...According to ESPN statistics, in the 2001 Major League Baseball Season, Barry Bonds sets a MLB single season record with 73 home runs. ESPN stated it was a time period when steroids were common and a part of the game of baseball. A time where players such as Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds recorded hitting statistics that were previously unachievable in professional baseball. If you do not know who they were, these players were known for their power, they were known for their home runs. These kind of players do just randomly appear out of nowhere, they trained their entire lives to get to this point, they deserve it, or do they? These kind of players showed everyone who loved the game of baseball that even though their numbers were...
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...Performance Enhancing drugs, most commonly referred to as steroids. The question is though how do these PED’s effect baseball? Why do people feel the need to take steroids in baseball? I’ll tell you why it helps you in everything you do on the diamond, from running to throwing and to hitting it helps you achieve things you never saw possible as a normal person. It help you out to a point that it is just unfair and not fit for baseball. Steroids have changed baseball as we know it and not in a good way. They have made the Major League of Baseball or also known as the MLB look a question such as, Are PED users able to make it into the Hall of Fame? What is the appropriate consequence for these players getting caught? And is...
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...Bone ENGL 1020 2B The Steroid Era in Baseball Major league baseball was founded in 1869 and has gone through several different eras in its history. There was the Dead Ball Era, which started in 1869 and ended when Babe Ruth became a ball player in 1919 and now the Steroid Era, which ran from 1992 thru 2006 (Vassalo). The Steroid Era has forever scarred the game and something needs to be done to restore it to its glory days. The MLBPA should agree to impose stricter sanctions on steroid users because the current penalties are too lenient, steroids have altered the game and stiffer penalties would deter players from using. The MLBPA should agree to impose stricter sanctions on steroids users because the current penalties are too lenient. From 2002-2004 baseball did not suspend players for a first-time steroid offense. They instead would offer the player counseling. Only after a player was caught again, was he suspended. When Senator Joseph Biden was told “the current testing policy does not suspend first time offenders-instead they get counseling,” he said, “it’s a joke, it’s a real joke” (Purchia). How could anyone expect anything to get done with a policy that lenient? The following year the MLBPA decided to try and make the steroid policy a little bit stricter. The MLBPA should agree to impose stricter sanctions on steroids users because the current penalties are too lenient. At the beginning of the 2005 season, baseball changed its penalties for positive...
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...It has been a constant debate recently whether steroids and performance enhances should be allowed in sports today. This topic usually occurs in baseball but in recent discoveries, many football players are condemned for doping. Vast names in sports such as: Ray Lewis, Alex Rodriguez, and Christian Laettner were all suspended by their respected leagues for doping. Steroids should be banned in professional sports today because they give athletes unfair advantages, they’re horrible to the athletes’ body, and there can be severe side effects. There are copious types of steroids that athletes use. “The most common type of steroids that athletes use are anabolic steroids, or synthetic versions of the male hormone, testosterone” (Quinn). This particular...
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...Does Steroids Provide An Unfair Advantage In Baseball or Does It Even The Playing Field? Baseball has been an American pastime for centuries and will be for centuries to come. Adults have been taking their children to baseball games since the Major Leagues first came about in the late 1800s. From the Philadelphia Phillies' great Astrodome to their current Citizens Bank Park or the Atlanta Braves' Fulton County Stadium to their more modern Turner Field baseball has been loved in America. Although the game is as old as it is, baseball has not changed even though the players continue to get better and better. Many fans first take is the use of steroids in baseball. But did steroids really help Barry Bonds become home run king? Because Hank Aaron had the record generations before and he reportedly never injected steroids. Every year it seems like a new player gets brought into the league that is going to be faster, stronger, and an overall better player; except the ones that have the records broken that is. Although steroids are supposed to make athletes bigger, faster, and stronger,; are steroids really making athlete's statistics better or simply bridging the gap between decent athletes and great ones? There are many aspects in hitting a baseball that coaches teach athletes at a young age. Seeing the ball well, swinging with your hips and not just your arms, being disciplined and not swinging at a ball out of the strike zone, these are all examples of what it takes to be a good...
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...Ty Cobb’s long-standing hit record to reach 4,192 hits in his career. A several minute long celebration followed Rose’s historic accomplishment. Once Rose hung up his cleats for the final time, he was the holder of several Major League Baseball records, many of which still stand today. Rose, also known as Charlie Hustle, was adored by the American population. He personified what the American dream was, starting “from a humble beginning he raised his stature in life by virtue of hard work and brute determination to succeed.” There was not a doubt in anyone’s mind that he had earned himself a place in Cooperstown,...
