Athletes: Steroids In Baseball

President George W. Bush says “Steroids are dangerous in sports and steroids send the wrong message: There are shortcuts to accomplishments and performance is more important than character.”

The main type of steroids causing all this chaos to the body are called Anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids are used the most often in Major League Baseball (MLB). The reasons why MLB players get caught up in Anabolic steroids is because they have so much pressure on them to hit home runs, get on base, and entertain. To help them cope with their pressure, they turn to Anabolic steroids because of the fast gains and positive impacts players experience after treatment. This is a positive for baseball fans, who have seen an increase in home runs hit; for example, in just a five-year span between 1961 and 1996, there was an increase of nine players who hit at least forty home runs in just one season. Anabolic steroids also make one’s hands faster and they increase muscle in areas like the pectorals and forearms. When players are going through a slump and they hear about all of these benefits of Anabolic steroids, they are tempted by this easy fix.

The abuse of steroids among players in Major League Baseball is corrupting the image of America's Pastime as well as endangering the health of those who use the illegal substances. The lack of testing and punishment for the use of illegal substances like steroids in the Major Leagues portrays a negative image to aspiring young athletes. They see their role models using steroids and becoming better athletes rather than seeing suspensions for the illegal behavior or the negative health effects.

Baseball has always been known as “America’s Favorite Pastime”. Over the past decade, the game America knows and loves has been exposed as a game full of cheaters. Major League Baseball(MLB) has had over one hundred players test positive for performance-enhancing substances over the past fifteen years. Performance-enhancing substances increase a player’s ability to produce better stats to help his salary. The past fifteen years of baseball have contained dirty play by some of the best players to ever play the sport. Kids all over America look at these athletes as role models. The money hungry players proceed to send a terrible message to fans of the game by taking drugs to succeed. After commissioner Bud Selig cracked down

Murphy, Bridget. “The Effects of Peds in Baseball.” Loyola Phoenix, 10 Sept. 2013, loyolaphoenix.com/2013/09/20200/. Accessed 18 Jan. 2017. PED’S aren’t what make baseball players great. They still have to hit the ball and throw the ball before the PED’S can do something to take their game to the next level. I can use this to show that PED’S aren’t everything and that you have to have skill to even have the PED’s work. Also every player is great before they use PED’S so they don’t depend on it at first like other people

Second Timothy 4:1 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Situations in almost every sport have seen defining moments that have the potential to set a precedent for future athletes. Steroids in baseball was a defining moment in the sport. If the original occurrence had been handled with a league ban the issue probably would have been curbed and the sport would not have seen so many athletes using banned substances. The same could be said for violent acts committed by athletes outside of the game.

Athletics play such an important role in our society, but, unfortunately, some in professional sports are not setting much of an example. The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message -- that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character. So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now.”

The great steroid debate has been a widely discussed issue in baseball, questioning the ethics of the game and the validity of great baseball players. Steroids have presented a significant issue in Major League Baseball (MLB) especially when all-time great players who have been accused of using steroids are eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is considered by most baseball fans to be a sacred place in baseball where only the best of the best are honored. The idea of inducting a steroid user into the Hall of Fame is considered a mockery by some, as “cheaters” do not belong with the “purest of the pure” baseball players no matter the statistics they put up while playing. So when the names of these “cheaters” show up

Despite steroids having multiple negative effects on both athletes and the game of baseball, they also have good effects too. The first positive effect that steroids’ provide would be the fact that steroids help speed up recovery time. When a person is heavily stressed Cortisol is produced to help the body and mind handle the stress. However, because cortisol is so strong; in the process of trying to relieve stress it also damages muscle tissue and slows down the time it takes for your body to recuperate. This is where steroids come in, “Steroids help to reduce the production of cortisol when your body is stressed. They can be used to help you recover from injuries or just to allow you to exercise more” (Swain, 2007, para. 1). In addition, steroids when taken correctly can be used to treat medical conditions such as osteoporosis, anemia, arthritis, and even some forms of cancer. Steroids increase the production of red blood cells, which successfully effects the treating of anemia. They help increase bone density, so they are useful for patients suffering from osteoporosis. Steroids are also used to treat blood disorders, arthritis, and some types of cancers (Swain, 2007, para. 1).

“Rodriguez was the top superstar in Major League Baseball for many years, and many expected him to be the “clean” record-holder for home runs by the time his career ended. All those hopes came crashing down in 2009 after Rodriguez admitted that he used performance-enhancing drugs earlier in his career” (“The 15 Biggest Steroid, P.E.D., and Doping Scandals in Sports History. Men's Journal, 10 Jan. 2018, www.mensjournal.com/sports/15-biggest-steroid-ped-and-doping-scandals-sports-history/).

Hard hits are hit every day in baseball and sometimes even homeruns, but do you ever think about how hitters are even able to hit that hard? Sometimes people work very hard to be able to hit hard, or some people take drugs such as steroids to get them where they are today. Steroids is a drug that contains many hormones, alkaloids, and vitamins, which make people a lot stronger. A former Oakland Athletics player Mark McGwire used steroids in MLB to help him be a strong hitter and thrower. People do use steroids in other sports, maybe such as football, soccer, and track, but is it really fair to others if someone else uses it to make them stronger? To play a fair game of baseball, steroids should not be involved.

Reading the recent articles “We, the Public, Place the Best Athletes on Pedestals” by William Moller, and “Cheating and CHEATING” by Joe Posnanski, I found occasion to consider the use of steroids in baseball for the first time. In these essays, Moller and Posnanski tapped into the running commentary about performance-enhancing substances and their relative acceptability in the baseball arena (no pun intended). “We, the Public, Place the Best Athletes on Pedestals” proclaimed that “the entire steroid outcry is pure hypocrisy” (Moller, 2009, p.548),

Steroids changed the game of baseball for an era by transforming the game from defensively oriented mindsets to who could offensively “out-slug” one another. Steroids have changed the game of baseball due to the fact that it makes you stronger and the players that use it can hit the ball a lot further than others. Steroids are performance enhancing drugs most commonly used by athletes or bodybuilders so that they can gain more muscle quickly and easily to have an advantage on their opponents. It gives them a huge advantage over the rest of the players that don 't take it because the walls are immobile so as they are getting stronger than the rest, the walls or the home run fence still stay the same

The issue of steroid use in professional baseball is a serious problem. Steroids were used by some players to improve their performance. This is an unfair advantage for them against other players that did not use these drugs. Even if their performance got better and improved their career, these drugs can cause bad effects on your health. Since it is not legal to use steroids, a lot of players that used them did it secretly. Since these players had regular seasons and careers, but then changed in their performance and how they looked, people became suspicious.

Due to the use of performance enhancers, the dignity of the game of baseball has been cushioned and the whole idea of a player being great can no longer be determined due to the fact that they may have cheated. Accurate representation of players abilities are hard to determine by statistics due to the enhancers. In essence these athletes present numbers that are lies and in result taint baseball’s record book and history.