I had been taking a performance enhancement drug

And boy! Did I feel good!

I was trimming some trees and bushes a couple of weeks ago and developed a blotchy rash on the left side of my face. I still had it after a week and Toni made a doctor appointment for me. (I intended to keep medical insurance costs under control by not seeking medical attention - but she went behind my back.)

The prescription was a steroid - Prednisone. Three tablets a day for three days, two tablets a day for three days and one tablet a day for three days.

On or about the sixth day into the treatment I realized that, despite working in the lumber department at the Home, I wasn't sore. My shoulders weren't hurting; neither were my knees or my hips. And I had a more optimistic attitude. I was actually having fun!

I mentioned all of this to Toni and she confirmed similar wonderful experiences when she was on the same steroid regimen for her back problems a year or so ago.

"So this isn't going to last, is it?" I sadly asked.

Well its been three days since I took the last tablet. My shoulders twinged today while loading drywall sheets on a cart for a customer. My knees twinged when I climbed a ladder to get something that a customer wanted to buy. And I found myself getting a bit irritated with some customers.

So I, a neophyte who is not wise in the ways of the world of drugs (except alcohol, nicotine and caffeine) (I added this disclaimer because of the "Truth in Lending" statutes which, I think, still exist somewhere (?)), want to know how professional baseball bums like the following can claim they didn't know they were taking steroids while they were establishing new "all time" records.

These guys cheated.

Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before. "Baseball" had not yet outlawed steroids when they were using.

But they knew what they were doing and they knew that they couldn't beat the champions of the past without the use of some "juice" that the champions of the past had no access to. Therefore: THEY ARE BUMS.

This man is the REAL champion:

He used performance enhancing drugs too: Bayer aspirin, Ben-Gay and Wheaties. These drugs, to the very best of my knowledge, have not, even to this day, been outlawed by "Baseball".