Steroids and Baseball Many people have been questioning Major League Baseball (MLB) about its players using performance enhancing drugs such as steroids. This issue has become controversial because players are cheating to enhance their physical abilities of playing the sport. Many people believe it is immoral and isn’t fair to those who work hard every day through countless hours of practice, sweat, and extreme physical conditioning to get to where they are at; and others are cheating by taking steroids. A great example of performance enhancing drug abuse is the Barry Bonds era. We all believed that he was a man of unique strength and miraculous physical capabilities with his numerous homeruns, but then found out he was cheating by using steroids and made his accomplishments a disgrace to the sport and an embarrassment to its MLB fans. The MLB needs to enforce sterner random drug testing on its players, harsher fines, and repeated offenders should be banned from the sport so it may become a more moral sport.
Steroids and other similar muscle building drugs are drugs that can actually increase your abilities instead of hindering them. Most organized sports associations setup a strict drug testing policy which allows very little room for mistakes. Despite the strict trends set by other associations, Major League Baseball still has an extremely lax drug testing policy and has been under heavy media scrutiny. The MLB should strengthen their drug abuse policy to eliminate any unfair advantages a player may receive in taking steroids, and to protect the players from destroying their own bodies. Many players are using the drug for instrumental good to get better player statistics versus the intrinsic good of the sport. It is understood that Mr. Bud Selig, MLB commissioner doesn't want to lose stars because they've made mistakes, but they also have to think of what's best for the game itself. To fully understand the threat that steroids pose to the game of baseball and other organized sports you need to know about the drug itself and its side effects. Like many drugs, illegal and legal steroids have a positive and negative side. There are three positive effects steroids can have on an athlete performance capacity, strength performance, and body composition. Aerobic capacity performance is a result generated from the effect of steroids on the bone marrow thus providing more red blood cells that carry more oxygen, which increases the amount of stress one can put on their body through working out. Steroids also aid in the production of muscle mass directly, so through both benefits athletes experience an immediate increase in strength and performance. The third benefit is its aid in body composition. Steroids help reduce excess fat tissue which makes it much easier for an athlete to keep composure of their body. Despite these benefits, steroids also have a negative side which outweighs the positives in most aspects.
Steroids have undesirable physical consequences as well, many changes happen for a person taking steroids starting from minor problems such as the appearance of acne on the face, oily skin, and increase in body hair. Besides these minor problems there are many serious problems that steroids can cause. Steroids can make an athlete more prone to injury by making tendons unable to connect to the bone structure correctly. During the use of steroids many users experience infertility. Although there are no cases of complete sterility have ever been documented, but many experts believe that it's very possible with prolonged use of high doses of the drug. Steroids also cause shrinking of male and female genitals. In males steroid use has caused female characteristics such as breast tissue to appear and females have experienced increased hair growth from use. Steroids also cause strains on the vital systems of the body. Research has related heart disease, stroke, liver cancer, and prostate disease to the use of anabolic steroids. With all of the potential health risks involved with steroids use, the MLB should strengthen their drug policy so that their stars will last longer. A baseball player who's been using steroids for more than five years definitely won't last until their forties like many baseball greats have.
Recently there has been intense media scrutiny about steroid use in the MLB. The media surge is not only questioning the integrity of the players who are using them, but it questions the integrity of all the players and the game as a whole. How are fans supposed to know which players are using the drug from the ones who aren't? The answer is they can't, so any player who can belt out homeruns or throw a laser is under suspicion. Also introducing a variable such as steroid could throw off the entire level that professional baseball is played at. If the MLB doesn't crack down on the use of steroids more players are likely to begin using it. If the number of players using begins to challenge the numbers of those who aren't, the players who aren't may feel forced into using just to stay on the level of the rest of the players. Although it's unlikely for a majority of players to start using steroids, but it is still possible and it would change the game of baseball into a homerun derby.
The biggest criticism against the MLB is how lax their drug policy is, it almost allows players to use steroids without any consequences except being exposed. Players are only tested one time per season, compared to the four tests NBA player receive during any give season. The first time a player tests positive they are forced to go to treatment, if they test positive they will either suffer a 15-day suspension or a fine of up to $10,000. For every time they test positive after the second test the fine increases from $25,000 all the way to $100,000 for the fourth offense. These fines are miniscule to the star players who will definitely receive the fine over a suspension to the game that needs them. The current drug policy basically allows any player who doesn't care about the public's opinion to use steroids. In order to stop steroid use in the MLB the drug policy actually has to pose a real threat to a player’s career.
Another problem the MLB faces is the drug policies of all other sport associations. The MLB has the weakest policy compared to the rest of the professional associations, and it’s totally put to shame by the benchmark policy made by the Olympic Committee. Olympic athletes must undergo a no-advance notice drug test where they are tested for performance enhancing and masking agents. If they receive a positive test result they are denied the privilege to compete in that year Olympic Games. Other professional sports associations also boast much more stringent drug policies than the MLB. The NBA reserves the right to test any player a total of four times a season, not including a mandatory test in training camp. With reasonable cause the NBA can also test a player more than four times. The punishments established by the NBA are much stricter and can result in dismissal from the NBA if any player pleads guilty or no contest to any crime involving the use or possession of steroids. The MLB is being smeared by other sports associations' drug policy, but they still won't strengthen their policy because of the frequency of steroid use in their association compared to others. If anything the fact that MLB stars use more steroids than any other type of sports star should be a reason to strengthen the policy.
Baseball is known across the globe as the American Pastime and its recent corruptions are making the American people look like cheaters or drug users. MLB commissioner Bud Selig needs to eradicate not only steroids but any other substance that can positively or negatively affect a player's performance. If there were no outside variables in baseball fans would receive a true display of baseball, opposed to one that is altered by performance enhancing drugs. It would be in the league’s best interest to take drugs out of the game, not only for their own image but for the player's well being.