Introduction
Baseball used to be a very favourite pastime for the Americans, and although it has lost most part of its older prestige, it still remains a passion that crosses the borders of the US and spans generations. For that reason, one can still see talent scouts eagerly seeking for young boys that have a star, when playing baseball. At any sign of athletic promise, high-school boys are on their way to becoming stellar players with fat cheques and payoffs for their great athletic performance. To many, baseball is the benchmark of a purer world. But, wherever there is money and multi-million-dollar profit, there is a dark side that hides secrets carefully hidden.
It is widely accepted that baseball is a tough and demanding sport that requires strength and stamina on behalf of the baseball players. In fact, one needs to have specific skills, including the basic instinct to react, quickness and sensory perception, among so many others. For a number of reasons that will be further analysed later on in this paper, baseball players take performance enhancement drugs, or PEDs, as well as steroids, to enhance their performance for various reasons.
Background, Recent Data and Policies
- Background And Recent Data
Ever since the ancient Olympics and even the Roman times, performance enhancing drugs have been used in sports; only, then, athletes used special herbs that had the stimulating effects of today’s PEDs (Osborne). Even though their use is significantly diminished during the pre-modern European era, the 19th century finds UK athletes using them at far more exceeding rates (Osborne). This is probably what forced the IAAF, an international governing body, signal the necessity to pass laws regulating doping rules (Osborne). In the 1990s a series of home run record breakings and an obvious change in injuries, both in frequency and nature, indicated the use of steroids. In fact, muscles appeared oversized and were practically ripped off the bones when seriously injured, which was not a common injury as of then (Assael). What is even more impressing, is the fact that the list of the Disabled Players that had 349 athletes in 1998 dropped down to 266 only a year later (Assael).
The recent Biogenesis baseball scandal that broke in June, 2013 has brought to the surface a series of incriminating actions, involving Major League Baseball players being accused of taking drugs to enhance their performance (Schmidt and Eder). The players received human growth hormones which is a banned substance, from an anti-aging clinic called Biogenesis of America (Schmidt and Eder). Despite the fact that the baseball players involved have been suspended for almost a third of a season (Schmidt and Eder), the problem still remains and drug-taking in sports is a sad fact that expands to a wide array of athletes. An article posted in Forbes magazine reports that the aforementioned clinic had also sold performance-enhancing drugs even to high-school baseball players (Cook).
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (1991) reports that non-medical use of steroids, or anabolic-androgenic steroids, is typical among people that wish for maximized strength, appearance, muscularity and/or capacity to train (Kusserow i). In fact, the report mentions that 50 percent of all adolescents start using steroids as early as 16 years of age and their majority falls under the “heavy user” category, with increased dosages for prolonged time (Kusserow ii). Non-medical steroids are synthetic derivatives of a hormone found in males called testosterone and are either injected or taken orally. Such steroids have been acquired from many coaches and given to their players (Cook). Despite the fact that a number of US states have made several attempts to test high school athletes for steroid use, the positive tests were limited (Cook). However, this does not mean that athletes do not use steroids as research has shown the exact opposite. Athletes need to get stronger, run faster, get a scholarship, stop sitting on the bench, and so on. Unfortunately, this boost may come from artificial, illegal ways that foul fair play in every sense. Coming from the mouths of prominent Major League Baseball players like Rodriguez and Braun, whose names have been involved in performance-enhancing drugs scandals, juicing players is a two sided coin and there are times that getting an artificial boost to top sports performance is a requirement (Cook).
- Policies
In 2003, the Major League Baseball Players’ Association, or MLBPA, agreed to have players tested once per year, and in case a player is found positive in drug testing he should not be penalized in the first year (Assael). The deal was that if more than five percent of baseball players were found positive in the first year of the implementation of the aforementioned rule, penalties would vary from simple counselling and could extend to suspending the doped player (Assael). In any other case, testing would be dropped, as a means to provide players with sufficient time to clean up. Unfortunately, more than five percent of baseball players were found positive in drug testing, hence the measure would continue (Assael).
The MLBPA has agreed to tougher penalties later on, in year 2005, which included bans ranging from 50 to 100 days off the court, applied to the first and second offence respectively, while, in case of a third positive drug test, the baseball player could even face reinstatement (Dahlberg). However, enforcing tougher punishments to baseball players that use steroids was far-fetched for the MLBPA, so the Congress took affirmative action with Senator John McCain (Bodley). In 2005, both the MLBPA and players alike had to testify on steroids use, together with parents of young athletes that had ended their lives after steroid use (Dahleberg). This, led to the Drug Free Sports Act, a bill that would establish a drug-testing policy under the Federal law, according to which, “minimum steroid-testing rules and penalties for the major U.S. professional sports associations” were set using the Olympic Committee standards for a number of Leagues, including the Major Baseball League (OLPA)
Statistics
The Major League Baseball has released their annual called Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, and as published in NBC Sports’ official website, from a total of 5,391 drug tests only eight results needed disciplinary action and all were for stimulants (Calcaterra). In plain words, the report demonstrates a complete absence of steroid use among Major League Baseball players, which is contradictory with the latest scandal that has been mentioned before. The report also mentions 13 positives that are referred to as “non-analytical”, which is a baseball code for “Biogenesis dudes” (Calcaterra).
