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steroids in sports argument
steroids in sports argument
steroids in sports argument
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In baseball there has always been a steroid issue. In the years since 2005 the problem has expanded. Many more players are now using these drugs to boost their performance. I think that steroids are products that should be absolutely illegal and no player at any time should be able to use them.
Steroids are drugs commonly classified as anabolic, androgenic and corticosteroids. Corticosteroids like cortisone are drugs used to control inflammation, and do not build muscle. Anabolic steroids are used by athletes to bulk up and improve their performance. Anabolic steroids are synthetic hormones that cause the body to produce muscle and prevent muscle breakdown. Some athletes take steroids hoping that it will improve their ability to run faster, hit farther, jump higher, etc. Some people are not aware that anabolic steroids are a form of a drug. In the United States, it is against the law to use these steroids without a prescription.
In many sports the issue of steroids has always been huge. Recently, mainly in baseball many players have been tested for steroids, and many are results are positive. These punishments have been mere warnings and suspensions to the players. The first player to ever admit to using any type of anabolic steroid was Ken Caminiti, he admitted to using steroids after he retired in his 14th season. He said that in his 9th season in the majors was when he was first influenced to take performance-enhancing drugs. He was a 3 time All-Star, won the MVP award in ‘96, got 3 gold gloves and 1 silver slugger award. After he retired in 2001 he finally admitted to using steroids. About three years later on October 10th 2004 Caminiti died due to a drug problem because of the use of steroids and cocaine. Caminiti had said that he made tons of mistakes. One being an alcoholic and the other using cocaine, But he did not say using steroids was a mistake.
After Caminiti’s death many major league players were highly influenced, and stopped using steroids. But there are 30 major leagues teams and each team has 25 players on the active roster, 40 on the regular roster. So if you multiply 30 by 25 then you get 750 baseball players just on the active roster. So even if Caminiti scared a bunch of players there is a bunch of people who still use steroids. Some of the most recent players that have been convicted are giants slugger Barry Bonds, and New York Yankees 1st baseman Jason Giambi.
Steroids in baseball, particularly in Major League Baseball (MLB), have become a major issue. Two specific athletes have affected Major league Baseball dramatically; these players are Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. It is hard to catch a steroid user. Don Catlin, a former director at the UCLA Olympic testing lab says time after time they try to find the users and test them method, after they have evidence, however, this method does not work (Quinn). Mark McGwire’s and Barry Bonds’ use of steroids affected baseball in terms of trust issues, record holders, drug policies, and the future of baseball.
Baseball?s reputation has been painted with a red asterisk. The non-medical use of steroids has been banned according to the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990. Many baseball athletes have been caught or presumed illegal users of HGH or Steroids since the act passed in 1990. All these athletes have one thing in common, they want to have an edge or advantage on the game. Some athletes even admit to administering the drug to other athletes and themselves. Jose Conseco testified to personally injecting the steroids into Mark McGuire (Cote).
Jose Canseco was a former major league baseball player who admitted to using anabolic steroids. He wrote a book called “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big” where he claimed that eighty five percent of major league baseball players used steroids. His book became a New York Times best seller and lead to many congressional meetings in front of the House of Representatives where baseball players, including his former teammates, were asked to testify about their alleged steroid use. One player in particular who gained a lot of attention and trouble as a result of these actions was Roger Clemens.
...sport continues to gain the reputation of a game of cheaters. Steroids are not fair to the players who worked hard everyday to achieve Hall of Fame status, without performance-enhancers. The MLB needs to eliminate drug use to regain the trust of the fans who love and respect the game. The game has seen a dirty past ten years and needs to reestablish their reputation as a fair league. Of course fans love watching their favorite player slug sixty plus homers in a season, but not if it is ultimately ruining the fairness of what was once a clean game. Selig needed to end the “Steroid Era” seven years earlier to save the reputations of Hall of Fame caliber players. Whose to know what steroid allegations will arise in the next few years to tarnish another all-star‘s shot at Cooperstown? Baseball will only regain its credibility when steroids are not present in any player.
Steroids need to be allowed in baseball because it will bring more excitement back into the game. “Steroids will cause baseball players to build more muscle which means that they will most likely increase their offensive stats. The stat that it will mostly increase is the homerun” (Vass). People that watch baseball unless they are die-hard baseball fans do not want to watch baseball to see a team play a good defensive game. They do not want to see a low scoring game. They watch the game of baseball hoping a player will hit the ball four hundred and fifty feet out of the ballpark. They want to see a player come up clutch and hit a walk off homerun to win the game for their team and their ...
Steroid usage is rampant in baseball and players make choices to use the steroids despite the fact that MLB banned the usage of steroids in 2001 (Drug Policy, 2014). MLB did not begin drug testing for steroids until March of 2003 or institute fines and suspensions until 2005 (Drug Policy, 2014).
Since at least the 1980’s performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) have been a major challenge in the world of Major League Baseball, and past trends indicate they will continue to pose an ongoing problem. A number of the most prominent and accomplished professional baseball players, such as Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Roger Clemens, are also the most famous examples of baseball players who have broken longstanding records, attracted countless numbers of fans, and allegedly have taken performance-enhancing drugs. Athletes who have been caught using steroids in order to increase and better their performance rates have been suspended, fined and traded from the teams on which they once played. Despite the punitive actions taken against them by the League and lawmakers, players continue to use performance-enhancing drugs and likely will continue to do so, because the associated athletic effects will draw more fans and bring more money to the individual player and franchise.
