Once the “Mitchell Report” was released many super stars and role models for fans all around the world were printed in black under the category of the illegal use of steroids throughout their career. The most popular player named in the Mitchell Report due to his court and trial issues would have to be 7 time Cy Young winner, Roger Clemens. Once he saw that his name had been brought to light in the report he went to Capitol Hill to clear his name off the list that he felt he didn’t need to be on. Little did he know that when made the statement,
“I appreciate the opportunity to tell this Committee and the public—under oath—what I have been saying all along: I have never used steroids, human growth hormone [HGH], or any other type of illegal performance enhancing drugs. I think these types of drugs should play no role in athletics at any level, and I fully support Senator Mitchell's conclusions that steroids have no place in baseball. However, I take great issue with the report's allegation that I used these substances. Let me be clear again: I did not.” (Healey)
That he was entering a world of charges when committing perjury in a court of law. Many of the players claimed their innocence like Clemens did, but in the end they all served the types of charges.
The original group of all time Baseball greats like Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Cy young, etc. set a high standard for the Players after them to strive for and gave them something to achieve. Never in their minds would they of thought that the game of baseball would have turned out the way it is today. These modern day All-stars who cheated and used Performance Enhancing Drugs for a shortcut just to go ahead of someone’s hard work and love for the game as well to achieve their personal and selfish desires should be punished and have their awards and accolades stripped from them and taken out of the record books as if they were never there to begin with. The use of Performance Enhancing Drugs has put a permanent stain on the name of Baseball and what it is truly about. Bud Selig and the Major league of Baseball has come a long way regarding minimizing the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs by enforcing harsher penalties and consequences for testing Positive for steroids. As the years have gone by thanks to the leagues stricter policies on testing positive for PEDs the amount of players getting suspended for steroid use has decreased on a year to year basis. The Major League of Baseball will never be able to completely take Performance Enhancing Drugs out of the game, but with the right consequences, and appropriate policies they will be able continue to keep the use of Steroids at a very low rate and never re-enter the once dreaded time known as the “Steroids Era” ever again.
Works Cited
Healey, Daniel. “FALL OF THE ROCKET: STEROIDS IN BASEBALL AND THE
CASE AGAINEST ROGER CLEMENS.” Marquette Sports Law Review 19.1 (September 2008): SPORTDiscus. Web. 8 November 2011.
Roger “The Rocket” Clemens is known to be one of the best of all-time to step on the rubber in the game of Major League Baseball. The Seven-time Cy Young winner was ultimately unstoppable in the last half of his career. He was just another great phenom in the baseball world until December 13, 2007 when the “Mitchell Report” was released, revealing a 409-page report that was sent to the commissioner of baseball (Bud Selig) that investigated the illegal use of steroids and Performance Enhancing Drugs used by players in Major League Baseball. There were over 80 players put on this report, but the one who stood out the most was Roger Clemens himself. On February 13th 2008 he went to Capitol Hill to argue the allegations against him saying,
“I appreciate the opportunity to tell this Committee and the public—under oath—what I have been saying all along: I have never used steroids, human growth hormone [HGH], or any other type of illegal performance enhancing drugs. I think these types of drugs should play no role in athletics at any level, and I fully support Senator Mitchell's conclusions that
Steroids have no place in baseball. However, I take great issue with the report's allegation that I used these substances. Let me be clear again: I did not.”
Once Clemens had stated that it put a rather large target on his back not only by investigators but also the judicial system. They were trying to get him to admit using illegal steroids, but now as well they were going after him on counts of perjury. After 2 years of gathering enough evidence and testimonies on August 19, 2010 a Federal Grand Jury Indicted Roger Clemens on six counts, one count of obstruction of congress, three counts of false statements, and two counts of perjury. On July 13, 2011 Clemens’ first trial began, but on the second day the judge ruled a mistrial due to prosecutorial misconduct. For now Roger Clemens is a free man, but legal sources say that he will be retried.
I will be using the “Mitchell Report” and the Roger Clemens trial to portray that not only is the use of steroids extremely risky and unhealthy but also that it’s against the law and you will get caught one way or another. 1991 to 2002 was known as the “Steroid Era” in professional baseball. Over those years particularly in 1995 after the cancellation of the 1994 playoffs and World Series the statistics of a majority of the players skyrocketed, which in retrospect played a huge role in filling the empty seats back up after the 1994 strike. I’ll be explaining that up until to this point in time the MLB did not have strict regulations on testing for the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs)
Kuenster, John. “Major League Player Records Dishonored by Steroid Users.” Baseball
Digest. 62.2 (March 2008): SPORTDiscus. Web. 8 November 2011.
