Enhancing Enhancers

“Enhancing Enhancers”

Normal is what most people strive to be. This is because “normal people” are the ones who are accepted in society and the ones who don’t face discrimination from others. However, the meaning of normal can change as peoples’ lifestyles and the environment surrounding them change. A prime example of this is the MLB and performance enhancing drugs. One of the ways that professional baseball players have found most effective in increasing their performance is through the use of performance enhancing substances, or PESs (Reisinger, 2008). Although some athletes may use these drugs legally in order to recover from an injury, the use of these drugs by athletes who are simply trying to gain an advantage over competitors is illegal in every professional sport.

“The Steroid Scandal”. These three words have now become the title to ESPN’s web page devoted entirely to PES abuse in the MLB. Apparently, the use of performance enhancing drugs in the MLB has become such a problem that it would only be fair to dedicate a web page to the issue. The first thing the viewer notices on the web page behind the words “The Steroid Scandal” are several action pictures of baseball players whom the viewer can assume have used steroids at one point or another. In one of the pictures displaying a batter swinging at a pitch, the observer can notice exquisite muscle definition in the athletes arm, implying that he is one of the many who have used PES’s. The other two are simply pictures of baseball players in action. Collectively, the pictures display the relationship between performance enhancers and baseball. When someone observes these pictures of baseball players who have used steroids, they look no different than any other baseball player in action, showing the normality and commonality of performance enhancers in baseball. Other parts of the web page talk of who has been accused and found guilty of using enhancers and the overall reaction by fans, coaches, teammates, and the players themselves.

After scrolling down to the bottom of the page, technical information such as policies pertaining to the consequences of using performance enhancing drugs and steps the government as well as the league have taken to try and prevent baseball players from abusing PES’s can be seen. The website also contains links that can bring the reader to articles such as a site that discusses the house committee’s views on government reform and the MLB’s policies on testing for steroids (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/feature/featureStory?page=steroids). By thoroughly analyzing the website, it is clear that the MLB and U.S. government have teamed up and are not taking this matter lightly. They have already made significant progress in ridding the league of this issue and will continue to make reform in order to prevent a similar problem from re-occurring in the future. Also, it is clear that the