Steroids in Professional Baseball - Essay Example

Steroids in Professional Baseball Ever since the beginning of time men have been competing against one another. This can be seen in today’s society with the many different sports available at the professional level. These sports give people the chance to compete against each other and with men there will always be this desire to dominate and sometimes do anything for victory. In some cases this would be good because it shows guts and determination, but it gets out of hand when athletes start using outside substances to help improve their chances of winning. These substances usually are anabolic steroids, which are illegal in the U.S but can be prescribed when a persons testosterone levels are abnormally low. When athletes use these steroids they are diminishing the integrity of the game. This steroid use and its effects take place in the game of baseball today. Major League Baseball (MLB) does not have any form of testing; therefore steroids can be illegally administered without any question. Recently there have been famous retired baseball players that have admitted to using steroids and have said that a great percentage of the others do also. People do not know whether this would be true or not, but they do know that something should be done to save the games integrity and respect. Therefore anabolic steroids should be banned from baseball and a steroid testing program should be developed to test athletes during the season. One reason why baseball players should be tested for steroids would be because the drug has previously been proven to help a lot of athletes in professional sports. In many situations the steroids gave certain athletes a great competitive edge over their opponents, but when caught they lose the respect that professional athletes have. According to Dr. Robert Voy, head of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), anabolic steroids have been exploited in many athletic competitions. One example of this would be with Olympic gold medalist Ben Johnson. In the 1987 Olympics, Johnson set the world record for completing the 100-meter dash and in 1988 he won the gold medal. After the drug test results would have been processed Johnson was forced to forfeit his record and gold medal for failing the test, due to his illegal use of steroids. After Johnson recovered he came back drug free in the 1991 Olympics and performed poorly. Then in 1993 Johnson was banned from competing again for life because he failed another drug test (159). Another example of when an athlete lost respect for steroid use takes place with Ken Caminiti, a well-known baseball player. After his retirement Caminiti admitted to using steroids throughout most of his baseball career. He affirmed that he was using anabolic steroids when he won the Most Valuable Player Award for the National League in 1996. He also stated that at least 50 % of players in MLB are using steroids People don’t know whether his second statement would be true, but they do know that Caminiti, Johnson and many others have used steroids to enhance performance. The reason that Johnson was caught and Caminiti was not was because the Olympics did random testing for such drugs. Therefore one would state that the same test should be used to catch players like Caminiti, who voluntarily confessed to using steroids (Rosenthal 15-16). Some would also question the validity of records that have recently been broken. If Caminiti broke records while on steroids, who would be to say whether or not other records are legitimate? Previous scandals present another example of the effects that illegal behavior can have on the integrity and respect for the game. One of these scandals includes the illegal dealings of a prominent baseball player, Pete Rose. Rose was a very productive baseball player who was banned from MLB in 1989 for illegal gambling on sports events. In an investigation Rose was revealed to have placed bets on football games and baseball games, but the betting on baseball was never proved. For his actions Rose was forced to sign a document prohibiting him from baseball, which came with many disappointments, such as not getting inducted into the hall of fame and being banned from celebrating his previous championships in MLB reunions. Another incident that affected the game of baseball was the drug use of a profound baseball player, Darryl Strawberry. In 1995 Strawberry was suspended from baseball for one year after testing positive for cocaine in a police drug test and was suspended again for six months for the same reason. Generally illegal actions in the past have caused people to look down on the sport and have less interest in its entertainment. According to a poll taken by Sports Illustrated approximately 61% of people agree that athletes’ accomplishments are less worthy after participating in any form of a scandal. The same situation takes place when people see and hear that steroids are being used in baseball, but most of these assumptions can easily be eliminated with steroid testing (Yesalis, 44). Steroids also play a great role in how the youth reacts to competition in sports. According to a study done by the Youth Sports Council, when younger athletes would have been presented with a substance that could enhance performance with no chance of getting caught, a guarantee that winning would increase