20 biggest sports scandals of all-time

6. The Steroids Era in baseball

From the late 1980s through the late 2000s, Major League Baseball saw a dramatic spike in power hitting numbers.

Little known players morphed into sluggers. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa took fans on a ride for an exhilarating home run race, eclipsing Roger Maris’ single season record of 61 home runs that had stood for 37 years. And Barry Bonds set the record once again three years later with 73 home runs, 24 more than his previous career-best, en route to becoming the MLB’s all-time home run leader.

In 2003, however, this glorious era of baseball took a turn for the worse that would leave a dark cloud hanging over sport for years to come.

A company named BALCO had its San Fransisco Bay Area office raided the IRS and a local narcotics task force. The same occurred with Bonds’ personal trainer, Greg Anderson. The raids stemmed from a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigation into undetectable steroids being used by professional athletes.

Bonds was the poster boy of the emerging scandal, but the scope of the problem was much larger. Dozens of athletes were subpoenaed to testify in the investigation, and the revelations prompted baseball to develop strict performance-enhancing-drug testing and punishments.

In 2007, the Mitchell Report implicated 89 current and former MLB players for using PEDs, including many who were on their way to the Hall of Fame before the report was released. Sosa was discovered to be one of 104 players who tested positive during an anonymous 2003 survey, and McGwire would admit to steroid usage in 2010.

Baseball made tremendous strides in moving away from this dark period in its history by the harsh punishments it gave to players involved in the recent Biogenesis Scandal. Remnants of the Steroids Era still remain, however, as serial cheater Alex Rodriguez continues to solidify his place in the record books.

Next: 5. Tiger Woods busted for infidelity