Use of steroids has stained majors, but the game will survive.(Warm Up Tosses)(baseball players' drug use)

THROUGH ITS LONG HISTORY, MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL HAS SUSTAINED A variety of assaults on its well-being, its integrity and its popularity with the masses.

These attacks randomly include:

* Throwing of the 1919 World Series by the Chicago White Sox, costing Joe Jackson, one of team's banished players, almost certain entry into the Hall of Fame.

* The fatal beaning of shortstop Ray Chapman by pitcher Carl Mays in 1920, and serious injuries suffered by Mickey Cochrane in 1937, Joe Medwick in 1940, Tony Conigliaro in 1967, Paul Blair in 1970 and Dickie Thon in 1984 from being hit in the head by pitches.

* Widespread drug abuse (mostly cocaine) admitted by at least 19 players in the 1980s, including Dave Parker, Dwight Gooden, LaMarr Hoyt, Keith Hernandez and Steve Howe.

* Gambling on baseball by Pete Rose when he managed the Reds in 1987, a restriction that Rose flagrantly ignored.

* Illegal doctoring of bails by such pitchers as Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton, Whitey Ford and Don Drysdale, and illegal corking of bats by such hitters as Sammy Sosa, Norm Cash and Graig Nettles.