“If you and I could live 100 years longer, they’re still going to be doing this,” said Charles Yesalis, Penn State professor emeritus and noted performance-enhancing drug expert. “It will be gene doping, or whatever comes next, but where there is tons of money involved, to think athletes are not going to try to get an edge, well, of course they are.”

The news that Galea’s assistant told police she watched him inject substances, including human growth hormone, which is banned in sports, into at least seven unnamed athletes in the United States and one in Canada is only the latest reminder that we are still very much caught up in the Steroid Era in sports.

Now, according to federal authorities, the doctor comes right to the stars’ homes, or nearby hotels. Alex Rodriguez and Tiger Woods are among the athletes who have said they were treated by Galea, who was arrested last October, but both have said they did not use illegal substances.

To fellows like Woods or A-Rod, the cliché applies: their body is their temple. And yet these two, among many other multi-million dollar stars apparently though it was just fine for a man who is not licensed to practice medicine in this country to come across the border and walk right through the front door to draw blood from their arms, spin it around in a centrifuge and inject it into their ailing leg or hip.

“I don’t know where their minds are,” said Wadler, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List and Methods Subcommittee. “Certainly you would think that their body is their Stradivarius violin. Everybody who plays a Stradivarious violin protects it in every conceivable way. To have clowns out there mucking around with it, I can’t imagine them putting themselves in jeopardy like this. We have some very fine orthopedic institutions in the United States, so why would they reach outside of the country, to somebody they know very little or nothing about, with this much at stake?”

A few years ago, some PGA Tour players said with straight faces that they didn’t need drug testing because they are so honorable, they call penalties on themselves. (Woods, to his credit, consistently pushed for drug testing.) Just this January, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig pronounced the Steroid Era “clearly a thing of the past.”

Athletes and leaders of sports in America hope you’ll buy this. They also desperately hope you’ll keep buying tickets and jerseys and special TV packages, and not ask any questions about the legitimacy of the product you’re paying for out there on the field of play. But by now, nearly 22 years after Ben Johnson, you should know better. “Doping will continue to morph into different drugs, different techniques, different methods,” said Wadler, one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject.

“It’s not going to go away.”

Here’s what Dykstra said, according to an excerpt of Randall Lane’s book, The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane, published on the website, The Daily Beast: “You know, I was like a pioneer for that stuff… the juice. I was like the very first to do that, me and (Jose) Canseco.”

The statement confirms what was suggested in Major League Baseball’s Mitchell Report, published in 2007. According to the Mitchell Report, Dykstra, now 47, admitted to former Mets clubhouse employee Kirk Radomski in 1989 that he had used steroids. Canseco, who hit 462 career home runs, admitted to using steroids in 2005.

“At first it wasn’t even illegal,” Dykstra said, according to Lane’s book. “Then, after a few years, I had to go to a doctor, and get a prescription. You know how I got my stuff? Just walking into a pharmacy, bro. It was as simple as that.”

Congress helped rein in steroid use with two amendments. In 1988, the distribution of anabolic steroids was made illegal unless it was done by order of a physician or for treating a disease. In 1990, harsher criminal penalties for the illegal distribution of them were imposed.

“You gotta understand, there were only 28 people who had my job in the whole world,” said Dykstra, referring to the number of major league teams in 1993. “And thousands of people wanted those jobs, and every year, there were guys trying to take my job.” “So I needed to do anything I could to protect my job, take care of my family. Do you have any idea how much money was at stake? Do you? “Twenty-five million dollars!”

Dykstra signed a four-year, $24.9 million contract with the Phillies following the 1993 season, in which he led the Phillies to the World Series. He hit .305 that year with 194 hits and 143 runs scored and finished second to Barry Bonds in the National League MVP voting. However, he never played another full major league season after that.

He won a World Series title with the Mets in 1986.

The second time the idea came up, the Dodgers were in a close race in the National League West and Ramirez was struggling at the plate. In that instance, high-ranking Dodgers personnel, including General Manager Ned Colletti, discussed how they could help Ramirez and whether he had enough of a medical problem to obtain an exemption for a testosterone-boosting drug.

Baseball’s independent drug-testing administrator granted 115 exemptions last season to players who proved a medical need to use a banned substance. All but seven of the players received a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder. Two players received exemptions for drugs to boost their testosterone levels.

The accounts of the discussions about Ramirez’s obtaining an exemption were based on interviews with three people in baseball who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing medical and drug testing matters.

Medical exemptions present a challenge for sports leagues. While some players have a legitimate medical need for exemptions, other players can use them as a back door to use performance-enhancing drugs without facing repercussions.

Major League Baseball is particularly sensitive to the exemption issue because of harsh criticism it received from Congress in 2008, when the commissioner’s office and the players union were accused of allowing players to exploit a loophole in the drug testing program by granting medical exemptions that permitted them to use amphetamines.

Citing internal documents from Major League Baseball, members of Congress noted that in the year after baseball began testing for amphetamines, the number of players who received exemptions leapt to 103 from 26, with players claiming they needed the drug to treat attention deficit disorder.

