Steroids In Baseball Research Paper

2183 Words9 Pages
Troy Kesterson Professor Carmichael English 104 29 November 2011 Steroids in Baseball Athletes whether young or old, amateur or professional, are always looking for an advantage over their opponents. The desire for an “edge” and the satisfaction of winning exists in all levels of play. Successful athletes practice and work hard but others resort to drugs to give them that edge. Ever since the inception of the Major League Baseball in 1876, players have looked to gain that competitive edge. Early pitchers adopted the spitball, which was the chemical altering of a baseball with saliva, Vaseline, or mud to make the baseball behave in ways atypical of a delivered pitch. This was discontinued when Ray Chapman was struck in the head by an…show more content…
The permitted use of steroids in Major League Baseball would destroy the integrity of the game and create major health problems for players after their careers. Steroids are any drugs that are used to enhance performance. The side effects of steroids are horrendous. Steroids may create a more exciting game, but they create problems within the league. The positive performance enhancing drug test in Major League Baseball is second only to cycling performance enhancing drug tests. Numerous well-known players have links to steroids. The current policy for performance enhancing drugs is the “Three strikes, you’re out”…show more content…
All of the figures for these tests were calculated in 2005. Cycling had the second most tests for performance enhancing drugs with 12,571. 482 of the tests were positive making for a 3.78% positive test rate. This was the highest positive test rate in major sports. Baseball conducted the third most tests with 10,580. 3.69% of these tests were positive meaning that 390 were positive. Baseball had the second highest positive test rate. Ice hockey had the third highest positive test rate with 2.87%. 2,751 tests were conducted. 79 of the tests were positive. Basketball had the second lowest positive testing rate. The rate was 2.15% positive. The sport conducted 4,785 tests and 103 of them were positive. I found it surprising that football had the lowest positive test rate with 1.46%. The NFL conducted 23,478 tests, the most in major sports, and a mere 343 of them were positive. I assumed that baseball would have one of the highest positive testing rates. I thought that basketball would have the lowest positive test

More about Steroids In Baseball Research Paper

Open Document