The steroid era as many know now started roughly 2003, but there was a time in which many forget. In the 1980’s there was a strike, cocaine scandal, a 1985 World Series blown call, and the banishment of all-time leader Pete Ross for gambling (Addona). These were the main things in people’s minds at the time, but they didn’t see that steroids were slowly working its way into the mix. In April 1988 the Los Angeles Times reported that American’s pastime remained “essentially steroid-free” (Steroids). Thomas Boswell wrote for the Washington Post, as a sportswriter didn’t feel the same way. Boswell wrote for the Boswell wrote about Jose Canseco as “the most conspicuous example of a player who has made himself great with steroids.” Canseco would deny the allegations and later on went to win the American League Most Valuable Player. Jose would eventually admit to using steroids in 1985 saying that he took them in the late 1980’s and the 1990’s (Steroids). He says steroids in baseball were as common as a cup of coffee during that time.
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.
Steroids are unhealthy for baseball players and they are giving the game of baseball a bad reputation. Since steroids have become such a hot topic in Major League Baseball (MLB) fans have had nothing but bad things to say about the sport and its players. When sports illustrated asked some of its readers to give reaction to the steroid controversy in the MLB here is what baseball fan Howard Langsner from New York had to say 'Horrible, just horrible. We take Olympic medals away from athletes on steroids, but we're supposed to look the other way in MLB because a guy can make the ball go further? Drug testing is commonplace everywhere, and used in other sports, as the article mentioned. Baseball should be no different'. Matt Bookman of San Jose, California writes 'That's it. I'm done as a baseball fan until MLB has a comprehensive drug testing policy. I feel so naive. I really thought that the players had gotten bigger and stronger because they had learned the value of hitting the weight room and staying in shape during the off season. It breaks my heart that I won't be able to give my children the same experience I had growing up -- to go to the ballpark and feel good about your guys and cheer on your team.' The fans reaction speaks for itself but MLB should not sit back and let steroids take over a game that was at one time America?s pastime. In this paper research will be given on what exactly are anabolic steroids and how they can affect your body, testing policies, the effectiveness of steroids on players and major league baseball.
Testosterone use goes back as far as 1889. Pud Galvin, a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys used a testosterone hormone derived from animals. The first hormones came from mostly pigs and dogs. “Even Babe Ruth, a legendary New York Yankee, tried to inject himself with extract from sheep testicles in 1925.” (Joshua Z.) The use of steroids was not common until the 1970’s. It was estimated that every team had at least six to seven players using. It was the 80’s when Anabolic steroids blew up the market. Anyone from future Hall of Famers to new up and comers were using amphetamines. The use of amphetamines as stimulants became very common and was a problem for the game which began raising suspicion. “By the 1990’s, steroids had become an epidemic.”(Joshua Z.) In a spend of three years, three players including San Francisco Giants Barry Bonds, St. Louis Cardinals Mark McGwire and Chicago Cubs Sammy Sosa hit sixty homeruns a joined seven times. Before that from 1927-1998, only Babe Ruth and Roger Maris had hit more than sixty homeruns in a season. It’s only a coincidence those three players have steroids in common.
...nd he is just leveling the field by helping other players cheat the system”(Porter). If performance enhancing drugs have taken over the game of baseball then it doesn’t matter who uses them anymore. Performance enhancing drugs are so common in baseball that “Steroids in sport (and drug use, more broadly) is a departure from mainstream public norms” (Durkheim). Baseball should now worry about the other problems they have leaving the PED situation alone.
One of the biggest problems with steroids is that more players are testing positive every month. But the common defense for the players is that they took steroids before they were actually outlawed by the commissioner Bud Selig. The argument is that they took steroids while recovering from an injury before they were illegal, or that they took a certain type of steroid, one that was not already illegal and has now become illegal. It is a highly debatable topic when it comes to deciding on punishments. Most cases involve the first offense being a fifty game suspension, and the second offense being a one hundred game suspension, taking into account there are only one hundred and sixty- two games in a season.
Testosterone is a naturally occurring hormone in our bodies. Anabolic or androgenic steroids are synthetic variants of testosterone (James 7). Testosterone is good for your body when produced at normal levels. In males, it helps promote protein-building, production of sperm. It also has metabolic effects on muscle, bone, and skin (Goldman 72). Anabolic steroid’s main purpose isn’t to gain muscle they are used as medicine. They help with types of anemia, a few types of breast cancers, endometriosis, osteoporosis, and hereditary angioedema (NIDA 2). But anabolic steroids are often taken at 10 to 100 times the natural levels by athletes looking to be their best (Yesalis xxv).
...en put into the game of baseball and that is why it is referred to as “America’s pastime.” When you use steroids or any other performance-enhancing drug, you are blatantly disregarding what numerous generations of baseball players and fans have put into the game to make it what it is today. We may not know nowadays exactly how many players are using these horrible substances, but we do know one thing; they should not be allowed in not only Major League Baseball, but every single sport in the world, regardless of any excuse or reason the players have for using them. Steroids put our beloved players in danger with various health risks, they provide an unfair disadvantage which causes the game to lose some of its tradition, and they also provide a terrible influence on the young generation of children who aspire to one day become a very talented baseball player.