They pointed out the percentage of players claiming to have A.D.D. was considerably higher than the national average. (The National Institute of Mental Health found in a 2006 study that 4.4 percent of adults ages 18 to 44 had received a diagnosis of A.D.D.; the number of baseball players claiming to have it was 7.6 percent in 2007.)

The commissioner’s office and the players union pledged to toughen the process, although the number of exemptions to those substances has increased slightly since then.

As part of baseball’s effort to toughen its drug testing program in response to the Mitchell report in December 2007, the commissioner’s office and the players union agreed to release the data on the players who received exemptions to the public on a yearly basis.

The discussions about whether Ramirez should seek an exemption started after he provided a urine sample that contained elevated levels of testosterone, a sign that he had violated the sports performance-enhancing drug program.

As baseball officials prepared for his disciplinary hearing, they requested Ramirez’s medical records. In the records, the baseball officials found that he had been prescribed with the banned fertility drug, hCG. The drug is used to treat low levels of testosterone but is also used by bodybuilders and athletes to jump-start their bodies’ production of testosterone after they stop using steroids. After the baseball officials reviewed the medical records, Ramirez accepted the 50-game suspension, and the disciplinary hearing was canceled.

On the day he was suspended, Ramirez released a statement that blamed a medication. “Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue,” Ramirez said. “He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was O.K. to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy.”

It was not the first time that Ramirez had been linked to a positive test for a performance-enhancing drug. The New York Times reported last July that Ramirez was among the roughly 100 players who tested for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003.

It is a test some experts consider so good that it could blunt the push for the urine-based test sought by some in baseball and football, possibly stalling promising research that has already cost many thousands of dollars.

The new test, called a biomarkers test, scans the blood for chemicals the body produces after HGH use, which are detectable for up to two weeks. The test is a complement to – or maybe an improvement over – the current test, called an isoform test, which scans blood for synthetic HGH. The isoform test detects synthetic HGH in the blood for only about 48 hours after use, making it easier to avoid detection.

“Any time we have more tools, it’s a good thing,” said Larry Bowers, lead scientist for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. “We view the two tests as working together. One doesn’t replace the other, but it certainly gives us a wider window and a greater opportunity for catching people.”

Following these developments are scientists from a Virginia lab called Ceres Nanosciences, where a $65,000 grant from USADA has been used to fund research that could someday lead to a urine test for HGH – the only HGH test Major League Baseball players would have to submit to under the current “Joint Drug Agreement” between baseball and the players’ union.

Buoyed by success from the early phases of their testing, which the Ceres scientists say has debunked long-held claims that HGH particles can’t be effectively captured in urine, Ceres is now applying for a grant to take the experiments to the next step. “To move forward after this, we desperately need money,” said Lance Liotta, lead scientist on the Ceres HGH project. “Funding is critical for us. If all the money goes toward the blood test that other people are working on, then they’re missing a fantastic opportunity in urine that they shouldn’t dismiss offhand.”

Urine test not on horizon Ceres’ best chance for funding is from the Partnership for Clean Competition (PCC). It is a collaborative founded in 2008 by the NFL, Major League Baseball, USADA and the U.S. Olympic Committee that has provided $1.3 million in grants for promising anti-doping research over the past two years.

The founders of the PCC, which delivers grants after receiving advice from a scientific advisory board chaired by Bowers of USADA, have different agendas when it comes to finding the perfect HGH test.

“We’re optimistic but realistic” about the possibility of a urine test, USADA CEO Travis Tygart said. “Right now, and for the foreseeable future, you have to collect blood to detect and deter HGH.”

Baseball and football have held out against blood tests, with union leaders questioning the validity and effectiveness of the original isoforms test, which has been available since 2004 – and on a wider basis since 2008. Early this year, a British rugby player became the first athlete suspended for using HGH, proving the isoforms test could catch cheaters.

Baseball has remained skeptical about blood testing. HGH is listed as a prohibited substance, but the only requirement it be tested for in the major leagues is if a validated urine test is found.

“Blood testing is just more complicated than urine testing, from a number of perspectives – player health, collector qualifications, potential for interference with play, among others,’ union executive director Michael Weiner said in an e-mail to AP. “Given this, both the commissioner’s office and the MLBPA have agreed to restrict our collections to urine testing.”

MLB, the NFL and the NFL players’ union have also funded scientist Don Catlin’s research for an effective urine test, though Catlin released a report in April stating that current methods don’t capture enough HGH from urine to apply the isoforms test.

Catlin suggested methods be developed, one of which is the technology patented by the Ceres lab. Subsequent to giving Catlin the money, the NFL has turned to the PCC as its sole outlet for funding anti-doping research.

Major League Baseball was paying attention. MLB is making plans to add blood tests to detect HGH among minor league players, though officials indicated the testing would not begin for the 2010 season as MLB does its “due diligence” in coming up with a testing regimen. Specifics – such as how the tests would be administered and where – have yet to be determined, making 2011 the earliest any such testing could begin.

MLB issued a statement confirming the initial report by The New York Times. “We are consulting with our experts concerning immediate steps for our minor league drug program and next steps for our major league program,” the statement read. “The Commissioner (Bud Selig) remains committed to the position that we must act aggressively to deal with the issue of HGH.”

