Hall of Shame
Baseball has always been known as “America’s Favorite Pastime”. Over the past decade, the game America knows and loves has been exposed as a game full of cheaters. Major League Baseball(MLB) has had over one hundred players test positive for performance-enhancing substances over the past fifteen years. Performance-enhancing substances increase a player’s ability to produce better stats to help his salary. The past fifteen years of baseball have contained dirty play by some of the best players to ever play the sport. Kids all over America look at these athletes as role models. The money hungry players proceed to send a terrible message to fans of the game by taking drugs to succeed. After commissioner Bud Selig cracked down on steroid use in 2005, several baseball player’s legacies have been ruined due to steroid allegations. Players are even being charged with perjury by lying to congress over steroid use to protect their reputation. Steroids in baseball need to stop immediately before the game is ruined. Steroids are not fair to the players who play the game the way it’s supposed to be played, without syringes. Steroids are ruining the fairness of the game of baseball and the credibility of the athletes participating. These days, if someone hits fifty home runs in a season, everyone thinks they are on the “juice”. “The Steroid Era” and Bud Selig have ruined baseball’s image as a clean and fair game.
The issue of performance enhancing substances in baseball has been mostly present over the past ten years. The reason for players taking steroids is simple, by taking steroids, hitters like Barry Bonds gained more strength to hit better averages and more home runs, while pitchers like Roger Clemens gained better stam...
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...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.
To fully understand this book, people must go behind the book and find the true state of mind of the author. Unfortunately in this case, the author is the one and only Jose Canseco. Jose Canseco is what I like to call, “The black sheep in the family of baseball.” Canseco’s history can be related to such incidents of drug using, heavy drinking, numerous sexual encounters with hundreds of partners, and unreasonable acts of violence. This book goes into grave detail on how steroids have changed his life and how it is currently changing baseball.
Players since the beginning of baseball have used some type of drug to enhance their game such as in 1889 Pud Galvin ingested monkey testosterone and Grover Cleveland Alexander used banned alcohol to enhance his game (Chafets). This should prove that baseball will never fully stop the use of PEDs, they can only cover up the ones that have. As Zev Chafets puts it “Chemical enhancement won’t kill the game; it is the cover-up that could be fatal” (Chafets). This cover up will ultimately hurt the game of baseball so the league should give the players the opportunity to use the PEDs, and if they choose not to then that is their decision ...
Professional athletes serve as role models for younger players. However, some of them are terrible examples to follow based on the way conduct themselves and constantly lie. Sports writer from The New York Times, Michael Schmidt reports, “The 19-page indictment charged Clemens, 48, with three counts of making false statements, two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of Congress during his testimony in a nationally televised hearing in February 2008 before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform” (Schmidt). Roger Clemens was charged with six total felonies. This might be the most severe attacks of someone's integrity. Five of his six charges were directly related to lying under oath of congress. This is not the type of person that the Hall of Fame should want representing them. More importantly, it is even worse when a player testifies in front of judges and says he never taken steroids. Ever. When looking back at symply baseball statistics, Rafael Palmeiro can be found in many record books for hitting more than 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. However, six months after he swore he never took any type of substance, he was found guilty and suspended (Harris). Rafael Palmeiro is one of the greatest hitters to every play the game. There is no denying his impressive stats. These stellar numbers are later tainter after it is discovered he has
The biggest change which would make the players seriously think about taking anabolic steroids revolves around the consequences for taking these drugs. The consequences for taking steroids have to be much stronger than they are now. For the first positive test, I would like the player to be suspended for one full season. Hopefully losing a year’s worth of salary would stop them from ever using the steroids again. If there is a second offense, I feel the player should be given a lifetime ban from the MLB. Yes this is much tougher than the current policy, but the player has cheated at his profession. They were given another chance and they ruined it, so they deserve to be given a lifetime ban.
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).
Even though many people agree with famous baseball athletes using steroids being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, other people disagree for many reasons because steroids are an illegal drug and the use of this drug should not be rewarded with such an honor as being inducted into the Hall of Fame. There are very many people who vote for players to go in the Hall of Fame, but many people may have the same opinion as Tom Verducci who stated. When I vote for a player, I am upholding him for the highest individual honor possible. My vote is an endorsement of a career, not part of it, and how it was achieved. Voting for a known steroid user endorses steroid use.
