'Greenie' Monster Tamed?

"We don't get them from the trainer because greenies are against club policy," Bouton wrote. "So we get them from players on other teams who have friends who are doctors or friends who know where to get greenies."

By 2005, former outfielder Chad Curtis, who played for six teams during a 10-year career that ended in 2001, said on the HBO broadcast "Costas Now" that he estimated 85 percent of big leaguers had used amphetamines at least once -- despite the fact amphetamines, since 1970, had been classified as illegal without a prescription under the Controlled Substances Act.

In the House Government Reform Committee's report on former Baltimore Oriole Rafael Palmeiro, triggered by his testimony at a March 17, 2005, hearing and his subsequent positive test for steroids, former Texas Rangers trainer Dan Wheat told investigators the drugs were "prevalent" in baseball. Wheat "once asked a player, 'Of the nine players on the field, how many took greenies today?' " according to the report. "The answer from the player was eight."

This year, pitcher Jason Grimsley, in an affidavit released after his home was searched by federal investigators, described separate pots of coffee in clubhouses, one labeled "leaded" -- which meant it was laced with amphetamines -- and one labeled "unleaded." The revelation prompted howls of ridicule and outrage around baseball.

"This thing about the coffeepots being marked -- I'm not saying the stuff isn't in there. But I have never been in a clubhouse where the coffeepots are marked like that," Washington Nationals Manager Frank Robinson said. "Guys are misspeaking when they take a brush like that and paint everybody. Like anything, some people do [use drugs], but the majority does not."

However, Grimsley's only misstatement may have been in his details. According to one team executive, the coffeepots were not labeled, but it was well known among players which pot was which -- something this person said he knows firsthand, because he once drank from the wrong pot and wound up being taken to the hospital in an ambulance with a racing heartbeat.

In fact, it was the dangers of amphetamines, expressed to him by team doctors and trainers during conversations last season, that ultimately convinced Selig of the importance of getting them out of the game.

"They came in separately on two different occasions and said, 'You have to do something about this, or somebody is going to die,' " Selig said. "They expressed more concern about [amphetamines] than anything else."

To Espresso Machines

While many players shared the view that the notion of baseball without amphetamines would have an ugly effect on the field, they say they are adapting.

"Guys are substituting -- getting things at GNC that are legal," Washington Nationals veteran first baseman Robert Fick said. "Obviously, it doesn't give you the same ride. But it probably helps. And espresso -- that's the biggest thing. It seems like every clubhouse now has an espresso machine."

Likewise, clubhouse refrigerators in 2006 generally are well stocked with energy drinks.

"Sugar-free Red Bull," said Minnesota Twins designated hitter Rondell White, when asked what players were using for an energy boost this year.

"More energy drinks," said former Orioles catcher Javy Lopez, who was traded to the Boston Red Sox this month. Lopez also showed a reporter a container in his locker labeled "Phosphagen Elite" -- a legal supplement containing creatine -- that he said he uses.

As a service to players, MLB and the players' association have arranged to have a laboratory, NSF International in Ann Arbor, Mich., test supplement products to certify they are clean, and they have encouraged players to use the service.

Baseball's list of banned stimulants also includes drugs -- such as Ritalin and Adderall -- that are used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, players who can prove they have been treated for the disorder for a significant period of time can receive a therapeutic-use exemption (TUE) to continue using the drugs. Among the players who reportedly have received TUEs are Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Derek Lowe, Chicago Cubs pitcher Scott Eyre and San Francisco Giants pitcher Noah Lowry.

Critics point to this potentially exploitable loophole, as well as the absence from baseball's banned list of certain other stimulants -- of which, NYU's Wadler said, there are "hundreds of thousands around the world" -- as evidence that baseball's policy does not go far enough.

"We have a lot of [attention-deficit disorder] drugs floating through clubhouses and a policy that doesn't test for the strongest and most misused -- modafinil," said Carroll, the author. With stimulants, "more than steroids, there are better, more accessible alternatives."