Drug tests for minor leaguers don’t have to be collectively bargained with the MLB Players Association, so MLB can and does act unilaterally to impose rules on minor leaguers. Now HGH testing will be another occasion for MLB to use minor leaguers as lab rats. Getting HGH blood tests for major leaguers could be an item negotiated in the next CBA, according to Michael Weiner, the new CEO of the Player’s Association.

Weiner told the Los Angeles Times that if MLB and the union can agree on a valid testing method, it could become part of the joint drug program in the next CBA.

The moves come seven months after a committee headed by MLB executive Sandy Alderson issued a report recommending ways in which the sport can clean up its operations in Latin America, where age and identity fraud, the skimming of bonuses by big league personnel and the use of banned substances have sullied the game.

Alderson says Major League Baseball is trying “to educate young players and expand the resources available to them as they pursue professional careers.” He said the registration process will involve the use of a fingerprint program that will not only keep track of which training camp a player is in, but will help verify who is and how old he is.

“It’s going to include actual registration of individual players with biographical data,” said Alderson. “Everybody who is required to register will be fingerprinted.” About 50 players will be registered this year under a baseball official called a pilot program. “It’s a dry run to see if the system actually works,” said the official.

On the drug front, baseball will begin working with independent coaches, known locally as buscones, to hold a series of workshops designed to inform players about the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs.

Over the last two seasons, more than half the minor league players who have tested positive for banned substances came from the Dominican Republic, where many supplements banned by baseball are widely and cheaply available over the counter.

The World Anti-Doping Agency signed an accord with a group representing pharmaceutical companies to formally cooperate in catching athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs.

WADA and the industry group IFPMA say the agreement will see drug companies provide the anti-doping body with information on products that can be used to boost sporting ability.

Companies developing new drugs will also try to minimize the potential misuse of their medicines and help establish doping tests as new products come onto the market.

The agreement signed Tuesday, July 7, in Lausanne, Switzerland, stressed that all cooperation by drug companies would be voluntary. One reason why companies had been wary of signing such agreements until now was because of concerns that information about their drugs could fall into the hands of competitors.

The hope of many baseball fans was that New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez would emerge as an example of someone who played the game the right way, who didn’t cheat to become elite. Rodriguez, if he had kept clean, seemed poised to someday become Major League Baseball’s all-time home-run leader and restore legitimacy to one of the national pastime’s crowning achievements.

Home Run Records Tainted Barry Bonds holds the career home-run record – a mark that will be tainted by the steroid accusations that dogged Bonds for the past several years of his career. Court documents have shown that Bonds tested positive for three types of steroids from 2000-2003. That time frame coincides with a period when Bonds began to show unprecedented power at an age when most hitters’ skills begin to rapidly decline.

Instead of seeing his power deteriorate as befitting a player approaching age 40, Bonds posted career bests in several offensive categories this decade and hit a single season-record 73 home runs in 2001. Is it any wonder that Bonds' extraordinary achievements have drawn considerable suspicion? Compare Barry's body in his early years with the Pirates, with that of his incredible record-breaking years with the Giants.

Controversy continues to swirl around the sport as revelations of steroid use by Rodriguez and an alleged affiliation with a banned personal trainer have cast a shadow over yet another superstar. His accomplishments now are viewed with the same skepticism that follows those of Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa and other false heroes of the steroid era.

The sport took another king-sized hit in July when the New York Times reported that Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, the driving force of one of the decade’s most dominant teams, also had tested positive for using banned substances. The Times also had previously reported that Manny Ramirez, one of the game’s most popular and enigmatic stars, was among 104 players said to have tested positive in a steroids survey in 2003.

Stigma of Steroids At a time when the focus should be on the excitement of the pennant races, the sport continues to be stained dishonorably. And until Major League Baseball releases the names of all the players who failed that steroids survey test in 2003, every player will be under a cloud of suspicion, regardless of whether he ever used performance-enhancing drugs.

All the while, fewer fans are able to enjoy the game fully. With each long home run hit, with each dominating pitching performance, the questions linger: Is he on the juice? Is he cheating? Which players are? Which players aren’t? Even the innocent are not exempt from suspicion.

In June, Philadelphia outfielder Raul Ibanez learned a hard lesson about the modern-day steroids era in baseball. Ibanez started 2009 on a tear, topping the National League in four offensive categories through the first two months of the season, and at one point was the leading vote-getter among National League outfielders for the All-Star Game. But he was forced to vigorously defend himself against an anonymous blogger’s accusations that he was using performance-enhancing drugs.

Baseball Has Work to Do There is no evidence that Ibanez has ever violated baseball’s substance abuse policy. Unfortunately, Ibanez and some of the game’s bigger names will remain under a cloud of suspicion as long as the 2003 survey results are sealed.

Baseball has much work to do to repair its image – particularly among the sport’s younger fans – and negate the stigma of steroids that has tainted more than a decade’s worth of records and awards. Unfortunately, that’s proving easier said than done.