Maybe George Herman Ruth was an alcoholic off the field, but on the field “The Babe” had the natural ability to crush a baseball.

Unfortunately, the word natural among professional athletes has become as unidentifiable as Barry Bonds’ rookie card.

Performance-enhancing drugs have become the extra edge athletes have sought out to conquer their opponents, and the topic has now become hotter than ever.

NIU senior baseball player Jeremy Busch said he doesn’t know of any NIU athletes who have ever tried steroids. He said all the guys on the team take creatine, glutamine and protein shakes -all dubbed OK by the NCAA.

BALCO Labs, the San Francisco-based company behind the designer steroid THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, is still on trial for selling performance-enhancing drugs to Olympians and professional athletes.

The latest testimony against BALCO to make headlines came from New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi. Giambi’s testimony to jurors about receiving steroids from Barry Bonds’ personal trainer Gary Anderson was leaked to the press .

However, the most recent craze was started by former major leaguer Jose Canseco’s book, “Juiced.”

After Canseco appeared on “60 Minutes” Sunday, every sports show in the U.S. on Monday morning debated whether or not Canseco’s claims that several notable athletes juiced up with him were true.

Canseco accuses Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Juan Gonzalez and other power hitters of taking steroids at one time or another.

But who can believe this guy isn’t trying to make a quick buck? He sold his 1988 MVP award on eBay for $30,000.

Mike Santoro, holder of NIU’s single-season home run record (15), said Canseco is just trying to bring down Major League Baseball and make some easy money.

Santoro’s brother played in the minors for five years, and the fifth-year senior said he could tell who was and wasn’t taking steroids on his brother’s teams.

Busch agreed with Santoro and said Canseco had no business calling out other players in public.

The home run race of McGwire and Sosa in 1998 resurrected MLB after the 1994 strike. Two players in one season managed to overshadow the great race between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in 1961. And, yes, Maris set the record in 1961 with 61 home runs.

Fast forward to 2001, and there’s Barry Bonds rolling past McGwire with 73 round-trippers.

Come on. Records are made to be broken, but look at the numbers. It took 37 years for a duo to match the 1961 race, and then three years later Bonds steamrolled McGwire’s mark.

It’s about time MLB commissioner Bud Selig and crew took some action. But is it too late?

It took Pete Rose 18 years to come clean of his gambling problem. Are fans now going to have to wait another 18 years to find out whether the home run boom of the last decade was for real?

The game of baseball has been tarnished time and time again. So forget MLB and its no-salary-cap ways.

When do NFL players report to training camp?