Steroid Use In Sports

In Major League Baseball, numerous players have put up tremendous statistics and record breaking numbers. There are a great amount of players in the league that have done this naturally, however it is not uncommon to see star players get caught taking performance enhancing drugs or steroids. Steroid use in baseball has been an issue since the earliest days of the game, and can be seen very frequently in players today. Jose Canseco was a star hitter in the major leagues, who had admitted to steroid later in his career. Canseco once estimated that 85% of other players were also taking performance enhancing drugs. Though that estimate is not proven, there are still many players today that are taking these steroids, and it needs to remain an issue in the eyes of the MLB. Taking these drugs not only promotes the risk of significant side effects and health problems to the player consuming them, but it makes changes to the game itself as well. The way the game is being played has changed over time due to this issue, and players are receiving advantages that other players are not. Overall, these illegal drugs are unfair to other players in the game and simply are not safe, and should never become legal in the league.

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.

Steroid abuse has become a huge problem in professional sports today. Athletes are now using steroids to gain a competitive edge over their opponents. Also, the athletes are using the steroids to recover quickly from major injuries or surgeries. Many former superstar athletes have been caught taking steroids during the season and offseason.

           Today in the United States, millions and millions of kids, teens, and adults watch and play in the sport of baseball. It is probably the number one sport looked upon and what is happening to it is a bit discouraging. Players have started “cheating” by using steroids to help them play stronger and better. They are in league where you have to be the best at what you do to play, and if your using drugs to cheat your way in, then it ruins the ethics of the game of baseball.

“Bacsik 3-2 again. There’s a swing and a high fly ball, right-center field. Back it goes. Racing back, Logan jumping up, and that ball is gone! (Four-second pause) No. 756. Barry Bonds stands alone. And on the night of August 7, 2007, in San Francisco, California, Barry Lamar Bonds has hit more home runs than any major leaguer in the history of baseball.” (Times Union, ESPN). Barry Bonds hold the record for the most homeruns in baseball. His legacy is very well known, but it is also tainted. Barry Bonds took performance enhancing drugs, to get to where he is today. Performance Enhancing Drugs are hurting sports, and people. It defines the word “cheating” in all aspects.

cheating has always been around and in baseball Steroids are a Performance Enhancing Drug or PED for short that help with strength or players have also been known to use Human Growth Hormone or HGH, “Wonder if steroids helped Roger Clemens to lead the Houston Astros and New York Yankees to the World Series?” (Bilson) Ty Cobb sharpened spikes, and bet on baseball and he's still in the HOF, or how Mike Scott doctored baseballs with an emery board, or Alberte Belle, Sammy Sossa with Corked bats a corked bat is a bat that does not have the wood filling super balls can be put in there in place for it many different things can be used in place of that. Also how can anyone forget Barry Bonds with steroids how much did that help bonds break the All-Time home run record? How about Triss Speaker and the scandal of him fixing games , Gaylord Perry doctored baseball with various substances to throw off hitters. Other players other than Bonds have admitted to Steroid use Paul Molitor Class of 2004 and Wade Boggs Class of 2005 both admitted to steroid use, Boggs later admitted to being a sex addict on the Barbra Walters show. Mike Piazza alleged steroid scandal his back acne grew significantly and his substantial amount of hair growth on his back. Cheaters never win has been said through out the history of the world. I fully believe that is the honest

Then two years later, he resembled an NFL linebacker. He played in an era that many sports writers have labeled “The Steroid Era” and with his sudden jump in production and size is a great piece of evidence that should be held against him. His statistics over a three year span had increased at such an amazing rate, one of the fastest rates in Major League history. Over the years of 1996 thorough 1999, Barry Bonds averaged 35 home runs per year (Elias). But in 2000, Bonds hit 49 home runs, then came out the next year and hit a record setting 73 home runs in a season, which is a great indicator that he used performance enhancing drugs over this specific time (Elias). The evidence that has been found and recorded on the topic of Bonds and performance enhancing drugs is plentiful, and all of this information should be used against him in a movement to convict him of robbing the game of baseball and hurting the structure of the game so many Americans love and enjoy.