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...League Baseball’s so called “Steroid Era,” it was necessary for congress to step in and take control of the situation. Before congress did their investigation, Major League Baseball did not have strict enough rules to punish players who tested positive with any kind of steroid. Also before congress took control of the situation, there was a variety of drugs that players could use during that time that Major League Baseball had not banned or were not considered a “performance enhancing drug”. Even though the so called “Steroid Era” brought fans back to the game of baseball after the lockout in 1994, it not only damaged the reputation of baseball but it also damaged the purity of the sport. Not only did it affect baseball’s reputation and purity of the game, it also affected the fans who dreamt of playing in Major League Baseball. Now we will focus the main reasons why congress took control of the steroid issue that surrounded Major League Baseball. First, Major League Baseball along with Congress noticed the issue of steroids due to Jose Canseco, an ex-major leaguer, who came clean about the steroid issue in his book titled Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big. In this book, Canseco explained how he taught a variety of players how to inject steroids and how it would benefit them in the future. Throughout his book, Canseco provided details as to the players, who later broke many records; that he taught how to use steroids. For example, Canseco stated...
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...Steroids : Not so Good After All In recent years there have been many stories of athletes, especially in baseball, that have gotten caught using steroids. People single out the idea that the competitor did not abide by the rules. Because of this narrow-minded act, they tend to not look at the harmful effects these drugs have on the body. Steroids are extremely damaging physically and psychologically. There are multiple ways in which a human can experience long and short-term effects from the use of these horrible drugs. The most common effects include diseases and severe brain problems. While HGH and Anabolic steroids are a serious concern for sports, it is a more prominent problem in baseball, but the frightening part people fail to recognize, is that the drugs cause life-threatening problems. Steroids were invented by “A doctor by the name of Dr. Ruzicka, who in the early 1930’s created it for medical purposes, essentially to fight conditions like cancer and AIDS” (Steroids in Sports).The drugs are mainly byproducts of the male hormone called testosterone. When a person takes steroids, they are putting extra testosterone into their body. Excessive testosterone eventually leads to rapid muscle growth. As humans use steroids, they can be faced with horrible health problems such as “high blood pressure, HIV/AIDS (when taken with shared needles), fluid retention, depression, anxiety, mania, low sperm production, and over-exertion” (Steroids in Sports). Additional effects...
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...The Use of Steroids and Cheating in Sports affect the way sports are played today because due to the use of steroids Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association announced a new drug testing agreement that asserted the passage of pending congressional legislation. (NYTIMES). The agreement has been seen as a meaningful step in curbing the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional baseball and other sports. There have been several athletes who have been caught using steroids, so the Player’s Association had to make things more strict on athletes playing Major League Sports. Two athletes that I specifically feel had a deep impact on changing the way sports are played due to steroid use are Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds was drafted by the San Francisco Giants as a senior in high-school. (Bonds,Np). He was a magnificent player. Barry had seven MVP awards the most in history of baseball. That is until he ruined his career by getting caught using steroids. Bond’s was charge with perjury and obstruction of justice in the matter of his testimony in the BALCO steroid affair. Barry lost a lot of fans after this affair and people started to view baseball differently. People were regarding his all time league record. (Bonds,Np). Many hated Barry after this occasion, it was said that he ruined the sport and some fans said they would never watch baseball again. Boyd 2 Barry said, “ It is hoped in the near future that the reputation of baseball can be separated...
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...What are anabolic steroids, and how have they affected the world of sports? Synthetic drugs that are correlated with male sex hormones are commonly referred to as anabolic steroids. These drugs can come in many different varieties, orally and injection-based. With high expectations in many sports programs, some athletes will turn to steroids for an advantage. Over the span of more than half a century, the world of sports has completely evolved at the hands of these drugs. Steroids have negatively impacted sports leagues worldwide in terms of player-health, league reputations, and record books. Anabolic steroids are known for providing a user with unmatched gains in agility, speed, size, and strength; however, the negative side effects of steroids...
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...Steroids in Sports While many are attracted to steroids for an improvement in athletic performance many athletes now a days are taking steroids, why is that? Is it to make a squad, or impress a member of the opposite sex? There is not a right or wrong answer to why athletes feel the need to take performance enhancing drugs. However ones psychological state, genetic mishaps, or even performance pressures from the coaching staff, can lead an athlete to steroids. Issues of cheating or winning at any cost, are becoming more and more common among athletes of all ages and levels of ability. The use of steroids is one of the biggest issues in the current debate whether or not it is fair for drug-free athletes to have to compete with athletes that break the law and take illegal steroids. Allowing those with an unfair advantage to compete can pressure drug-free athletes to use steroids to remain competitive. The use of steroids by athletes over the last decade and a half is well documented and proven no matter how many tried to deny their cheating in order to get a leg up on their competitors. Steroids continue to taint the sports world as we speak. It has come to light that baseball superstars Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Mark McGwire have admitted using preforming enhancing drugs during their baseball careers. Each athlete’s statistics ballooned to numbers never achieved before by prior athletes. While some athletes deny knowing they were doing anything illegal or cheating they...
