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Why Steroids Are Bad For Major League Baseball
By M. Anderson
After the MLB labor dispute in the mid-1990’s, major league has been in the “Steroids Era”, a term coined by Bob Costas. Numerous famous MLB players have been accused of steroid use and a few, like Jose Canseco, even admitted it openly, crediting the use of steroids for his entire career. In fact, Conseco wrote a book called “Juiced” which documented the use and impact of steroids in baseball.
According to Canseco, up to 85% of MLB players currently in the MLB are using performance-enhancing drugs. Conseco’s book titled “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits and How Got Big” names players who have used steroids.
Another player, Ken Caminiti, came forward about his steroid use and detailed the damage done to his body. Ken admitted that his body had mostly stopped producing testosterone and that his testicles have gotten much smaller. As a matter of fact, his body only had 20% of the normal level of testosterone . Before Caminiti tragically died in 2004 as a direct result of his substance abuse, he said if he had it to do over, he wouldn’t have changed a thing. (Wikipedia)
Several beloved MLB players have stood accused of using these performance-boosting drugs. Names like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Jason Giambi have been tarnished by the claims. Their records and awards have all come under question being that they were not achieved naturally, but with chemical assistance banned by MLB commissioner Bud Selig.
A company known as BALCO, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative has been cited as a central source of steroids to athletes in all sports. BALCO was an American based nutritional supplements company run by Victor Conte.
The company marketed an undetectable performance enhancing steroid known as “the Clear”. This particular steroid was developed by a chemist at BALCO named Patrick Arnold. The Clear, also known as THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, is a powerful anabolic steroid.(Washington Post)
In 2003, the company's role in a drug sports scandal was investigated by two journalists; Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada. The scandal was referred to as the BALCO Affair and focused on the distribution of the Clear to several high profile athletes in the USA as well as Europe over a period of several years by Conte, Greg Anderson (weight trainer) and Remi Korchemni (coach).
The investigation was aided by a tip from US Olympic sprint coach Trevor Graham in 2003. Graham supplied a syringe containing traces of a substance known as “the Clear”. A test to detect the Clear was developed and some 20 Olympic class athletes tested positive for the drug. Very recently, Olympic track star Marion Jones admitted using steroids as she prepared for the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and she has now been stripped of her medals.
To make matter worse, BALCO was later searched and a client list was found. Among the names on this list were Jeremy Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi.
Arizona D-Backs pitcher Jason Grimsley's home was searched in 2006 by U.S. federal agents and Grimsley admitted that he had used amphetamines, steroids and human growth hormones. He was asked to wear a wire in order to incriminate Barry Bonds while talking
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with him in “private”. In the end, Grimsley was released from his contract with the D-Backs and suspended for fifty games by the MLB.
After all this time, steroid use is still a big issue in the MLB. And since Barry Bonds has been mixed up in it and he broke the home run record this year, the story just won’t go away. Perhaps the MLB should institute stiffer penalties for steroid use. For example, couple a suspension with regulated unannounced testing for the duration of the contract. If the player tests dirty again, his contract is void and he is banned from the MLB forever.
The penalty has to be severe enough to detract these players from doing this to themselves. Indeed, has been criticized for being so lackadaisical about steroid use and appropriate sanctions. But it is not just the players and their families who get hurt. It’s the fans and children who look up to these players as role models.
All the players in the farm leagues and minors are negatively affected as well. In their drive to achieve that dream of a multi-million dollar major league contract, they have to perform above and beyond the athletes presently playing. That creates huge pressure to use steroids that can be hard to resist. Some say that amphetamine use is widespread among player in the minor leagues and that steroids is also used a lot.
One thing that makes sense is that if only some players are using performance-enhancing drugs while the rest are not, the former have an unfair advantage, making fair competition unattainable. And sports are defined by fair competition, that’s one of the main reasons people love sports, life is full of grays, but sports are black and white. Either none of them should be doing it or all of them should be to make it fair. Although many people say that new records that are made while using steroids, such as Barry Bonds allegedly using steroids while achieving the new all-time home run record, shouldn’t count, others argue that he was batting against many pitchers who are also on steroids. So they say it all evens out in the end. But since we don’t know who’s using what, and when, it’s impossible to ascertain what is fair. By banning it completely and creating a strategy and policy that completely discourages its use, no one will be taking steroids, and the game will be perceived as fair once again.
Sadly, as a result of steroid use, people die just like Ken Caminiti. Kids lose fathers, wives lose husbands, and fans lose respect for the sports figures they look up to. There are likely numerous reasons why players choose to use steroids. It may be that they have huge pressure to be the best and win, either from society, the fans or their families and friends, or internal pressure. It could be that they are driven into steroid use because of their greed, or it could even be that they perceive all the players around them using steroids and they feel they have no choice but to partake as well. M Anderson is a writer for www.GetCubsTickets.com, an online sports tickets website.
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