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Why Do MLB Players Use Steroids?

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Major League Baseball (MLB) is one of the oldest professional sports leagues in the United States. Professional baseball teams have existed in the Unites States since the mid 1800’s. As with any professional sport, the MLB had its share of scandals. Prior to the 1920’s, not many homeruns were hit in the game. After the 1920’s the MLB league grew and drew in more crowds. By 1990, new stadiums with artificial turf were being built by every MLB team. Another great change was that in the 90’s homeruns dominated much of the game. In such a short period of time, homeruns went from never being seen in a game, to dominating the game itself. This trend drew media attention, and the speculation about anabolic steroids began in the early 2000’s (Klein, 2006). …show more content…
Media attention became prevalent after many records were broken with homeruns hit in a single season. Players such as Sosa, Bonds, and McGwire were the subjects of speculation regarding the use of performance enhancing steroids (Klein, 2006). There was no steroid testing policy in the MLB until 2002. Many of the players would joke about their use of performance enhancing steroids, and talk about it with other players (Desai, 2009). Not only was there not any testing in place by the MLB, but many MLB owners condoned the steroid use because they felt a deluge of homeruns would increase their fan base (Desai, 2009). The larger fan base a team has, the more money the players and owners are able to make. If the players are taking performance enhancing drugs, they are more likely to hit homeruns, win games, and draw in a bigger crowd. For this reason, it took a while before the steroid testing policy became strictly

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