How Steroids Ruined Americas Pastime, Essay Example

If you turned on a radio about a half century ago you might hear news about Babe Ruth’s home run record and Roger Maris chasing to break his record in 1961. In 1927 Babe Ruth set a legendary 60 run home run record that was not broken again until 1961 by New York Yankee baseball player, Roger Marris when Marris hit 61 home runs on the final game day against Tracie Stallard of the Boston Red Sox. Marris was a right fielder and is mostly remembered for breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record.

In the days of Ruth and Marris, records were built and broken through the strives of hard work and resilience of talent as opposed to the emergence of “performance enhancing drugs such as human growth hormone (HGH) and anabolic steroids” which were introduced into the game of baseball around the 1990’s illegally. (Watt).  Even though the use of steroids was apparently illegal in the gaming arena the mentality in people’s minds “were that athletes were not cheating”. (Watt).

After Marris broke the home run record of Ruth in 1961 two other baseball players were emerging strong to break Mathis’ record. The athletes pouncing to break this record were Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa. They both were hitting home runs at alarming rates through the year of 1998 and another Barry Bonds at the latter stage of his career; age 37 was coming close to breaking the record also. “The public began to question the legitimacy of the home runs around this time and whether they were accomplished by the pure talent of the baseball players or by some kind of stimulant based enhancing drugs.”  (Wise). Particularly came to question was that McGuire and Sosa had achieved 70 home runs which was 9 home runs in addition to Marris and yet another, Bonds, was so soon about to break this record, one that held majority for many years when Babe Ruth held the original record. The public began to question what made the athletes of today so much more resilient as compared to the athletes a half decade ago. Were these records being accomplished through legal means?

The public feared that the players were taking enhancement drugs that promoted their ability to have great speed, size and strength. “This particular generation soon would become known as the steroid era.” (Watt).  Joe Canseco was the first baseball player to formally admit his official use of steroid enhancement drugs. He admitted the use of steroids only after his retirement in 2001. He further released details of his personal usage and the known usage of hundreds of other baseball players in the major league industry through his published book Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big.

Honour, integrity and fair sport have been removed from the game of baseball since the implementation of steroids for illegal purposes into the sport. It is referenced that steroids is promoted by trainers within the sporting industry and often legal entities look aside from the use of these drugs.  I state for illegal purposes because sometimes doctors do recommend short time use of steroids to aid in healing of certain extremities after surgeries of the limbs. For the purposes of this paper, that is not what I am referring to when I state ‘illegal uses of steroids’. Illegal uses of steroids would be continued use of steroids for building strength and building muscle mass to aid in better performance in the sport of baseball. For such a prescription to be obtained a doctor would have to write a continued prescription illegally or the steroids would have to be obtained illegally through an online pharmacy.

“Drug testing for performance enhancers is bringing back honesty into the sport of baseball though there is initial reluctance of players to come forward to admit they are using.” (Kiefer). Just like with any other sport, competitiveness is always going to be present but the use of illegal drugs is not tolerated. People do not expect winning home run seasons to the point of players taking legal drugs illegally. Players are given the opportunity to come forward and redeem themselves now if they are taking steroids with no penalty, but if they do not and are later found with the presence of the drug in their system at extremely abusive levels without justification the major league will have no mercy on them-they will be terminated.

The purpose of the voluntary recognisance scheme is to bring back the fair play and honour in the game that brought the public’s interest into the game many years ago. Further continued use of steroids is detrimental to the health of the players in the sense it can cause a stroke and a heart attack. Players are urged to come forward for their health, the integrity of their team and their own future. Most players love the game so are urged to make the right choice. Keep the love for baseball in baseball!

Sports boards have already determined that if a player does not come forward now and it is later determined that he is found to be on steroids any records he may have broken will be taken away for the illegal use of steroids. This was seen in the case of Roger Clemens who had a marvellous 24 season as a pitcher and was contended to be a lock for the Hall of Fame. “Instead of being name to the Hall of Fame he is privy to a Justice Department Investigation for the illegal use of steroids to accomplish his extraordinary goals during his career.” (Thompson, O’Keeffe, Vinton and Red).  Clemens makes formal statements denying allegations made to his use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs and further denies any recommendations that are currently being made to keep him out of the Hall of Fame. He justifies the recommendations as being ‘unfounded’ and ‘bias’ without merit. The entire situation including review, documentation and legal analysis is discussed in the book.

Conclusion

Though steroids in itself are not an illegal drug, using the drug for illegal purposes is like committing a crime. For example having a knife is not a crime in itself but using a knife to hurt someone is a crime. Allowing major league players one chance to come forward to voluntarily admit and clean their system from steroids is a very nice form to promote healthy and traditional play of the game of baseball without losing any players. However if players do not consent to voluntary admission they will lose all future benefits after a surrender date. The object is to promote fair and just play within the game of baseball without causing any undue harm to the players themselves. “The question that worries most players is whether their sponsors will drop them after their admittance to using the drug. There should be some kind of confidentiality agreement in place where the sponsor is not privy to this information if done on a voluntary basis.” (Iampunha). After all it would be promoted on the basis for the betterment of the athlete, the sponsor and the public health which is legal grounds enough to protect an individual’s right to confidentially; hence this is not a contract issue at law.

Works Cited

Watt, K. A Brief History of how Steroids Destroyed America’s Pastime 12 Feb 2009. 07 Oct. 2009. <http://bleacherreport.com/articles/123268-a-brief-history-of-how-steroids-destroyed-americas-pastime>/

Kiefer, J. Despite steroid use, baseball remains America’s pastime 12 Feb. 2009. 07 Oct. 2009. http://www.alligator.org/articles/2009/02/12/opinion/columns/090212_col2.txt

Thompson, T., O’Keefe, M., Vinton N. and Red, C. American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime 2009. 07 Oct. 2009 http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/313658716&referer=brief_results

Iampunha Professional Baseball Player:  ‘I Took Steroids’ 27 July 2009. 07 Oct. 2009 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/27/757804/-Professional-baseball-player:-I-took-steroids