Baseball: The Steroid Problem In Baseball

Baseball: The Steroid Problem.

The year 1998 was considered to be one of the most exciting years of baseball. Mark McGwire, first baseman for the Saint Louis Cardinals, and Sammy Sosa, outfielder for the Chicago Cubs were teeing off Home Runs in the midwest sky. Both Sosa and McGwire were chasing Roger Maris’s seemingly “unbeatable” record. In 1961, Maris hit 61 Home Runs, setting the record for most home runs in a single season. Throughout the years, players came close, but were unable to break the seemingly invincible record, until the 1998 season. Then, not only did one player surpass the 61 home run mark, but two players did: McGwire ended the season with 70 hits; while Sosa ended with 66. This was an exciting time for the MLB, 1998

The guidelines had two main factors: One, each player would be tested at least twice a year; two, the punishment for offenders was also dramatically increased, first time offenders would be given a fifty game ban,without pay, a second time would result in a suspension of 100 games, and third time offenders would be banned for life. In reality, players have and always will use an unfair advantage as success is measured by an athlete's ability to keep ahead. Whether It be pine tar, amphetamines or steroids. By banning steroids, players have resorted to using undetected illegal substances. Therefore, instead of banning PED’s altogether, it should be allowed with one major stipulation, the MLB should create a committee dedicated to the sale and use of steroids. Current commissioner Rob Manfred should allow players to use them at their own risk by creating and controlling a legal market. This would eliminate players from using worse illegal and undetected drugs and would give each player the same potential advantage. If instead of going through a black market, it was legalized, doctors could create less harmful PED’s. In addition, this would cause more

Fans go to games to watch superhuman athletes play, not average ones. McGwire and Sosa generated so much fanfare because they did the impossible. Only years later, Barry Bonds astounded fas around the world, as he broke McGwire’s record. As the great Vince Lombardi once said “Defense wins games, offense sells tickets.” With the absence of steroids, pitchers are taking over the game; by using steroids a player is able to reach his full potential. Dr. LIncoln Allison argues that in truth, steroids are not really “cheating”, they are just a way to bring out the full ability from a player. “A sportsman or woman who seeks an advantage from drugs just moves up to the level appropriate to his or her underlying ability”(107). She suggests that we deal with other, much greater problems, before worrying about teroid issue, ”In general, the risk to health from performance-enhancing drugs is considerably less than that from tobacco or alcohol, and we ought not to apply paternalistic moral assumptions to sport that we are not prepared to apply to the rest of