Baseball Steroids Era
Mark McGwire was the first baseball player to be found guilty ingesting Androstenedione, an anabolic steroid that converts itself to testosterone once digested. He was considered one of the best power hitters of all time when he played, but now people know the reason is because he cheated. Steroids will forever plague the game of baseball. Although steroids have been banned in baseball since 1991, drug was not implemented until 2003. Even today, there are advanced methods that make it possible for players to conceal the fact that they are juicing up. When I was younger, I was not aware of how many baseball players have used steroids at some point in their career. If a player hit 50 homeruns in a season, I thought they were simply really strong hitters with good mechanics. Now, every time I see a baseball player with massive forearms and who hits 50 homeruns in a season, I automatically question if he has cheated in some form. Sadly, the answer is usually yes. Between 1998 and 2009, 10 more players reached 500 career home runs, easily the largest increase in membership in baseball history. Of the 10 players, six -- Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Manny Ramirez, Rafael Palmeiro and Gary Sheffield -- have been linked to PEDs. [1]This was very depressing for me to hear about in the recent years. Imagine a 10 year old boy who loves the game of baseball. He looks up to all of these great players such as Gary Sheffield, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez, and Alex Rodriguez. When I was a kid, these players were me and my friends’ idols. I personally saw Gary Sheffield and Many Ramirez hit in the same game in the 2004 season. Even then, I noticed something was different about them. Gary Sheffield was said to have the quickest bat speed in the league. His hands were lightening quick, and when he hit the ball it flew off the bat at remarkable speeds that the other players couldn’t compare to. Manny Ramirez was the same way, but also very different. When he swung, it looked almost effortless. Yet, when he connected with the ball squarely, you knew it was going out of the park. It seemed like his 34” 32 oz bat weighed nothing to him. It seemed to me like these players had an unfair advantage and they really did. If we want to play professional baseball some day, who do we look up to? Who do we try to act like? Who do we mimic as much as possible? The answer is not simply professional ballplayers. The answer is the best players in the game and the fact is the reason most of the players were great, is because they decided to use anabolic steroids. What message does this send to kids whose dream is to play baseball? Does one have to take steroids in order to be the best? Do they have to be willing to risk their long term health just in order to get a competitive edge? For one minor league player, the answer is yes.
Look for part two coming soon....
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