Park - Ortiz hit a game-changing home run - he said he called the players association and confirmed that the report was true.

His legacy clouded by the fallout from baseball's steroid era, Major League Baseball Players Association head Donald Fehr is leaving his position. After adding to the success that Marvin Miller had in negotiating one-sided labor contracts with the fractious group of MLB owners, Fehr more notably has been dragged alongside commissioner Bud Selig to a string of congressional hearings into steroids throughout much of the past two decades. Fehr did not give a specific reason for his decision to resign Monday, saying only it was time to move on. "I don't know if it's fair to say I've lost my taste for it," Fehr said in a conference call with reporters.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - -Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. has known New York Yankees All-Star Alex Rodriguez for 16 years, but the two have not spoken since Rodriguez admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Texas Rangers. But when they do, he has one question. "I really want to know why," Ripken told the audience at the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's Men's Night Out banquet Thursday. "I'm going to make it my business to find out." Ripken avoided the topic of steroids during his 40-minute speech but was later asked about baseball's black eye. "The steroid era really puts a dark cloud over baseball," Ripken said.