and that death was a possibility, more than half of them said they would take it (MacAuley 211-212). MacAuley the director of the Youth Sports Council, states that younger athletes have this belief that they cannot compete with professional athletes because of the suspicion that they use steroids. Therefore the only way to keep the competitive edge necessary to succeed would be to use the same substance they are using. Also the risk of using steroids to these amateur athletes would not be very high, they have this certainty that if MLB players don’t get caught, then they won’t get caught (212-215). Another aspect that weighs heavily on the administration of steroid testing would be the health factors. According to Bob Goldman director of sports medicine and science of the U.S Olympic training center, steroids are known to have serious long-term effects on the human body. He states that some of these effects include hormonal changes, cardiovascular alterations and many changes in physical appearance. Some of the hormonal changes include excessive body hair, sperm reduction and testicular shrinking. The cardiovascular system also alters with clogging of blood vessels that sequentially can cause heart attacks or strokes. Also the physical appearances change with skin infections, severe acne and horrible rashes (Goldman, 115-122). With so many side effects possible, people wonder how the number of athletes using steroids increases. There would be a straightforward answer to this question and that would be money. Steroids cause an increase in muscle mass, which in turn increases the amount of hits, homeruns, runs and the pitchers power. This increase in offense will provide more entertainment, which supplies the players with bigger contracts. Also some athletes believe that if the drugs are taken properly on a consistent cycle the side effects are minimal. These ideas have never been proven and are denied by the majority of doctors in the steroid field. For example Dr. Voy states individuals who administer steroids properly still receive some side effects in the long run (Voy, 117). Testing for steroids would be not any new system; in fact all other major sports test for illegal use of performance enhancers. These include the NFL (National Football League), the NBA (National Basketball Association), NHL (National Hockey League) and all the Olympic sports. Each of these organizations applies practically the same test methods. MacAuely states that the drug tests are given at random over any period during the season. These examinations are given randomly because it catches the athletes of guard and keeps them on the defensive side, meaning that they constantly have to worry about taking a steroid test. Even though the consequences of testing positive are different for each sport the fact that they at least provide tests keeps the truthfulness of the sport alive. Each sport started examinations for steroids when the controversy was widely brought to the public’s attention. In all cases the problem eventually went away sometime after the tests would have been provided. This can be seen when MacAuely states that by 1993 all steroid controversy in sports died down because of all the new steroid testing (215). With the MLB the questions about steroid use have come up before, but now are really coming to people’s awareness. Based on previous events the simplest way to get rid of these arguments would be to just apply drug tests in the MLB (216-218). Overall the use of steroids would be doing no good for the game of baseball, the fans or the players themselves. The controversy would be slowly diminishing the integrity and respect for a game that used to be known as Americas national sport. People’s perspective on baseball would be now more of an issue about greed then an issue of love for the game. The love for the game would be the emotion and passion that the players used to have in playing the game, but in today’s society money would be the only thing that drives these emotions on field. Baseball attendance would be exceptionally low compared to previous years and that would mainly be because of the steroid suspicion and lack of defense from high-powered offense. For example USA Today did a total projection of attendance in baseball parks over the last 3 years, and the numbers showed that attendance decreased by 44%. To provide offense the desire for victory in competition has taken great extremes, such as taking performance-enhancing drugs to help gain that victory. When this would be brought into the picture people are reluctant to invest anytime or money in this fake entertainment. The easiest way to abolish these ideas would be to devise some kind of plan for steroid testing, which would assure people that the sport would be legitimate and its legacy will continue.          Works Cited Goldman, Bob, Patricia Bush, and Ronald Klatz. Death in the Locker Room. Tucson: The Body Press, 1984. MacAuley, Domhnall. Drug Testing In Sports. British Medical Journal. 27 Jul. 1996: 218-211. Rosenthal, Ken. The Dark Side of the Power Surge. Sporting News. 30 Jul. 2001:15- 18. Voy, Robert. Drugs, Sport, and Politics. Portland: Human Kinetics Pub, 1991.          Yesalis, Charles. Performance-Enhancing Substances in Sport and Exercise. New Jersey:  Prentice Hall, 2000. Read More

 

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