Steroids not only affect the body but also the mind too. It is proven that when an athlete takes steroids they tend to be more of an aggressive person in society’s eyes. The advantage of having an aggressive behavior is that the abuser is more focused and trains more intensely. The bad part about taking steroids is that the person becomes easily irritated and impatient. Even after an athlete stops using steroids they seem to develop depression because they experience withdraw symptoms. It is against federal law to use steroids without a prescription. Professional athletes usually do not think about how much trouble steroids can give them. In 1990, President George W. Bush signed a bill to put steroids in the category of methamphetamines, opium and morphine. If someone would get caught using steroids they could be punished up to one year in prison, a twenty thousand dollar fine, and a year of drug classes (New Law…).

When people think of Barry Bonds, steroids and the homerun record holder should come to mind. There was a time when Bonds didn’t use steroids, when he was early in his career and he was considered a great already. So what drove Bonds to begin using steroids if he was already great and continuing to get better? If people look back into baseball prior to Bonds, they can see he wasn’t the one who set the rules. In the early 70’s is when steroids started to become prominent in Major League Baseball. During the 90’s and early 2000’s, this was considered “the steroid era”. This was when most players were using steroids to gain a competitive advantage on other players, and Major League Baseball turned their heads to this

?When late football player Lyle Alzado contended in 1991 that anabolic steroid abuse caused his inoperable brain lymphoma, which ultimately killed the retired football player?? (Denham 63) Yet athletes continue to disregard warnings of the harmful affects and persist on abusing the illegal substances. I think Barry Bonds current injuries can be blamed on his use of designer steroids. This just goes to show that he had his time to shine in breaking many professional baseball records but now he is paying the price for the abuse of steroids. The journal of the American Medical Association has tested many illegal steroids and has found that they give you mass results like all athletes look for in using steroids; however steroids do cause adverse effects such as breast enlargement, heart disease, and cancer. (Denham 64) A group of athletic trainers were brought together and began a 6 to 18 week study of the affects of steroids on several athletes; at the end of the study they came up with result of massive gains in strength but there were signs of cardiovascular disease developing in most of the athletes. (Hartgens 5) Most athletes have knowledge of these side effects. Nearly all the side effects are printed on every bottle of illegal substances athletes buy, yet they continue to abuse steroids. Athletes know of these effects but they continue to use steroids, they get the results in strength that they are looking for but eventually all

One of the biggest controversies that surrounds the use of steroids and comes under debate numerous times is the unfair advantage that steroids give to the athletes who use them.  The use of anabolic steroids by athletes, professional or amateur, is a form of cheating.  They are illegal substances that help an athlete gain an advantage over another.  What it does cause is the athlete who does not use steroids to have to think about and even consider taking steroids to be able to compete.

Professional sports are a competition between the greatest athletes in the world. And when I go to a game, that’s exactly what I expect to see. Sports are entertainment. There is no room for purity and respecting the limits that athletes had in the past. Modern athletes should utilize all the resources that they have available to them. This includes steroids, which enhance an athlete’s performance. After all, performance is what really matters.

Steroid use in sports has became a large factor of impact in the sports world today. Everyone has their own opinion on it. They either enjoy watching athletes be ridiculously good at their sport, and they find it entertaining, or they like to see athletes play by the rules. Steroid use is a big part of most sports, mostly baseball. Most records held by the greatest of baseball players used steroids. Steroid usage has many negative effects. Even a few that can be life threatening. Some people think that making it legal in sports will make more people want to watch and more money will come to the sport. There are many different opinions for this substance, and not all of them are agreeable either.

Along with the physical problems there are also mental 54reactions associated with the usage of steroids. This drug becomes very addictive and damaging to the mind. It causes violent episodes which an athlete can claim a legal insanity defense to it. They get so wrapped up psychologically that the negative effects doesn't matter to them. Research has also discovered that steroids cause psychotic side effects sometimes referred to as "roid mania". Along with these are wild aggressive, combative behavior, depression, listlessness and delusions during and after performance. Even though the

After doing research on the use of steroids and their effects I have came to the conclusion that steroids is only bad thing if it is abused. Just like any other drug. A lot of people don't know what to do with the good things in life. While all the negative effects of steroids are told to us we are ignoring how steroids can actually help us. Especially in Athletes. Many people believe that athletes that “juice” are cheating. In reality they are not cheating because they are doing just what they think will help them improve and make them the best at what they love to do. There is always room for im-provement and creating all those negative side effects such as irritable and dangerous behavior is right and okay for athletes to