The Babe's Living Legend

Imagine the chaos in the sports universe if word got out that Babe Ruth used performance-enhancing drugs. Would he be vilified for sins committed during the Coolidge administration? Or would the moral posturing that has enveloped the Barry Bonds coverage finally subside? Maybe Mark McGwire would end up in the Hall of Fame. Or maybe the record books would get a whole fresh batch of asterisks.

In 1991, Wiley Publishing released a book called The Baseball Hall of Shame's Warped Record Book. The book, which is aimed at 8-12-year-olds, includes a fascinating story about the Babe:

The Bambino fell ill one year attempting to inject himself with extract from a sheep's testes. This effort by more than a few athletes of his era to seek the healing and strengthening properties of testosterone prefigured the craze for steroids. When Ruth fell ill from his attempted enhancement, the media was told that Ruth merely had 'a bellyache.'