We have now entered another stage of the steroid/performance enhancing drug age and its impact on professional baseball.

First there was the don’t ask, don’t tell stage where everyone “knew” something was going on, but all remained quiet as the dollars poured in.

Then came the Mitchell Report stage where we eliminated any doubt that substances had and were being used and some, and only some, of those who partook were identified.

Now we enter the effect stage of the drug era where those who were and those who were not identified as users try to play on without the stuff.

Note: Players continue to be suspended at an alarmingly regular rate for continued use of drugs. The end is not even close and sports by pharmacy are not over.

However, those playing at the MLB level have seemingly stopped or cut back in use and there are many in the game who believe that is showing up in reduced numbers and injuries for stars who only last year were succeeding at the plate or on the mound.

No, there will be no names here. For the same reasons there were no names for a decade as use went on, there can be no names here because we do not “know” who was or wasn’t using drugs.

Those names are kept private under the agreements between the players and MLB. That is a whole other issue, but don’t you think the idea of being exposed publicly might be an even greater restraint on use of drugs than the urinating in a cup drug testing?

We digress.

Players, scouts, managers and league officials all have off-the-record discussions about the effect of coming off the drugs for particular players. Take a look at the disabled lists and notice those players whose numbers have severely dropped from last year.

Are those signs of going cold turkey off the performance enhancers? That’s the trouble, no one knows for sure but the players.

The buzz phrase in MLB right now that says “I’m talking about drug use impact” is: “MLB is becoming a young man’s game.”

That means young players are getting a chance as veteran players undergo the negative effect of playing without the aid of performance enhancers.

It will take a season to know if this is actually occurring, and we will probably never know just who went south due to age and a lessening of skills and those who fell off the table because they weren’t juiced.

Most of the suspensions in pro baseball come at the minor league levels. Players there will take the drugs to make it to the bigs. How many do? Who knows, but the continued suspensions are evidence the problem is real.

If these players make it to the show, will they stop the use of drugs? Not likely. They will go with what got them there.

Sad. What cannot happen is an acceptance of all this use as just part of the game. The health impact on the pros and the high school and college players who imitate their “heroes” is just now being studied.

And just think, we haven’t even begun to deal with the pro and college football scene.

bdnsports@bangordailynews.net