John Kuenster touches on a very valuable subject when it comes to records, and honors given in the MLB. Back in early in mid 1900’s the greats of the game like, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, and Ernie Banks. They all set legitimate records that should never be shadowed by the players who eventually broke them. These few players all had something in common. That was hard work and love for the game. They didn’t use PEDs to up there stats or to get to a higher number in a certain category. These historic greats earned their records off pure talent that was god given and worked hard to mature. The greats of our time such as, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, or Mark McGwire also hold records like men mentioned earlier. The only difference between the past greats and the current greats is that these new all-stars were accused of using Steroids to achieve their records. Not only are the players the ones to blame for the whole “Steroid Era.” Stricter steps should have been taken from the get go through the league to enforce steroid testing to ensure the safety and fair play in professional play of baseball before the use of steroids spread like wildfire through the MLB. Will records and awards be stripped from players who’ve been tested positive for performing enhancing drugs? We don’t know for now, but who knows what the future holds.
This article about dishonoring the awards given to players who have achieved them unfairly will allow me to voice my opinion on the topic of record breakers involving steroids. I personally am against the use of steroids solely because all it does it degrade the great game of baseball. Even though these cheaters didn’t use PEDs their whole career and achieved some of their record off pure talent doesn’t change the fact they broke the rules that is stated in the contract that’s signed by every professional player. It’s not fair that history’s greatest baseball players prior to the steroid era should be passed up in the record books by players that made themselves better by an illegal drug. Not only is it a disgrace to the violators name, but more importantly it’s a disgrace to the game of baseball.
Rutecki, Jared. “A Study of Media Impact on Public Opinion Regarding Performance
Enhancement in Major League Baseball.” Open Sports Sciences Journal 3 (2010): SPORTSDiscus. Web. 8 November 2011.
A chart in the article, A study of Media Impact on Public Opinion Regarding Performance Enhancement in Major League Baseball shows the percent of the coverage on specific sports and PEDs through 1968 to 2006 in Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, and Time. Baseball ranks number one in all 3 magazines with 43 percent, 39 percent, and 39 percent. Coming in second was football with a significant lower percent of 19, 14, and 15. Over the year’s magazine articles about PEDs have increased by a huge amount due to the popularity in steroid use among professional athletes.
With the widespread use of steroids in sports particularly baseball, it’s apparent that the talk of it in magazines and media in general has shot up too. When something isn’t a public issue the media obviously isn’t interested in it which is why steroids in the earlier years weren’t written and talked about much. When the “Steroid Era” came into play that’s when the number of articles in magazines skyrocketed year by year and it all of sudden became a huge topic in our society. I will also be touching on the fact that even when people knew that steroids were an issue media didn’t start writing about it like crazy until the 104 MLB players tested positive for PEDs in 2003. From that year on the number of articles per year were above 49. The media writes what sells and in this day and age information and insider news about the world of baseball and steroids will always sell.
Solberg, Joe. “Performance-Enhancing Drug Use in Baseball: The Impact of Culture.”
Ethics and Behavior 21 (April 2011): 91-102. Philosopher’s Index. Web. 8 November 2011.
Joe Solberg explains that once the steroid era of baseball blew up and became steady that it wasn’t out of the norm anymore, it became part of the culture. Once everyone was doing it the person below them had to use PEDs in order to get to the next level. The use of Steroids is a ladder that started in the pro’s and worked its way down to the minors. Major League Contracts are more than less based off offensive performance rather than defensive performance. To be more specific on offensive performance homeruns are what really can land you a big money contract. Over the years the biggest category that PEDs have helped is homeruns. Of course players want a lot of money, and in order to get that money is to hit homeruns, and in order to increase the amount of homeruns is to take performance enhancing drugs. Players will do what they have to do in order to make the money that they are satisfied with, and as a result for most players it is to partake in using steroids to increase their status as an all-star.
The information I gathered in this article will help me explain the player’s motives for wanting to use PEDs. It’s not only used just to break records and be known as an all-star even though that is a plus that comes with it, but it’s the fact that if the person above you is using these substances then in order for you to excel above him and potentially take his spot you almost feel obligated to take PEDs as well. It was once a bad thing to be associated with the group known to take steroids back when it was a rare thing to do. Now days it’s such a common thing to partake in its part of the culture, it’s fairly normal in the MLB now to use PEDs.
Sommers, Paul. “The Changing Hitting Performance Profile in Major League Baseball,
1966-2006.” Journal of Sports Economics 9.4 (August 2008) SPORTSDiscus. Web. 8 November 2011.
