Former Major League and BYU baseball star Wally Joyner was briefly tempted by steroids toward the end of his professional career, according to a 16-page examination of steroid use in baseball published in the latest edition of ESPN The Magazine.

According to the magazine, which hit newsstands today, Joyner contacted San Diego Padres teammate Ken Caminiti in 1998 about helping him obtain steroids. The ESPN report says Joyner was concerned that he wasn't keeping up skill-wise with other Major Leaguers his same age.

Caminiti supplied Joyner with steroids, the report claims, but Joyner only took a few pills in a two-week period and then threw the rest away when he regretted taking any of the pills.

The Deseret Morning News attempted to contact Joyner on Tuesday but a call to his home was not returned.

The ESPN article, compiled by numerous ESPN employees from the examination of hundreds of pages of documents and more than 150 interviews, looks back at the steroid era and more specifically examines how many of those closely involved in the game knew of steroid use but looked the other way. The Joyner reference is just one of many details revealed in the report.

After starring at BYU in the early 1980s, Joyner played 16 seasons for the California/Anaheim Angels, Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves. In 1986 he became the first rookie to start in an All-Star game since fan balloting returned in 1970. That same year he finished a close second to Jose Canseco in American League Rookie of the Year balloting. He was also only the ninth player in Major League history with back-to-back 100 RBI seasons as a rookie and sophomore. He retired in June 2001 with a career batting average of .289, with more than 200 home runs and 1,100 RBIs.

Joyner currently lives in Mapleton and has been active since his retirement in many community and church programs. He's also had a couple of acting roles in some locally produced movies.