Cansecos Steroid Allegations

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In Jose Canseco’s 60 Minutes interview, he stated that he and some of his teammates used steroids in the past. With all the hoopla surrounding Major League Baseball and its connection with allegations made by BALCO president Victor Conte, this report is intriguing at the least. High profile athletes such as Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds have been under direct scrutiny over the past year because of the steroid issue. Canseco firmly states that he and former teammate Mark McGwire casually injected together during their playing days as an Oakland Athlete. “After batting practice or right before the game, Mark and I would duck into a stall in the men’s locker room, load up our syringes and inject ourselves” with steroids, starting in 1988, Canseco wrote, according to an excerpt made by the N.Y. Times. Tony Larussa, manager of the A’s at the time denies that his players ever used steroids. Supposedly, steroids give an edge to a players’ psyche as well as increased size and strength. Larussa then reiterated that McGwire got his strength and size from weightlifting and a careful diet. In a league where the most glaring aspect of the sport is the art of the homerun, it seems as if these allegations could be possibly true. Homerun king Mark McGwire has made a name for himself with hitting the long ball. He and Sammy Sosa, another alleged user has a hit an impressive amount of homeruns over the span of their careers. Canseco also called out former Texas Ranger Rangers teammates, Ivan Rodriguez, Jose Gonzalez, and Rafael Palmeiro. All the players named above are potential Hall of Famers.

The reports made by Canseco have sparked another issue as to where the integrity of the sport lies, which is very significant to sport management. Baseball is America’s pastime and it’s a shame to see how the image of the sport is being tainted by these allegations. Although baseball recently adopted a tougher steroid-testing program due to the BALCO trial, it will take some time for the MLB to rid themselves of these issues. With new stiffer testing, the production of the major leagues elite might decline in the upcoming years. Sosa and McGwire chased Roger Maris homerun record of 61 by totally eclipsing it, smashing 66 and 70 homeruns respectively. Maris’s record was one of the longest standstill records in baseball history before the record was broken.

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