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...Baseball is one of America's favorite sports. The culture of America has become overran by sports more and more over the years. Out of all of the sports, baseball is depicted to be the main event for America. Over the past decade, America's favorite sport has come under review over their players use of steroids and many other performance enhancing drugs. A lot of individuals seemed to be aware of the shocking epidemic that is sweeping all of the sports. A person with a knowledge of the sport world would know of the effects of doping within the sports. Almost weekly there is a headline case on the news referring to another sport doping scandal. A few competitors take a type of steroids, these are called anabolic-Androstenedione gen steroids or simply anabolic steroids. These steroids are used for many different reasons but mainly to expand their bulk and quality of muscle. The fundamental anabolic steroid hormone delivered by your body is testosterone. The promotion in muscle building normal than the average athlete is looked down upon by many different organizations and national sport leagues. The purpose...
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...athlete as “Any one trained to contend in exercises requiring great physical agility and strength; one who has great activity and strength; a champion” which is a very vague definition when you look at the variety of different types of athletes we have in the U.S. Does a thin, toned Olympic champion such as Michael Phelps really share similarities with an offensive lineman in the National Football League? Throughout this essay I will be commenting on the variation of athletes in modern society, the steroid controversy, and how the United States in particular has a skewed perception of what an athlete should be. A recent major example of one of the most popular sports figures going down the abyss of the steroid scandal, among other gossip, is New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Since A-Rod’s first season playing for Seattle he has been glorified as having the potential to be the greatest to ever play the game of baseball. He played precociously at such a young age in Seattle, hitting for power and average and playing the infield well. Rodriguez immediately became a public darling, drawing comparisons to all the greats in the game, and many anticipated him to break the all time home run record currently held my proven steroid user Barry Bonds. Rodriguez played so...
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...Performanceenhancing drugs are proven to increase strength and endurance by any athlete that uses them correctly. I believe that this stimulating drug should be legal in sports everywheres because all it does is make you stronger! San Francisco's former baseball player Barry Bonds, was “convicted for lying under oath about using performanceenhancing drugs.”(Johnson,476) Bonds said that he was given steroids without his knowledge, says that he thought he was given flax seed oil and cream to help ease muscle ache. Known for his record of home runs hit in his Major League career, but in order to hit home runs, the player needs to make contact! Steroids did not improve how Barry barrelled up the ball, he did himself. He also put on 45 pounds of muscle within 3 years, which is another sign of steroid use. The use of performanceenhancing drugs should be legal and used by athletes. If you think about it, records will be broken, and sports ratings will rise drastically! As a baseball fan, I would love to see this happen, along with the rest of the sports world. Savell 1 Lance Armstrong, the world’s best cyclist known to mankind, admitted to performanceenhancing drugs such as EPO, testosterone, cortisone, steroids, and blood doping. If you don’t know what EPO (erythropoietin) is, it’s a hormone developed by the human body to make more red blood cells. Using EPO will increase the amount of oxygen to the user's muscles, this will also help them gain endurance...
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...Eriel Cuevas Mr. Mertsock English 12 21 October 2013 Steroids and Athletes Barry Bonds steps up to the plate awaiting a pitch he could hit from Mike Bacsik on a beautiful tuesday night. With a full count Barry finally gets the pitch he and everyone else was waiting for, he blasts the ball to the deepest part of AT&T Park. Was it his natural talent or was it the steroids he had been taking? Why are most of the top athletes in the world risking their health just to get those big contracts that everyone in professional sports want? The first introduction to performance enhancing drugs was in the 1930’s, by a group of German scientists, where they created a form of testosterone. Now people use the drugs to help them become bigger, faster, and stronger. This then would lead to them either getting caught or getting the big contracts that Alex Rodriguez has, which neither A-Rod or any or the other athletes deserve to get. The use of steroids is putting a influence on the rest of the athletes and especially young athletes in high school. This is why the use of steroids has forever changed the face of professional sports, making it a world fueled by drug contacts instead of natural skill and talent. The introduction of steroids to the world was in the 1930’s, by a group of German scientists, trying to create a synthetic form of testosterone for men that weren’t able to produce enough hormones for growth, development, and the men who could not function correctly...
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