Source: Baseball Almanac

Amid controversies relating to steroids and performance drugs wracking the world of sports (Think A. Rod), someone thought it amusing to pretend to be one famous athlete and announce to the world that he uses steroids. Either the person believes he can get away with his joke and is willing to ruin someone's career at the same time or believes this is all just funny. Either way, poor Shane Spencer, the victim of this identity thief.

On Monday, someone called the Albany sports radio station 104.5, claiming to be New York Yankees outfielder Shane Spencer. The caller admitted to using steroids along with the other members of the Yankees.

No one at 104.5 was the wiser. They all believed that the caller was indeed Spencer, and they kept the podcast of the interview with the phony Spencer. The team only removed the podcast from the Web site on Tuesday night when they became enlightened of the hoax. The fraud was discovered when one of the video coordinators of 104.5 called Spencer on the Yankees clubhouse.

I listened to (the interview) for about a minute and I about threw up," Spencer shared with ESPN New York on Tuesday. "I just want it out there that it wasn't me."

Spencer (the real one) played for the Yankees team for five years, from 1998 to 2002. The player achieved 43 home runs and batted .263. Spencer also won three World Series championships.

Spencer could not help but share his disappointment with the station as well. He said, "I am outraged that someone would do this and at the same time disappointed that the station believed it to be me despite not coming from the contact information they had for me."

The station's host, "Mike Lindsley" is yet to formally react or apologise for the matter.

At a time where everyone, even those you never thought would are being caught for using performance drugs, it is not much of a surprise why the radio programme or the whole world for that matter, did not double check if the identity of the caller is true.