Players in baseball have been trying to gain a competitive edge for just about as long as “The Beast” in the movie Sandlot had to stay chained up in old man Mr. Mertle’s back yard; “FOREVER”. The year 1889 is about as far back as we can go to catch traces of baseball players trying to gain a chemical advantage in the majors. Pitcher Pud Galvin was the first known player to experiment with performance enhancing drugs. He was a user of the Brown-Seguard Elixer, a testosterone substance made up of dog and guinea pig testicles.
From there, players have experimented and tried out the latest “enhancing” drugs of their times. Babe Ruth sat out with a “bellyache” because he experimented with a sheep testicle formula causing him to fall ill; go figure, right? Who would have thought that injecting testicles into your body was the best idea?
After WWII, amphetamines made their way into baseball. Soldiers came back after the war, and after experiencing the effects of these drugs while overseas, they decided to try them out in sports, especially baseball.
Writer Zev Chafets believes that Mickey Mantle’s fall during his home run race with Roger Maris was due to Mantle’s experimentation with performance enhancing drugs, in an attempt to gain a competitive edge over Maris. Hank Aaron even wrote that he accepted an amphetamine pill from a teammate in a game in the 1968 season.
The list goes on from there with players such as Tom House, Mike Schmidt, Goose Gossage, Dale Berra, and Willie Mays all either admitting to using performance enhancing drugs or have been accused of using them.
Then, of course, you have Jose Canseco, the man whose name many baseball lovers curse to this day. Some act as if his name is similar to that of Lord Voldemort, the main villain in the Harry Potter films, whose name is only whispered by those with enough courage to speak it out loud. Canseco is credited by some as being the bringer of evil, AKA steroids, into baseball and “ruining” the game. Canseco named several MLB players in his book Juiced; Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, and Jason Giambi just to name a few. He was right, most if not all, of those players eventually admitted to being users.
There have even been Congressional hearings on the matter. Players such as Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, and Curt Schilling have all had to appear before Congress. Barry Bonds, the current home run record leader, for now, has even been a culprit of using steroids.
As a fan of the game, it might be time to face the music. Baseball is not, and probably was never, as pure of a game as being lead to believe. There have been statistics that have come out by people like Canseco stating that 80% of players use steroids. David Wells stated that 25 to 40% of all Major Leaguers are juiced. So if at least half of the League is using steroids, it may be time to just accept it as a part of the game.
Is this such a bad thing? More steroids may mean more home runs, faster pitches, more durable players, longer careers for super stars, and more exciting baseball. Do you remember how thrilling the Home Run Race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa was? The Home Run Race drew attention from avid baseball lovers and novice watchers alike. As a matter of fact baseball was in a world of hurt and its viewer base was beginning to dwindle and the MLB was losing money fast. The Home Run Race saved baseball. It got people interested in the game again and most importantly people were watching. It was electrifying.
Watching Barry Bonds chase the all-time home run record was just as exhilarating. Watching Bonds’ name rise above home run kings like Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, and Hank Aaron was historic. So why is it not just as much fun to watch Alex Rodriguez attempt the same triumph?
This is because the League already tarnished A-Rod’s career by labeling him a steroid user. So what! Almost half the League uses steroids based off of what David Wells says, but I am with Canseco on this one and I think it is more like 80%. I want the excitement and the pizzazz behind A-Rod being crowned the next home run king.
A-Rod just recently passed Willie Mays on the all-time home run list and you barely heard about it. If A-Rod wasn’t made an example of by the League and wasn’t suspended for 162 games he could be a lot closer to passing The Great Bambino, Babe Ruth.
Baseball needs to start realizing that the majority of the fans want to see long home runs, diving plays, pitches thrown over 100 MPH, favorite players playing into their 40s, team stars on the field and not milking an injury, fans want to be entertained. Give the people what they want and stop caring about some players doing steroids when almost everyone is. But if baseball wants to be stubborn and make baseball “pure” again go ahead and keep up the charade. There are still other professional sports out there that tend to the hungers sports fans crave.
Legalizing steroid use would not solve these problems. The side effects listed in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (a part of the National Institute of Health) article are not restricted to improper use of steroids. I will not detail out the side effects of not only steroids, but also the use of hGH and EPO (often used in cycling), the NCBI does a nice job of listing those and providing citations to studies. Furthermore, the drive to win will always encourage athletes to take just one more. Sure, proper medical supervision would ensure that an athlete receives the proper dose from that doctor, but when that athlete fails to win the next race, game, or match, he or she is more likely to increase the dose or combine other methods of doping.