Why Baseball Athletes Use PEDs?
Performance-enhanced drugs are very popular among baseball players, and other professional athletes, and their effects are short termed. Those that take them also feel their muscles strengthened and their tendons and bones stronger (Woerner). With their bodies more powerful than before, they can stand harder and longer training, plus they can avoid more injuries (Woerner). When athletes want to become more aggressive in the woods they ingest pills, creams or injections with steroids. This method is called taking drugs in “cycles” (Woerner) and allows athletes pick the period they want increased performance. Of course, when testing time approaches, they go off the drugs. It usually takes from a few days up to several weeks for the drugs to leave the system and athletes be considered drug-free when tested (Woerner).
It is true that performance-enhancement drugs make baseball players hit more home runs and seem like super heroes in the court. This happens because “the drugs help them work their fast-twitch muscle fibers better than they would normally be able to without drugs” (Woerner). In other words, baseball athletes need strong fast-twitch muscle fibers to hit the baseball out of the part and swing the bat even faster, among other powerful movements, which is exactly what they get from PEDs. With PEDs circulating in their bodies, baseball athletes can make more repetitions and exercise more frequently than a normal player would.
The end reason that urge some baseball athletes use drugs is, of course, profit. The value of using steroids for a Major League baseball hitter in his six-year career is estimated at approximately $12,500,000, when the cost of steroids reaches $30,000 annually (Cook D.). If trying to estimate the costs of steroids and drugs in a baseball player’s life, things are rather difficult. It is extremely hard to foretell the health risk and potential problems, and every attempt to determine the life expectancy of baseball players has not yet been signified. Research about the life expectancy of football players that play in the National Football League in just a little over 50 years of age (Neddenriep), when the average life expectancy of a non-player American male is about two decades more (Schmid R.). The difference between the American males and National League football players mainly lie in drug/steroid use among other problems (Neddenriep).
Health Consequences of Using PEDs
Despite the fact that PEDs increase sports performance and make a baseball player have increased athletic abilities, they only “benefit” the athlete on the short term. The long-term side effects of training benefits are devastating. To begin with, the hormones, steroids or metabolites that are referred to as PEDs are chemically similar to actual hormones produced in the body, only taken in much higher doses than normal (Woerner). Needless to say, when the amount of hormones increase in a player’s body, he experiences a wide array of less serious side effects like balding and impotence, alongside stunt growth and rage coming from increased levels of testosterone (Woerner). Given that PEDs affect the muscle groups and that the heart is considered a muscle, some of the more serious side effects include heart problems and issues with the liver while many also run an elevated risk for blood clots (Woerner). With too much testosterone stimulating the heart, it does not grow normally. Also, increased testosterone makes the liver malfunction as it cannot break it down efficiently (Woerner).
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, baseball is a beloved American pastime that represents chastity to many Americans. Apart from that, baseball is a profitable sport that loads players and everyone involved with amounts that can get extremely high. Of course, wherever there is money, there is some type of corruption and in this case drugs. Baseball players are under great pressure to perform beyond human capabilities and show tremendous strength and endurance in hard trainings. Either in order to earn a scholarship or make it to the games, rather than watching from the benches, some baseball athletes turn to performance enduring drugs, steroids or any other illegal substance that can enhance their performance and make them act and behave like superheroes in the courts. Despite the fact that the Major League Baseball Players’ Association have tried many times to determine and penalize baseball athletes that have used drugs during the season, it had to be the Congress to enact bills and set rules. Despite the fact that the official report of the Major League Baseball indicates that there is no actual drug-use problem among baseball players, recent facts that have come to public light unveil a well-known, yet hidden, secret. Baseball players use steroids and performance enduring drugs, increasing their short-term athletic performance, but risking serious health issues on the long run. Research in football players that play in the National Football League show that, compared to other American males, football players’ life expectancy is approximately 20 years lesser. It is assumed that the same applies to baseball players, too. It is perhaps the time when professional athletes, including baseball players, weigh what they get from a career gained with drug use, and what they lose in time.
Works Cited:
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