Steroids In Baseball

The use of steroids in baseball has grown significantly over about the past decade and a half, and starting in roughly 1990, this period of time has been called the Steroid Era. In 2000, Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, held a meeting with doctors and trainers from half of Major League Baseball’s teams, and he asked the medical group what they thought to be baseball’s main concern. “[Each of] the doctors, in their own way, came back to the same problem: The biggest medical issue facing baseball, they told the commissioner, was the growing use of anabolic steroids among the players” (Bryant 2). Steroids are illegal drugs that increase strength, stamina, and muscle mass, and have become a large topic of discussion since Barry Bonds, a suspected steroid user, broke Hank Aaron’s record for the most career home runs in 2006. In order to discourage the use of steroids in the MLB because of all the problems that are associated with them, players who have used steroids should not be allowed into the Hall of Fame, and their records should be noted to identify that they did use steroids.

First of all, there are numerous, dissatisfactory affects that come with steroids, such as the bad example that professional baseball players set for younger athletes by using steroids. Steroids have become an almost necessary consideration of college athletes if they want to become a pro athlete, and steroids have become the high school athlete’s path to a scholarship (Jenkins 2). When they use steroids, professional players set the precedent that steroids will provide an advantage, and younger players are influenced to use steroids too. The younger athletes are also pressed to use steroids because when they see the pros using steroids, the youth get the message that they will not be good enough to succeed if they do not use steroids. Additionally, John Eliot, a professor of performance psychology, says, “It matters that we hold ourselves – for our children to see – to a higher standard of health, performance, and pursuit of excellence” (Bruinius par18). When youth, athletes or not, see those that they look up to cheating and taking unlawful shortcuts to success, the youth are greatly impacted. These negative examples will cause the young people to act in the same unprincipled manner when they mature and attempt to succeed, and the examples will also cause the young people to think that it doesn’t matter what they do to get ahead. Major league athletes who use steroids, greatly effect younger generations and are creating a detrimental model that starts with the pros and needs to be broken by them.

Furthermore, steroids are harmful to baseball’s image and are not appreciated by the fans. “This goes beyond the simple concept of justice – which is clearly relative and impossible to guarantee – but is critical in maintaining the integrity of the game” (par2). Because of the use of steroids, baseball has unfortunately begun to be looked upon as something similar to a dishonest simulation. Nowadays, it seems that whenever a player has a breakout season, people jump to conclusions and question whether the player used steroids. Consequently, in a poll conducted in 2005, eighty-six percent of MLB fans voted that steroids were ruining baseball or were a significant problem in the MLB (par3).This poll clearly proves that baseball fans do not like steroids, and that steroids have been keeping fans from the game. Fans dislike steroids in baseball because they know that when a player uses steroids he is cheating and much of his athletic abilities become unnatural. Likewise, players such as Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro who were once applauded as great baseball players are now viewed as men who tarnished the game because they have both had firsthand allegations of using steroids made against them by a teammate who also used steroids, and Palmeiro tested positive for steroids. (Bradbury 109-110). If steroids were eradicated from baseball no one would have to worry about whether great players are using steroids or not, and lengthy measures - such as multiple tests and oaths in court - would not have to be to taken to confirm that a player did not use steroids. Steroids absolutely change how a player is looked at because no one can appreciate a player who cheated and took dishonest shortcuts to his achievements. Steroids distract fans from the greatness of the game, ruin players’ reputations, and give baseball a bad name, and steroids should be dealt with severely because they take away from baseball in so many different ways.

Additionally, steroids provide current players with an unfair advantage that former players did not have, and the former players’ records are going to be broken easier if current players are assisted by steroids. It is suspected that before Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s record for the most career home runs, Barry Bonds had been using steroids which made him a much better hitter and lengthened the time he was able to perform as a professional athlete (Ezra vii). The advantages that steroids provide – such as increases in size, strength, and muscle mass and the ability to perform later in life – are unnatural and are unfair because players that played before steroids reached their accomplishments through natural talent and hard work. Barry Bonds’ career home run record should especially be marked because Bonds’ career would most likely have ended much sooner if he had not used steroids, and he would not have ever reached the home run mark that he reached. “It’s not good that there are questions around today’s players and whether their numbers are enhanced,” says fan, Pete Pedersen. “The broken records are not fair to the old-time players, who played the game a different way” (Jenkins 3). Today, we know that the records set by past players are legitimate and were accomplished without cheating, and today’s players should have to break those records under the same conditions and standards. Back in the day, in order to get better, the old-timers practiced, and practiced, and practiced; present players practice consistently too, but years ago, the sport was just straight, clean baseball with no dishonest shortcuts involved. Today, if a player sets a new record and is found to have been using steroids, his record should be marked because he did not set the record under the natural situations that old players had to set their records under.

