• Drugs in Sport

Baseball legend's credibility shredded by drugs claims

No mercy from the US media © ESPN.com

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Baseball and drugs have been unhappy bedfellows for a number of years but the latest scandal has already taken down one of the leading players and is now threatening to end the career of the highest-paid star, Alex Rodriguez.

Despite attempts to clean up its act, baseball cannot shake off its image as a sport riddled with drug-related problems. Recent revelations that a number of players have taken Human Growth Hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs (PED) supplied by a now-closed Florida clinic is another blow to its sullied reputation.

Drugs testing in sport doomed to fail

Another one bites the dust © PA Photos

• A report claims that drug testing in sport will fail because the chance of catching offenders is so low that authorities are unable to make inroads into the problem. Researchers at the University of Adelaide reviewed positive doping tests from 93 different sports across the world and concluded there was a 2.9% chance of a single test identifying a cheat. Click here for the full story

Earlier this week Ryan Braun, the Most Valuable Player in 2011, was banned for the rest of the season without pay and now the spotlight has turned on New York Yankees' legend Rodriguez.

In 2009 Rodriguez he had once used sterioids but claimed to be clean. Now the US papers report - and his representatives deny - he is locked in negotiations with baseball officials to find a compromise. His career is at stake as is the image of the sport, so it is in both parties' interests to find a working solution.

Rodriguez denies any involvement with the clinic and insists he will fight any charges and appeal against any ban. That has not prevented the media rounding on him with real venom.

"He is expected to swear that the mountain of evidence against him rests on a foundation of lies told by those out to get him," wrote ESPN's Ian O'Connor. "The diminished slugger who in 2009 copped to earlier performance-enhancing-drug use after years of claims to the contrary is expected to go with the lying-yesterday, telling-the-truth today approach, one that hasn't exactly served him well in the past.

"And after this week, it would be awfully hard to believe Alex Rodriguez's take on anything involving his baseball career, or what's left of it. If A-Rod goes down like Braun did, his entire career will be reduced to an illusion. He'll go down as baseball's David Blaine."

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