Paul Sommers showed charts over the decades of average years played by an average starter in the pros. It went from 5.2 years in the 60’s to 6 in a half years in 2006. That shows that the use of steroids in the MLB increased a player’s career by almost 2 years. He also explains that the use of PEDs in baseball lets you peak at a higher level of skill. A persons overall skill level will increase by a big number while using steroids. Someone hitting .267 without the use of steroids could jump anywhere from a .324 to .378 average depending on the person. With all the statistics shown throughout the article it’s proven that Performance enhancing drugs increase a player’s batting average, peak, years played, MPH, and overall skill level.
Before the 1960’s after a player’s peak their batting average tended to decline steadily due to falling off from their prime, but after the 1960’s a large amount of players started to excel past their peak year and raise their batting averages past their prime which was unusual. As we know now the reason for that was the use of PEDs. After 2004 the statistics seemed to start trending again like the 1960’s due to the random and mandatory drug tests which disabled the players to partake in using Anabolic Steroids of HGH. I will be using this information to show how all PEDs have been proven in many to not only better athletes, but make them more durable and tack on extra years of successful productivity past their prime. PEDs aren’t physically making them younger, but they sure are making them produce younger aged stats in a past prime aged body.
Stone, Brad. “Another Poison Pill” Newsweek 146.7 (August 15 2005): Academic
Search Complete. Web. 8 November 2011.
The MLB is by far the top sport when it comes to the abuse of Performance Enhancing Drugs, but yet it holds the weakest punishment in the sports world for testing positive. Rafael Palmeiro in 2008 tested positive for Performance Enhancing Drugs in early August of 2008 just months after he testified before a U.S congressional committee stating that he had never used PEDs in his life. Not only did he test positive for steroids, he failed the test after lying under oath in a court of law, and all he was punished with through the MLB was a 10-day suspension and a $164,000 fine. Due to the particular steroid Palmeiro took, Stanozonol, which travels through your digestive system within 2 weeks, makes it hard for the court to prove that Palmeiro was lying when he testified.
Baseball wants to stop the abuse of Steroids, but at the same time it seems like all these players that test positive these substances just get slaps on the wrist and are told not to do it again. If you want a problem to come to a halt you have to go the extra distance in order to get the results you’re looking for. PEDs have been persistent in the MLB for decades now; telling a player to stop will ultimately not stop them. There needs to be an ultimatum put into action to make the abusers consider that these PEDs aren’t worth the loss of their career. Every other sport that has extremely harsh penalties if tested positive for PEDs don’t have a very high percent of positive tests because the players don’t want to take the risk to put their career on the line. In the MLBs case they aren’t putting a severe enough consequence for the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs. My main point I’ll be using from this article is that if you want the use of PEDs to lower then you have to put consequences that the players don’t want to deal with out there in order to produce more negative resulting drug tests.
Quinn, Tom “BASEBALL’S STEROID ERA.” Men’s Fitness 23.
(August 2007): SPORTSDiscus. Web. 8 November 2011
Throughout the history of baseball testing for either steroids or street drugs really hasn’t been a big part of the games policy. Player’s played the game and what they did off the field was their own business. Once the early 80’s hit, and PEDs came on the scene the use of them among players got out of hand. It became an almost regular regime for a majority of the MLB. Tests were eventually being given, but that didn’t stop the players. When there’s motive to do illegal substances there’s always the backup plan to keep these athletes out of trouble. There were plenty of ways to come up clean on a test, and when the testers would find a way to stop it, Victor Cante and his crew at BALCO labs would just simply find another way to cheat. Even when the few unlucky players’ get caught all they have to do is admit it and simply explain they were told it was something else. For Example, Barry Bonds, when he spoke in front of the BALCO grand jury he came clean about all the PEDs he had taken, but the catch was he stated that he was oblivious to what he was actually using. People of this stature will make their illegal decisions, but don’t think they don’t have all the answers for when the going gets tough.
I’ll be using Quinn’s article “BASEBALL STEROIDS ERA” to inform how little baseball can really do to not only catch these users, but to actually put a stop to the Performance Enhancing Drugs. If not cheating tests to save their own ass’ these professional athletes will just find a perfect window of time to where they know they won’t be tested in the offseason to fit in a couple cycles here and there to maintain the gains through using PEDs. Testing companies such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the U.S Anti Doping-Agency (USADA) will never stop trying to improve the efficiency of the tests to make cheating near impossible if not totally full proof, but as those agencies are working to stop the cheaters don’t think the cheaters at BALCO labs aren’t finding ways to break through and find loop holes in their tests.
Verhaeghe, Dan. “Bud Selig Lays Down the Hammer on Performance Enhancing Drugs”. Bleacher Report. (January 2008): Web. 30 November 2011