The Juice: The Real Story of Baseball's Drug Problems

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.

"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.

The review below ("Terrible Book") was written by a guy who hawks HGH on the internet, and thus has a financial interest in discrediting books like The Juice. He's obviously not an objective reviewer. The Juice is as insightful and well-researched as Carroll's Baseball Prospectus column, of which I am a longtime fan. Highly recommended.

It amazes me that sportswriters who take up the subject of steroids neglect the How? and Why? Maybe it's because the answers are science answers, even though the questions are basic questions. Fortunately, Will Carroll does not. An example: During his 30-minute airport interview with an unnamed steroid seller, Carroll uses his in-depth technical knowledge to ask Dr. X tough questions, and more valuable, to retain and document a conversation he couldn't take notes on. This is high-performance journalism--no shortcuts, quality narrative, and outstanding detail.

I've been a follower of Will Carroll's work on Baseball Prospectus for a while now, and got a great deal of knowledge out of his last book "Saving the Pitcher". "The Juice" is an excellent introduction to the ever-expanding and rapidly-changing world of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Mr. Carroll presents a brief history of how athletes (and their trainers) have been seeking versions of magic elixirs for centuries, and then details the physiological changes and risks (and potential benefits) associated with use of PEDs. Those readers looking for a tell-all on Barry Bonds and Jose Canseco should look elsewhere. "The Juice" DOES devote a chapter to the BALCO investigation, but it is presented in terms of the legal pathways that are being pursued, and who is being targeted and why. Bonds DOES get mentioned, but the book thankfully does not to jump to conclusions. The chapter that "made" the book for me detailed the use of HGH by a high school pitcher who was told by a scout that he wasn't tall enough. The interviews of the kid and his parents was amazing and thought-provoking. Well done Will!