Steroid Use in Baseball
Throughout the history of baseball, players have cheated whether by coating their bats or hats, or corking their bats. More recently America’s Pastime has found itself in the Steroid Era. The use of steroids, or PED’s (performance-enhancing drugs), is rapidly growing in the sport of baseball and now there are more people using them. Knowing the consequences for taking the drug players still take that risk.Players like Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, and Roger Clemens are some of the players who have recently been caught. Now that they have been caught they will more than likely never make the Hall of Fame, no matter how remarkable of a career they had.
Steroids have been banned in the MLB (Major League Baseball) since 1991 but PED’s were not banned until 2003 (ESPN). Since 1991 baseball has seen a tremendous jump in offensive numbers from individuals. As one can imagine the home run numbers were at an all-time high for this era. While only three players reached the fifty mark for home runs in a season between 1961 and 1994 that number would be demolished by many sluggers. Mark McGwire was a player who was thought for doing steroids during this time of the mid 90s. A big reason for McGwire being accused of using steroids was for his insane home run numbers he was putting up. In 1996 he hit fifty-two home runs, fifty-eight in 1997. Not to mention in 1997 there were thirteen players to hit forty plus which had never been done before and was unheard of. Then during 1998 Mark McGwire would break the single season home run record of sixty-three by hitting seventy to only later admit to using a PED called androstenedione a drug that had not yet been banned by the MLB. After this the MLB then instilled a drug testing system to catch the use of any PED’s and steroids (ESPN).
Steroid testing began to be serious in 2004 when Major League Baseball started to hand out punishments. Not to mention that the test that were completely random. There is twenty-eight illegal substances that fall under the category of steroids that is banned from baseball. Five to seven players of the 1,438 players test positive for at least one of the twenty-eight illegal substances. The test began during Spring Training to see if the players were using anything during their offseason training programs (MLB). Failing one of the random drug test given by the MLB has consequences.
Consequences for failing a drug test are a fifty game suspension for the first offence, one-hundred game suspension for the second, and a lifetime ban for the third. The repercussions that come with failing a steroid base drug test has changed dramatically since 2004. When the test first started in 2004 the first time a player failed it was just counseling, then fifteen days for the second time, twenty-five days for the third time, fifty days for the fourth time, and one year for the fifth time.
One sad thing about the high percentage of steroid users in baseball is it effects the hall of fame voting tremendously along with the records that stand. For example, Barry Bonds will always have an asterisk beside his all-time home run record. When your average sports fan hears the words “steroids” and “hall of fame” in the same sentence they immediately think of players like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, and Sammy Sosa. All these players hold at least some type of record in Cooperstown, New York at the Baseball Hall of Fame but it will forever have that asterisk beside it. Those five players would have no doubt been first ballot candidates if it was not for their drug use. In my opinion, the asterisk should always remain beside any of their records because they cheated the game. To be inducted into the hall of fame, a player must receive at least 75% of the votes and as soon as the player drops below 5% of the votes his name is taken off the ballot. Rafael Palmeiro was taken off the ballot this past year due to only receiving 4.4% votes. For the 2015 ballot, Sammy Sosa might see his named crossed off as he only received 7.2% votes in 2014 and is not expected to get anymore than that this upcoming year (CBS).
For the players who put up big numbers like Mike Trout who do it the right way are now being accused of taking steroids which is not fair. My friend, Wil Myers, who plays for the Tampa Bay Rays was accused of taking PED’s last year when he got called up to the major leagues because in the minors he hit forty-five home runs the year before. Then when he won American League Rookie of the Year the talk about it arose once again. It was not fair for Wil to be questioned because he worked hard to get to where he wants to be. For players like Wil and Mike Trout who have worked hard to get to where they are and still be questioned about using steroids is just pathetic. But, if they want to continue to play baseball for a long time they are going to have to get use to the speculations because former players have set this tone for Major League Baseball as the Steroid Era.
Steroids have ruined baseball to a certain point. There are not as many “clean” players in the game as there once was. Baseball is America’s Pastime and the typical American loves the game of baseball in some way. Every time a player has a very good season, the question will always be did he do it the right way? And, like I said before, that is not fair to the players who have worked hard. Until players take the respect for the game to another high and take the drug-testing policy seriously baseball will continue to the live in the Steroid Era. As a big baseball fan and a baseball player, I live for the day this era is gone because it is taking away from the great game of baseball.
Works Cited
Bloom, Barry M. “Mandatory Steroid Testing to Begin.” Major League Baseball. MLB.com, 13 Nov. 2003. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Olney, Buster. “The Steroids Era.” ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 5 Dec. 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Perry, Dayn. “Where Do the ‘steroid Era’ Hall of Fame Candidates Stand Now?” CBSSports.com. N.p., 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
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