Manny Ramirez Research Paper

In 2009, Manny Ramirez took a $7.7 million pay cut and was suspended for 50 games in the MLB for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs, PEDs (Zirin). According to Zirin, Ramirez had led his team in a 13 game winning streak while crushing the ball when at bat. After his first offense, he gave a statement to the media: "I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me." Manny Ramirez drew attention to the epidemic of PEDs and impelled the league and other sport organizations, professional and amateur, to rethink their policy. It is a necessity that performance-enhancing drugs are banned from all sports because they are detrimental for the athlete’s health, unfair

There are a multitude of drugs to take to drastically improve one’s abilities, but there are more side-effects than benefits. Methandrostenolone, or dianabol, for example, is an anabolic steroid that increases lean muscle mass at an accelerated rate (Quinn). This drug is commonly used amongst athletes by oral consumption. Quinn also tells of the gruesome dianabol side effects for men including infertility, gynecomastia (breast development), baldness, and severe acne and cysts and the female side effects are abnormal hair growth or baldness, deeper voice. The effects of the drug can begin as soon as two to three days of use; moreover, the effects will not recede immediately after stopping the use of it. Anabolic steroids also bring a psychological effect on abusers. A controlled study took 160 athletes, tested the physical and psychological effects, and documented the

Michael Jordan, for example, is said to be the greatest basketball player of all time and Peyton Manning is the greatest quarterback in football, but there are always others that try to boost their athleticism with illegal PEDs. This is why PEDs make sports unfair for clean athletes. One of the most notorious cases of this was Barry Bonds breaking the record for most home runs in his career. Although knowing of his drug abuse, the MLB did not strip the title away from him. The previous record holder was Hank Aaron which was a clean athlete. Bonds was taking the drugs to surpass the record at an astonishing rate and didn’t care what he had to do to snatch it, which put his health at risk and he cheated his way up the ranks. Most athletes enjoy the sport they participate in and, obviously, like the money that comes along with it, but some players lose their morals when it comes to their talent. This is equivalent to a student having an exam and the choice to cheat on it or use their own knowledge to take it. By cheating, it doesn’t show what the individual is capable of; furthermore, it isn’t fair for the others because they might not do as well on it and don’t receive the recognition for it they deserve. Also, if the student is caught, the test is normally counted as a zero. So when it comes to our health,