Next, steroids bring about a disastrous cycle of behavior that needs to be stopped so that countless professional players are not compelled to use steroids when one player uses steroids and his game improves.Robert Barro, an economist from Harvard, says that much of an athlete’s production is not measured by sheer skill, but by how the athlete’s skills compare to those of other athletes (Bradbury 114). Considering this statement, if one player uses steroids and the steroids help him become a better professional baseball player, other players are going to begin to look like inferior compared to the player who used steroids. Because of this comparison of abilities, the rising pro that used steroids to improve puts great pressure on the other pros to also use steroids so that they will be able to keep up with the competition. “A conventional wisdom took over among the [professional] players that it would be difficult, in some cases impossible, to compete without anabolic substances” (Bryant 3). The disastrous cycle of behavior occurs when one major league player uses steroids and becomes a finer baseball player than the other major leaguers, and then all the other players begin to use steroids so that they will stay at the same level of performance as their opponents who used steroids. If a professional athlete is given the opportunity to become superior in his sport, he is going to take that chance so that he will become more successful and earn more money. The opportunities for major league baseball players to use steroids and surpass the other players needs to be eliminated so that players do not fall into the influential cycle and begin unlawfully using steroids.

 Right now, the MLB has policies that give the league the right to test players for steroids at any time and suspend players who test positive for steroids, but to help completely eradicate steroids from baseball, stricter and extended rules should be put into place. “To fans, statistics are a source of endless barstool arguments and time-consuming fantasy league games. Stats also are important to players because they play a major role in determining salaries” (Jenkins 2). If players are using steroids, their stats are going to become unnaturally enhanced, and no one is going to be able to know which stats are legitimate and which were achieved illegally with the help of steroids. The records of players who are found to have used steroids anytime in their careers should be marked in some way – like with an asterisk - to make it evident that the player used steroids before or during the time that the record was set and to show that his stats were reached with the help of steroids. If Barry Bonds is eventually found to have used steroids, he will probably not make into the Hall of Fame, but otherwise he will make it in because he was such a great player (Bradbury 110). Arguably the greatest individual accomplishment that a player can achieve is to get into the Hall of Fame, and the players that do make it are considered legends of baseball. If the MLB took the privilege of being nominated into the Hall of Fame away because of steroid use, large numbers of players who are talented enough to reach the Hall would turn steroids down so that they don’t waste the great opportunity that they have. If steroid-using players’ records are marked and their shot at the Hall of Fame is stripped from them, the amount of players using steroids will be reduced considerably because talented baseball players will have two major goals taken from them if they use steroids.

In conclusion, steroids are a monumental problem in baseball, and something needs to be done to halt their use. George Bush once said, “The use of performance-enhancing drugs - like steroids - in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous. It sends the wrong message that there are shortcuts to accomplishment and that performance is more important than character” (McCallum par5). Steroids are very harmful, and the more that is done to stop their use, the better. Noting the records of steroid-using players and denying the chance at the Hall of Fame would be an effective way to discourage steroid use and put an end to all the issues that accompany steroids.

Bradbury, J.C. The Baseball Economist. New York: Penguin, 2007.

Bruinius, Harry. “Will Steroids Alter Baseball Records, Too?” The Christian Science Monitor 24 Mar 2005. 4 Sept 2008. <http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0324 /p11s02-alsp.html>.

Bryant, Howard. Juicing the Game. New York: Penguin, 2005.

Ezra, David. Asterisk: Home Runs, Steroids, and the Rush to Judgement. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2008.

Jenkins, Chris. “Players Admit Steroids Changed Baseball.” USA TODAY 15 Mar 2005. 4 Sept 2008. <http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2005-03-15-steroids- mlb-cover_x.htm>.

McCallum, Jack. “Steroids in America: The Real Dope.” Sports Illustrated 11 Mar 2008. 4 Sept 2008. <http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/03/11/steroids1/ index.html>.