Mark McGwire: The beginning of steroids in baseball.

Mark McGwire was the previous single season home run record holder, and the first player to obviously perform better because of steroids. When he played for the Oakland Athletics, he was a small skinny basehitter. Later on when he played for the Cardinals, he was a massive home run hitter. This change occurred pretty much out of nowhere. Although McGwire has never admitted to or been convicted of any steroid use, many of his accomplishments, particularly his historic home run surge late in his career, have come into question due to his connection to the steroid scandal in Major League Baseball. In 1998, after an article written by Steve Wilstein, McGwire admitted to taking androstenedione, an over-the-counter muscle enhancement product. While legal for use in MLB, it had been banned by the NFL and IOC. Former "Bash Brothers" McGwire and Jose Canseco were subpoenaed to testify at a congressional hearing on steroids with five other baseball players and four baseball executives. Canseco had released Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, a book in which he spoke positively about steroids, and made various claims-- among them, that McGwire had been using performance enhancing drugs since the 1980s. McGwire declined to answer questions under oath when he appeared in court. Besides Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire's career has benefitted the most in baseball because of steroids. He is lucky he retired, because he would fail the MLB's current drug tests.