Performance enhancing drugs have been a longstanding problem in sports. It not only deteriorates the honesty of the game, but also can have broader social affects that one may not even realize. The use of performance enhancing drugs is especially apparent in Major League Baseball. This problem can be traced back to the 1980’s when baseball was facing one of its first “dark periods”. During the 1980’s Major League Baseball was experiencing a home run drought. Home run totals were down as far as they had been since Babe Ruth, and fans were seemingly becoming bored with the sport. The lack of home runs was a growing concern for players whose salary relied on home run totals. Players needed to find a quick way to boost their power and performance in order to keep the sport alive and to keep bringing in their paychecks. This desire for fame and fortune introduced steroids into Major League Baseball in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Home run totals jumped tremendously during these decades and players were willing to risk being caught using illegal substances in order to shine above the rest. New idols and role models started to sprout up from these outstanding home run statistics and young children started to take notice. This all came tumbling down when these new idols and role models who were making the big bucks and hitting the ball out of the park tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Here lie the affects of a growing social problem in sports. These famed athletes become walking advertisements and promotions for the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports. The influence professional athletes have over aspiring young athletes is very powerful and these roles models make it seem acceptable to use performance ...
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 ...
Steroids in baseball have become a significant issue that needs to be addressed to protect the players and the game itself.
We face the issue that players are not motivated to try hard, have an alternative option that puts a reoccurring substance in their body. Young adolescents should focus more on getting bodies into shape and ready for the sport they are pursuing. While upcoming stars should be making a name for them showing that without drugs can play my best and be the best too. But performance enhancing drugs have played a major role in sports, especially baseball. The usage of the drug has players performing over the top of others who work equally and mentally as hard. Enacting the new system will catch the players who are cheating in game of baseball with a blood test that checks if a player is enhancing their performance in the...
The current discipline is not enough to quell the steroid problem in the MLB; especially since the MLB’s policy is different compared to other pro sports without PED problems. The National Hockey League (NHL), instituted their performance enhancing drug policy in 2005, the last major pro sport to do so. Yet, the NHL took a strong stance right away. The first positive leads to a 20 game suspension, or about ¼ the season. The next positive results in a 60 game suspension, or about ¾ of a season, and similar to the MLB, a third positive leads to a lifetime ban (NHL). The distinguishing factor between the two policies is that in the NHL if you test positive, you automatically are enrolled into their League Substance Abuse/Behavioral Health Program for evaluation, education and possible treatment (NHL). The NHL created this program to help avoid second time offenders. By educating the athletes on the effects of drugs, and treating addiction when necessary, the players are graced with an expansive support network and receive substantial help. The National Basketball Association (NBA), has a similar support network and substance abuse program for those caught using PEDs. Any player that enters the program must accept anything ordered by the medical director. If the NBA player does not comply with the program requirements it can lead to dismissal from the NBA, even if it was the player’s first positive test (NBA). By forcing the players to be educated about the health effects, they come to understand that consequences outweigh the advantages. The MLB needs to introduce a PED prevention program, which rookies are required to attend, and where players would learn about the adverse effects of drug use. Maybe then, the amount of positive tests could diminish to the levels seen in the NHL and NBA. Since the NHL’s policy was established in 2005 only 3 players have been caught using PEDs
Children who have grown up in America have been brought up with baseball and have looked up to a sports figure as one of their heroes. Steroids and other PEDS have tarnished the American past time favorite game. These drugs have cause doubts and suspicion about the validity o...
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 era in sports from the late 90s and into the 2000s has often been nicknamed “The Steroid Age” due to the raging use of anabolic steroids and other PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) by professional athletes. The usage of drugs in sports has never been more prevalent during this time, and many people are making it their goal to put an end to the abuse. Influential athletes such as Lance Armstrong, Alex Rodriguez, and Roger Clemens, who were once held as the highest role models to the American people, now watch as their legacies are tarnished by accusations of drug use. The American population, and lovers of sports everywhere, have followed in astonishment through recent years as many beloved athletes reveal their dark secrets. As organizations such as the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) and BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) attempt to halt the use of PEDs, both the drug users and their high-end suppliers work diligently to avoid detection. The use of performance enhancing drugs in recent years has proven to be cancerous to the honesty and competition of modern sports. Although some strides have been made over the past few decades, the use of steroids is in full swing in Major League Baseball, The dangerous side effects of the drugs are often overlooked and many do not realize the message this sends to the youth. The support for halting the usage of PEDs is in need of attention or professional sports will face the loss of all progress made through the past two decades in its war on steroids.
Close your eyes for a moment. Picture you are a little kid on a baseball field playing the sport you love. Now picture twenty years beyond that point, you are in the major leagues and you are the best. It is a tight race in the Most Valuable Player award race and you lose by just a few votes. Come to find out the person you lost to is taking an illegal banned substance connected with HGH. You had the award you had been working for and dreaming of receiving stolen away from you. Steroids and HGH have ruined how many see the game today and not only that but they are causing serious harm to the athletes that take them. Therefore these substances should be banned and made illegal in all baseball leagues for good.