Steroids in Baseball

For more than a decade there has been widespread illegal use of anabolic steroids

and other performance enhancing substances by players in Major League Baseball. Those who have illegally used these substances range from players whose major league careers were brief to potential members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. They include both pitchers and position players, and their backgrounds are as diverse as those of all major league players. Anabolic steroids foster the anabolic process, which includes muscle growth and the increase of muscle mass. The user experiences incredible muscle gains as a result of large amount of exercise with the effects of steroids. They can cause liver damage, heart attacks, and harm to the reproductive system. There were many other documented illegal substances in Major League Baseball such as Human Growth Hormone. It increases the production of a protein hormone produced naturally in the body, and it’s not detectable in any drug test. Negative side effects of Human Growth Hormone include arthritis, cancer, and bone overgrowth. (1) The use of steroids in baseball is considered a turning point in the history of the sport because it changed the way the game was played, changed how people perceived major league baseball and major league baseball players, and it almost completely rewrote the drug and punishment policies used by major league baseball today.

Players believed that “Steroids were different.” This meant that baseball players throughout the game believed that they had to use steroids to perform at the level they felt necessary. In some cases steroids were the difference in players’ ability to stay in the Major leagues. The thought of being demoted to the minor leagues fueled players use and dependence of steroids. (2) Above everything else steroids were extremely popular in Major league baseball and were most popular during the 1990’s, young players started doing steroids because the older players that they looked up to were using them. The pressures that big time players such as Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds faced throughout their careers caused them to use steroids; but not so big names such as Dan Naulty also were pressured into using steroids.

Naulty was a 14th round draft pick out of Cal State Fullerton in 1992. He was 6’6” but could only throw an 87 mile/ hour fastball. (3) With the help of steroids, thirteen years later he had turned himself into a prominent MLB pitcher that threw 96 miles/hour. (4) The adverse effects that Naulty experienced from his steroid use were very severe. After gaining 50 pounds of muscle he was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome. His body could not handle the muscle mass and because of this his arm went numb and his groin muscle ripped off his pelvis. Stories like these accurately illustrate the popularity, and dependence of steroids during the “Steroid Era.” (5)

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