Steroid Use And Steroids Use

Steroids are a hot topic of debate and controversy in the world of athletes and sports. Steroids fall under the umbrella of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and are a dark cloud that have been hovering over the sports world for a long time. In the world today, steroids are the most relevant in major league baseball. Many baseball players, such as Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, and Mark McGwire, just to name a few, have ruined their reputations because of steroids. There are repercussions for PED use in major league baseball, which have cut down on the substance abuse by players but have nowhere near eliminated the problem.

Since Major League Baseball all-star Ken Caminiti openly admitted to Sports Illustrated to have used steroids during his career, steroid use as a muscle and performance enhancer has been uncovered and become a big issue Major League Baseball is wrestling with. The “ongoing and delicate subject, baseball’s dirty, little secret that is no secret anymore,” is a huge and growing problem (Curry B20). Now that light has been shed on the issue, critics are beginning to realize the magnitude of this problem and do not like it. Steroids are a cheating virus that is spreading quickly. Users cheat other players, themselves, the fans, and the game itself. Action must be taken to rid Major League Baseball of this virus

Baseball is known as America’s pastime and is one of the most popular, respected sports on earth. Since the beginning of the sport, it seemingly advances with technology every year making faster and stronger players. The use of steroids became rampant and spread among players and has carried them away from the true history of the game they play. Controversy still today runs around the sport today about fines, punishments and record breaking. The past two decades of Major League Baseball have been tainted because of the use of performance enhancing drugs, also known as steroids, causing the loss of many fans and the true meaning of America’s favorite sport.

Thesis: Today I am going to persuade you all about the use of steroids in Major League Baseball, persuading you why steroids should not be allowed in Major League Baseball. I have a call to action for all of you to help others if they are considering using steroids, and next time you watch a MLB game to realize the impact of steroids.

     It was a warm, sultry night in September. The fans were crazed in anticipation as Mark McGwire stepped to the plate. With a gentle stretch, he paused, patiently poised, waiting for what would eventually be the greatest hit baseball had ever seen. The pitcher, Steve Trachsel, came set. He shot a determined look to the dirt. In a rivalry such as this (Cubs, Cardinals) he did not want to be the one to give up the great number 62. He cocked his arm back, to let loose what would be an eighty-eight mile an hour fastball that most men would not see fly by, but Big Mac was not most men. With one mighty swing, sixty-one was no more, ney sayers were silenced, and the game

Baseball traditionalists got wind of this after a while though and charged the mound in essence to prove doping was wrong. That doing steroids undercuts baseball as a whole and its records left behind by legends. The medical community as a whole would later back this up and told of the serious side effects that ranged from male breast development to mood swings that would be later known as ‘roid rage. This would not be good for the public because the fans emulate what their idols do and if that’s what they believe needed to be done to be more like them they would. Eventually in almost every high school in the country, young athletes are told about these health risks associated with using Performance-enhancing drugs.

“Going, Going, Gone, Home Run!” everyone knows what this means when an announcer says it. The game of baseball is a different sport, unlike basketball and football; you do not necessarily need strength to be dominant. So, why are steroids a big issue in baseball? Steroids, in particular, anabolic steroids, build up cellular tissue or muscle. However, they do not give you the necessary skills to play the game. I am almost certain the world’s strongest man could not hit a home run on a major league field, so why punish those who have used steroids? Steroids are not like magic and transform and average man

Testing for steroids and PED’s has been a point of controversy in years past, when the league first started testing for PED’s in 2003 many people thought is wasn’t enough, and today the MLB has arguably the most testing of any professional

“The New Eight Men out.” NY Daily News, NYDailyNews.com, 14 Feb. 2009, www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/news-examines-hall-fame-chances-mlb-new-men-article-1.389225. Accessed 17 Jan. 2017. The article was a list of big time players who had been accused of using Performance Enhancing Drugs at some point in their career. Some of the players used the PED’S because it helped you get better and it kept you away from injuries. Although some of these players may not be fully accused yet for their doings it shows that players will do whatever they have to do to keep playing the game they cared about for so long. I can use this as both a pro and con due to why some players used it and which ones use it. All these player on this are big name players who had a storied career which may be drawn short due to use of steroids.

