Media & Sports: How did Baseball get Affected by Steroids?

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The media affects society in positive and negative ways. This can be seen in America’s national pastime baseball. Baseball is a sport that became the national sport in the United States in the late 19th century. From the beginning of the sport they tried to keep the highest standards to each player and ball club. There were times of scandal, but of all the things that happen to baseball substance abuse has been portrayed as one of the worst thing a player could do. To defame the baseball was to ruin everything the sport stood for. This research paper will look at one of the worst blotches in baseballs history, the steroid era.
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.
Testing wasn’t mandated, but baseball added steroids to its b...

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... This forced the authorities to crack down harder on drug use.

Works Cited

Addona, Dan D’. "SABR." Baseball's Forgotten Era: The '80s. N.p., 2011. Web. 13 May 2014. .
Fitzpatrick, Laura. "Steroids." Time. Time Inc., 13 Jan. 2010. Web. 13 May 2014. .
"STEROIDS SCANDAL / THE BALCO LEGACY / From Children to Pros, the Heat Is on to Stop Use of Performance Enhancers." SFGate. N.p., 24 Dec. 2006. Web. 13 May 2014. .
"Steroid Era Continues to Affect Major League Baseball." The Mass Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2014. .

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