Speech

Steroids are ruining the game of baseball. Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, and Roger Clemens are just a sample, a hefty sample, of players that have been proven to have used performance-enhancing drugs. Recent manufacturing of drugs and substances that allow players to maximize their potential, although immorally, have caused the past time to change. Players are tearing down records like never before, and I contribute a lot of this to the influence of steroids. The purity of baseball is in serious jeopardy, as is the health of the athletes and the mindset of the kids who look up to them. In order to prevent this epidemic from affecting the game, the athletes, and the kids further, consequences need to be harsher and testing procedures stricter.

The temple these athletes have worked their entire lives to build up, are coming crashing down with their use of steroids. The National Institute of Drug Abuse has contributed cancer, heart disease, and several other disorders, including acne, to the use of these substances. After years of work in the weight room, and exhausting days full of squats and bench presses, these athletes are tearing apart their bodies with the intentions of inflating their muscles. One day after these years of working out, some of these athletes decide to go ahead and use these illegal substances to jumpstart their muscle growth. Little do they know, the effects could be devastating. According to the documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster”, only three deaths are attributed to the use of steroids each year, use of these drugs changes your body in multiple ways. Along with the physical changes, like higher blood pressure and some changes in reproductive organs, these drugs can influence and send rifts through your family life. Users have been found to have emotional problems, hence the coined phrase “roid rage”. In “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” the family is being torn due to the sons’ connection steroids. The health of these athletes and their families are on the line.

My favorite baseball player is, in fact, a former steroid abuser. Alex Rodriguez is his name, and in some ways I want to be just like him. I want to be able to hit like him and look like him and swagger like him. However, he used steroids. Should I use steroids to get to his level? This is the image these athletes put out for all the kids to see. The glamour and fame of a high-profile athlete is evident in dreams of kids all over America. They see the success and the riches, wishing that they would some day be just like them, to be at the top of American culture. These kids learn their idols take steroids, and are now given the idea that steroids will get them to the fame. Role models are powerful and have been shown to have an influence on their beloved fans, namely kids. Ken Griffey Jr. wore his hat backwards as a young player in baseball, and soon enough kids all over the country were doing the same. Go to your local YMCA, and you’ll see kids emulating Lebron or Michael Jordan. Kids look up to these professional athletes to have a sense of a positive way that they should grow up. However, when their role models are proven to have cheated, it gives these kids the association of cheating with success.

All of this cheating going on is creating a huge ugly spot on the game of baseball. America’s past time is being tainted due to the use of drugs and substances to artificially allow players to achieve better records and abilities. Once prolific records or milestones are no longer as impressive due to the evolution of the game in terms of performance-enhancing drugs. David Wells estimated that “25-40 of all major leaguers use enhancing drugs.” It’s truly disgraceful to the love of the game when arguably the best hitter and pitcher in the modern era have been proven to be associated with steroids. Roger Clemens, one of if not the best pitcher in the modern era, lied in front of Congress about his use of drugs, and it is well documented in the novel, Bases Loaded. The story details vividly one trainer’s life, as he eventually became the dominant supplier of enhancing drugs in baseball. Bases Loaded accounts for multiple players using these drugs and also getting away with them through avoiding the drug tests. Baseball is dangerously close to being tainted forever.

In order to solve this issue, and to restore purity in the game, Major League Baseball needs to install a testing system in which every player from every team is tested three to four times a year on unannounced dates. This would allow officials to gather information regarding drug use more often and probably decrease it remarkably. Consequences for drug use are fairly lenient right now, and should be changed to a lifetime ban after the second time a positive test is recorded. The change in the system would help clean up the steroid mess, prevent the athletes from these health risks, and allow for kids to have better role models. This change is vital to clearing baseball’s dirty little secret and allowing it to revert back to America’s good old past time.