However the spotlight that steroids find themselves in are in professional sports, mainly Major League Baseball. Steroids have been an on-going issue with Major League Baseball. The MLB has been tainted in one way or another since the game began. However, now the game has been tainted with drugs that are giving some players an advantage over others. These players are also taking risks with drugs because they are constantly trying to attain a drug that does not get detected when they get drug tests. The MLB should outsource their drug testing policies to an independent organization like the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest between players and the MLB. In 1994-95, the MLB suffered a strike that resulted in the cancellation of the post season. Afterwards, fans were deterred from the sport. So in 1998,

Steroids are the single most abused performance-enhancing substance in the history of sports. As popular as the drug may be, the DEA listed anabolic steroids as a controlled substance under the Controlled Substance Act in 1990: meaning steroids can only be prescribed by a medical professional (Parks 12). Steroids are not only creating a poor image of professional sports, they also set a terrible example for the athletic, competitive youth of this generation. Children venerate their role models - like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds - and think the only way to be as successful as they are is to do as they do: use steroids. What the youth are too naïve to consider is that steroids do not improve agility, skill or cardiovascular capacity, and can prematurely stunt growth and destroy the liver of adolescents (ESPN). While the effects on the youth cannot be ignored, the everlasting effects on sports themselves leave a tarnished sense of distrust. Dr. Paul Finkelman stated, “Steroids undermine the integrity [of the game] by placing in doubt the skill of players, as fans assume that homers are hit because of steroids, not skill” (ProCon). The problem with making a stricter Performance Enhancing Drug (PED) testing policy is that if one substance becomes too recognizable, there will always be new, untested drugs which can cause more harm to one’s body than steroids ever would (Ropp). Random drug testing has proven successful in the past, but tests are very expensive and can sometimes be

In the days when steroids were only being used by body builders and professional wrestlers, stories about performance enhancing drugs could only be found on the back pages of the newspapers. When former Oakland Raiders All-Pro Lyle Alzado admitted to steroid use in a 1991 Sports Illustrated article the whispers about what professional athletes were using steroids began to get louder. (Puma, 2005) Finally, in 2002, when Caminiti, a former MVP, came clean, two things were clear; athletes in all sports were using these drugs, and that they worked. The fact that steroid use had permeated our national pastime combined with the media explosion of the internet and 24 hour a day sports talk created a perfect storm which created the biggest sports story of the new millennium so far. However, two other facts remained clear, performance enhancing drugs were old news, and athletes in all sports from all over the world had been using them for years.

Players gained a lot of muscles quickly (also unhealthy, but no one knew) and raced to hit more home runs than their opponents. This has created a huge discussion throughout MLB on how to crack down on these players and how to prevent it from happening in the future. Even though he’s the all time leader in home runs, points, and hit percentage, Barry Bonds’ name will forever be marked as the “bad guy” because of he used steroids. In the July of 2013, Ryan Braun, an outfielder, was under a 65 game suspension for taking steroids. Shortly after, 12 MLB players were given a 50 game suspension. Alex Rodriguez is under huge a 200 game suspension (which he is currently on) from taking steroids and then giving them out to his team. (Baseball). Steroids are used in sports, for the most part, to amplify the performance of athletes. In most cases, the steroids used among athletes are anabolic types. Anabolic actually means “build or increase mass”. These steroids have been in use by high school, college, and professional athletes all around the globe for centuries.

Steroids are a growing problem in professional sports. Athletes use steroids to build lean muscle mass, promote aggressiveness, and increase body weight. Some athletes take two or more anabolic steroids together, mixing oral and injectable types (Anabolic Sports). Major League Baseball has the most cases of steroid, or PED (performance enhancing drugs), suspensions. There have been dozens of suspensions over the years by the MLB by taking daily drug tests. A program has been developed for both male and female sports teams (ATLAS for guys and ATHENA for girls) to teach the dangers of drugs and steroids. Teenage girls use steroids to improve or change their body types. In 2005, 4% of high school students tried steroids; in 2012, only 1.8% of teens experimented with steroids (11 Facts). Some baseball fans do not like the fact that the MLB banned PEDs because it takes the excitement away from the game. My opinion of PEDs is watching men who abide by the rules of the game play baseball the way it was meant to be played. I don’t

“Roughly 100 players tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003, the first year of testing.” (Tomase par 2) Of those 100 names that tested positive, one very important name that sticks out is Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds is the all-time leading home run hitter with 762 home runs. “Bonds is charged with 10 counts of making false declarations to a grand jury and one count of obstruction of justice.” (“Bonds’ personal trainer” S03) Greg Anderson was his personal trainer who collected urine samples from Bonds. “After spending a year in jail, Anderson is considered a vital witness for the government as it tries to prove Bonds lied to a grand jury investigating steroid use by athletes.” (“Bonds’ personal trainer” S03) Another big name on that list is former league most valuable player Alex Rodriguez who is arguably the best player in baseball the past couple seasons. He tested positive for two different anabolic steroids. “The mentality of needing to hit a 3-run homer with nobody on base. It’s that pressure that drove him to experiment with banned substances.” (Roberts and Epstein par. 3) Alex Rodriguez says “I felt like I had all the weight in the world on top of me and I needed to perform and perform at a high level everyday.” (qtd. in Roberts and Epstein par. 5)