Visiting the National Baseball Hall of Fame Essay

The Major League Baseball organization is one of many sport organizations that takes a strong stance on athletes that use performance enhancing drugs. Mark McGwire played for the Cardinals in 1998. He had an amazing career as he broke the homerun record with 70 homeruns. Through his accomplishments, there was speculation that he took steroids. He was questioned about it in Federal Court and at first, he denied it. Later on, he admitted using Andro, which is a form of anabolic steroids. Another baseball player had a very similar story. Barry Bonds played for the San Francisco Giants. He likewise had very notable achievements, such as beating McGuire for the homeroom record and he passed Hank Aaron as the career all-time home run hitter.

Throughout his professional career, Jackie Robinson, received criticism for being the first “black” player to play the game. Not only did Jackie Robinson manage to live up to the criticism, he also changed the face of America’s greatest past time forever. With his entrance into the MLB he opened the path for great black players like Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, and Ozzie Smith just to name a few. In crossing the color-barrier in baseball Robinson not only strived as a great player on the field, but also a inspiration to the black community of the field with his humility, and willingness to move forward in a time where blacks were not considered “equal”.

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.

Another issue is players who have broken records and tested positive for steroids during the period they broke the record. “Although increased speed and arm strength have also been linked to the use of steroids, home run statistics have glaringly

On television the players make it look easy but, there is a lot of practice and dedication done to make this happen. Also, there is no steroid that is going to guarantee you hit the ball every single time. Baseball players train for hours working on their swing, hitting the ball over the fence is not something that happens over night. Also, if you look into the future forty or fifty years, I think it is quite likely that every citizen will routinely take anti-aging pills every day (as cited in Weir & James, 2009). If this is this case, then forty to fifty years later people will look back on baseball and not care if an athlete used steroids.

The MLB is just a giant business. How can you see it otherwise? Steroids in baseball have changed dramatically over the past ten years and a major factor impacting the changes may be players’ use of performance enhancing drugs. Do these players not realize that they are cheating? They are putting a drug into their bodies to make them better then everyone else. In less than four years Babe Ruth’s single season record of 60 home runs has been broken by Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. These were three of the players who were faced with a charge of using steroids and notice how they are three of the top hitters. McGwire just retired too, I think steroid use, and people finding out had a smidge to do with it. All these players aren’t losers, they are all stars and looked upon from all over and know are being accused of cheating. (Kingsbury)

“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.

These candidates should not get the benefit of the doubt for playing during a time where steroids were commonly used. Taking steroids is a choice; any player willing to take steroids is giving up the honor of being inducted into the Hall of Fame (Shipigel B17).

Curt Flood was an All-Star baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals that did not want to be traded against his wishes to the Philadelphia Phillies. This decision to publicly come out and make this particular statement ultimately started a battle for player liberty and benefits in baseball. This paper will be diving into the ideals and ramifications behind his choice to dispute the sport of baseball, the context of American society around the time of the issue and its relationship, the main events involving Flood’s actions, the labor dispute, Flood v. Kuhn case along with other critical elements in the main body, the progression of this topic in discussion, and a recap of the topic and its significance in relation to contemporary American society in conclusion.

It’s that time of the year again, for Baseball Writers’ Association of America to vote for who they believe should be candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. The conversation of steroids always pops up at this time because some of the most prolific baseball players have been known to use steroids, such as Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, and Alex Rodriguez. These guys have been proven that they used the enhancing drug, but these are some of the league’s best players of all time and they aren’t getting the representation that they deserve. The system needs to be changed because it is keeping great ball players out of this superior club.

Steroids used in the sporting industry has been a popular ethical issues among numerous of athletes. Alex Rodriguez is one of these athletes caught using performance enhancing drugs. Alex Rodriguez is a professional baseball player in the MLB who played for the New York Yankees. In 2009 it was revealed that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for taking a testosterone and Primobolan.

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),

Barry Bonds, the man who broke Hank Aaron’s home run record in 2007 should be hailed as one of the greatest sluggers to ever swing a bat. So why isn’t he? With a career plagued with controversy over the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs (PED’s), Bonds’ historic records will be debated and held in controversy forever. The numbers Bonds put up during his career should earn him a first class seat headed to the Hall of Fame; however, even without an actual conviction, Barry Bonds’ link with PED’s will likely prevent his induction into the baseball Hall of Fame

The sport that has gotten the most attention on the subject of steroids is Major League Baseball. Due to the suspected prevalence of them from the late 80’s up until the present day, the so-called baseball purists now question all the records and achievements

Roger Maris was the first major league baseball player to hit 61 home runs in one season in 1961, beating Babe Ruth’s record of 60 in 1927. Thirty seven years later in 1998, St. Louis Cardinals player Mark McGwire and Chicago Cubs player Sammy Sosa fought hard to see who could break the previous record of 61. At the end of Sosa’s season, he finished with an extraordinary 66 home runs, five home runs over the record. However, McGwire finished remarkably with 70 home runs, nine home runs over the record. Twelve years later in 2010, McGwire revealed that he had used androstenedione, a common over-the-counter drug. At the time of the record chase, androstenedione was still legal in baseball, but in the International Olympic Committee, the NFL, and National Collegiate Athletic Association, androstenedione was considered illegal and you would be disqualified or even expelled from the league if it was found in your blood. Today, people still argue whether or not McGwire should be the record holder. Drug testing for professional athletes should be required because performance-enhancing drugs are unhealthy, they can lead to negative consequences, and they are not a good influence for children looking up to these athletes.