Do Steroids Give A Shot in the Arm?

Another pitcher who tested positive last year said he, too, unwittingly ingested a banned substance in a dietary supplement he obtained online. San Diego Padres reliever Clay Hensley, who declined to name the substance, said it was recommended to him by friends.

"I've always worked out hard," he said. "I've always lifted hard. . . . It's real important, strength training. I don't think there's one player I've played with that doesn't work out."

Manfred noted that legislation enacted at the beginning of last year that made many dietary supplements illegal makes players' claims that they ingested banned substances in over-the-counter products less credible. However, many dietary supplements containing steroids are still readily available, according to many sources and analyses of several supplements obtained by The Post last fall.

In the 1970s, team officials treated pitchers' arms like fragile musical instruments that could break if overstressed. One former trainer recalled pitchers being prohibited from playing golf or doing push-ups. Now, all players are expected to take advantage of multimillion dollar, state-of-the-art weight training facilities that have become standard in every clubhouse.

"In the '70s, they didn't want pitchers touching weights," said Dick Martin, a trainer for 28 seasons through 2001 with the Minnesota Twins. "In the '80s, they let us rehab them [with weights] and rehab hard. In the '90s, they let us lift."

Strengthening the arm -- with medical guidance -- is now considered essential for staving off injuries, and many young pitchers get acquainted with weight rooms almost as soon as they get involved in organized baseball. Meantime, with the prevalence of radar guns, which became popular in the early 1980s, pitchers learn even before high school that there is no bend in a curveball or deception in a change-up that communicates as effectively and forcefully as a fastball clocked above 90 mph.

It's not difficult to understand, Marshall said, how steroids have infiltrated the world of pitching.

When "the radar gun came in, everyone decided we need to get only those pitchers that can throw really, really, really hard," Marshall said. "If they can't throw 90 miles per hour, they've got to find a way to get as much velocity as they can, everything else be damned. . . . I understand the lure of it."

Marshall, however, said he believes the lure is a sham.

"The good news is, when pitchers use steroids, they hurt themselves and are not successful," Marshall said. "There is no question you can throw harder but . . . you are going to hurt yourself."