Victor Conte: Half of baseball still uses PEDs

BALCO founder Victor Conte says he believes half of baseball players are using PEDs. (Scott Wintrow/ Getty Images)

Major League Baseball has promised to crack down on those who use performance-enhancing drugs, recently suspending 14 players for their connection with Biogenesis, a South Florida clinic accused of distributing PEDs to ballplayers.

But BALCO founder Victor Conte thinks PED use still runs rampant among baseball players.

Appearing on Jim Rome on Showtime, he estimates 50 percent of Major League Baseball players have used banned performance-enhancing drugs within the last calendar year.

He says in the interview that former NFL player Bill Romanowski said that New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez wanted to meet with him regarding nutritional supplements, or "legal performance-enhancing" drugs.

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Conte said he made it clear to Rodriguez that he wasn't interested in anything illegal.

When asked what he thought of baseball's drug policy, Conte said it was "inept."

“Performance-enhancing drugs work,” Conte said. “I know that.”