Product Description

Baseball is a game that sparks passion, writes Will Carroll, and any attempt to change the game, for almost any reason, meets a nearly universal blockade. The specter that has been presented to fans--that steroids have somehow changed the game--has never been scientifically tested. For me, that's the necessary gold standard of proof, and it should be used with a healthy skepticism for conventional wisdom. The process I went through writing this book was one of discovery. I came into the process with an open mind and a pocket full of questions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #609775 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Carroll is a recognized expert on medical matters related to baseball, and, for the most part, his analysis of steroid use among ballplayers is fair, thorough, and based on solid evidence. As such, his book is in direct competition with several more sensational and opinionated accounts. There is no question, for example, that Juice has more to offer the baseball community than Jose Canseco's Juiced (Regan Bks., 2005), but the latter has received far more attention from the media. At the risk of being slightly pedantic, Carroll refuses to sidestep the many complexities surrounding the use of performance-enhancing drugs. He considers PEDs not just a baseball or even a general sports problem, but rather a social issue on par with the use of recreational drugs. Despite a few factual errors, and some uneven writing (several of the chapters are written by other experts), this book belongs in most public and school libraries. Many who read it will gain from it, but none more so than the high school athlete who will confront, most likely for the first time, the truth about these illegal substances.–Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"An indispensable guide to today's controversies." -- Newsweek

"Carroll lays out a small wealth of data, compressed into simple enough terms, to inform the reader what steroids are..." -- Jeff Kallman

Customer Reviews

Poor Book: Not Recommended
Unfortunately, I purchased and read this book on steroids. Of all the books on the subject, this was by far the worst. The "sources" of information (if you can even call the people sources) are questionable at best. He invents information and passed it on as fact. He will take 1 out of 25 studies -- the negative one and cite that as proof of his point, while ignoring the other 24 favorable or neutral ones.

I disagree with the 1/2 of the reviewers in this topic, though some bring up good points. Mr. "Objective" Nugent is not one of them. He has a major axe to grind.

All in all, not worth it.

A 'must' for any involved in the sport's finer issues
Steroids and sports are in the news more and more, especially in baseball: despite the news, few coverages examine how steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs work and how they affect athletes and players. Will Carroll is an acknowledged authority on baseball medicine, and his coverage in The Juice explores legal supplements, illegal drugs, baseball law and performance standards alike. A 'must' for any involved in the sport's finer issues.

Interesting overview on a controversial topic
"The Juice" provides a nice overview on topic that sports fans hear about constantly but nobody is really saying anything new about.

The book discusses many of the drugs in question -- both providing a history of PED (Performance Enhancing Drugs) and their effects (both positive and negative) on the human body. Included in this discussion is a section on supplements and other PEDs (caffeine! amphetamines and the like) which I found an interesting side note in the PED conversation that is often left out (how many players who get caught say they were taking a supplement).

The best sections -- which play to Will Carroll's strength, a conversational writing style that makes complex medical issues understandable, are the interviews with a Minor League player and steroid user, a high school baseball player and HGH user, a PED Lawyer, a Trainer who knows PED, a man who runs a top testing company, and a man who claims to have created THG (at the center of the Balco trial).

Those sections provide a behind the scenes look if you will at the issue.

My biggest criticism of the book is that in the end, Will Carroll doesn't seem to draw any new conclusions despite all the information he provides. I wish he had been better able to tie the book up, somehow his conclusions (which were nothing new) left me unsatisfied.

Still this book is a quick read, tightly written book that raises the bar on the PED discussion -- giving you a view of the other side (which is never heard), providing the reader with important information and raising critical issues in this debate.