Steroids in Baseball

Lately baseball has been to focused on records being broken, that it has failed to look back on those individuals achieved those records. Although you may attribute the increase in muscle mass to better technology and harder work ethics, there seems to be a fine line of natural and enhanced muscle development. There raises suspicion when a player gains 15-20 pounds in muscle in the off-season, roughly a 5-month period.

Back in the 1900’s when the game first began there were no performance enhancing drugs, and players didn’t play just for the money. To them it was a summer job, and they made nothing compared to today’s players. Now it seems like everyone is in it for the money, and not for the passion of the game.

In order to standout among the hundreds of players in the league, you need to put up above average numbers. This has produced so much pressure from players that they are willing to do anything to get a big contract, even if it means putting their own health at risk. In the era of Hank Aaron, there were probably very few players that had 40-50 homerun seasons. While today you cannot have a good year unless you have at least 30 homeruns.

With the recent investigation many of the star players in the 1990’s have been found to use performance-enhancing drugs in their career. With names like Arod, Clemens, Bonds, Tejada, Mcgwire, and Sosa it is hard to say that they would have accomplished what they did without enhancing drugs. This has tainted baseball’s image and will hurt future player’s reputations. Whenever someone breaks another record, they will have to answer the questions of whether it was legitimate or not. Ultimately the steroid era has produced illegitimate players, and has hurt baseballs reputation. There will be harsh long term effects, because people don’t want to pay money for cheaters to play the game. To correct this problem by engaging in risk management baseball needs to implement a harsher drug penalty, and test players on a regular basis. They also need to stay ahead of the latest new drugs that become available on the market.


Links:
ESPN