They all are tainted in the same sense. All you have to do is head to the library or search a players name and the word drug and you will find all sorts, yes even the old timers in the HOF, that took or did something to "help" play and "help" recovery, or to increase stamina, or take the edge off.
Each era has its drugs of choice of what was available at the time; many were also illegal and surely not setting any good example for the game or for kids. Back in the days, what testing did they have, if any, for anything? Was that testing, if any, fair; was it corrupt, was it accurate? It was all mostly on their honor and everyone just looked the other way. Why is that ANY different than today? Please explain that? Is is because Bonds acts like a dick? Is it because he is black? Is it because he is rich? Is it because most people are jealous? Tough crap!
AND before anyone goes off; I am not black, I am no Giants fan, in fact I am a Dodgers fan and I am just pointing out whats fair, is fair; so judge them all the same. They all did their "junk" they all have their issues, none are heroes; just men playing a game. The only thing different is the 24/7 media coverage and we get to see every little thing; TRUE OR NOT, that these men do; people back in the days, pre-1990 and back, NEVER had this kind of scrutiny, never had all the lies or innuendos, people hardly ever got to see or hear ANYTHING except the games and the stats. So we ALL need to get off the soapbox, especially all these over paid, highly objectionable and superstar-want-a-bies we now call journalists.
http://community.foxsports.com/blog.../04/This_Just_In_Babe_Ruth_Used_Illegal_Drugs
"Alcohol was illegal from October of 1919 until 1933. That means for 14 of the most productive years of Babe Ruth's career he was using an illegal drug."
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060522/zirin
The Sultan of Swat made his bones playing against only a select segment of the population because of the ban on players whose skin color ran brown to black. Ruth never had to hit against Negro League greats Satchel Paige or Lefty Mathis to amass the magic 714. Yet no asterisk for institutionalized racism mars the Babe's marks. Ruth also was a habitual user of a banned substance that was deemed unambiguously illegal by the federal government--a drug Ruth believed enhanced his performance: alcohol. Ruth was a star during the roaring prohibition 1920s, and as teammate Joe Dugan said, "Babe would go day and night, broads and booze." But Ruth didn't just stop at the watering hole to find an edge. According to The Baseball Hall of Shame's Warped Record Book, by Bruce Nash, Allan Zullo and Bob Smith, 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." This was believable since Ruth was a glutton, famed for eating eighteen-egg omelets. The Sultan of Swat was also a glutton for women and violence, and he could be roused to fisticuffs if it was suggested, as it often was, that he was part black. The Babe's famous trade-out of Boston in 1920 was justified by Sox owner Harry Frazee by saying that Ruth was "one of the most selfish and inconsiderate athletes I have ever seen."