Steroids In Major League Baseball

Clyde Anderson Anderson 1
Professor Valdes
ENG 103
May 8th, 2014
Steroids in Major League Baseball
In the world of professional sports, many athletes use performance enhancing drugs (PED) to become better players. Athletes use performance enhancing drugs to either get better, heal from injuries, become huge people or just because it’s the “IN” thing that everyone else is using. Steroids have been in sports for the better part of four decades but each league or sports have their implications on PED’s. For instance, The MLB has a random drug testing policy and is able to give suspensions to anyone who is caught having a positive testing of any illegal drugs. Many players have taken PED’s but one name that sticks out to this subject…show more content…
In 1986, the MLB implemented the drug testing policy (Mitchell Report 11). It was to crack down on illegal drugs in the MLB and to create a clean environment for both the players and teams alike. Even though players’ privacy played a huge role in creating this drug testing policy, at the time it was the best move for the sport. In 2002, the MLB created a mandatory random drug testing which the Commissioner of the MLB Bud Selig and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA); started to help really crack down on the game and to cause no bias to any players when testing is administrated. Ever since then, some athletes stop using it because of the testing policy and some athletes still use it to either enhance their growth, to get big and/or perform better. Some use it to heal their bodies. Most athletes use it to help their team win because they want to be on the field producing for their team instead of warming the bench. There are many downfalls using steroids. For instance, some people’s health deteriorates because of the abuse of using PED’s. Some athletes become so addicted that it eventually kills them in the long run. Sen. George Mitchell (Senator of U.S.) also states that steroids also cause “Psychiatric problems, cardiovascular and liver damage, drastic changes to their reproductive systems, and musculoskeletal injury.” As for the Human Growth…show more content…
He did perform, but his team really didn’t go anywhere in those three years when he was a Ranger. He won one Most Valuable Player (MVP) award and averaged 53 homeruns during those three years with Texas. His ultimate goal was to win the World Series and that didn’t happen while he was in a Ranger uniform. He felt like he didn’t have enough superstars around him to help his team reached that goal. In 2004 he was traded to the Yankees for $275 million. He had success in his Yankee career but the PED’s and steroids eventually affected his game in the long run. He had injuries in the late 200’s and early 2010’s that derailed his career because of the PED usage. This also affected former Mark McGwire (Former MLB Player) career in the last two years of his career in 2000-01. McGwire also admitted of taking PED’s and steroids after years of lying about not taking any during his playing career. Recently Commissioner Selig and the MLB got a hold of the Biogenesis reports and found 12 players that was using PED’s and other ban substances that the MLB Drug Testing policy have listed. Rodriguez’s named popped up in the reports and Selig banned Rodriguez for 211 games for violating Basic Agreement and baseball Drug Program. A-Rod appealed but the ban was reduced to 162 games of the 2014 season and any potential post-season games the Yankees would play if they advance. In all, A-Rod’s career is so controversial due to his name being connected to the PED’s and