How Steroids Changed Mlb

Known as America’s pastime, baseball is a game in which generations of children of all ages grow up playing in parks, streets, and alleyways throughout America. These same children grew up idolizing names such as Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, and Hank Aaron. These men, as thousands of men before and after them, played in a league simply named Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball is rich in history with statistics and records dating back to 1873. Baseballchronology. com (n. d. ) provides this fact. However, as technology has advanced, so have the men who play this game. In the last 15 years athletes have become bigger, faster, and stronger making a game that is so difficult to play,look relatively easy. As a result records that have stood for many years are able to be shattered. Attendance has increased to record levels. Team owners and players are making record amounts of money. Unfortunately, along with these record accomplishments Major League Baseball is enjoying, the use of illegal drugs known as steroids are running rampant among the league’s players. Therefore, although players have become bigger, faster, and stronger, rampant steroid use among players of the last 15 years has changed the face of Major League Baseball negatively. Although it is true that steroids cannot improve a hitter’s hand-eye coordination, balance, or reflex, steroids can affect how hard a hitter hits a baseball. The harder one can hit a baseball the better the chance a hitter has of a getting a base hit. More hits lead to more runs scored, home runs hit, runs batted in by a single player. High statistics lead to Major League Baseball records that have stood for many years to be broken. A player will earn a high salary because of his accomplishments. He will have more of a fan base. This not only affects his pocket book, but the pocket book of the owner of the player’s baseball team because of the increased attendance the player generates. Higher attendance leads to higher television ratings. High television ratings affect Major League Baseball because the higher ratings are, the more the league could demand in a network television contract. With all these factors to consider it is easy to see why a player would use steroids despite the health risk, and why owners would overlook rampant steroid use in Major League Baseball. Thompson, Vinto, O’Keeffe, & Red, 2009 provides interesting facts on this subject. Rampant steroid use has a profound effect on Major League Baseball’s home run record book. Major League Baseball dates back to the late 1800s. An astonishing five of the top 11 home run hitters of all-time either are confirmed or suspected steroid users including the top home run hitter of all-time Barry Bonds. Next is the single home run record. Barry Bonds also owns this record. He hit an amazing 73 home runs in 2001. Barry Bonds surpassed Mark McGwire whom alone with Sammy Sosa became the only players in Major League Baseball history to hit more than 61 home runs in a single season. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are both confirmed steroid users. Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998 and Sammy Sosa hit 66 that same year. Prior to 1998 only two players ever hit more than 60 home runs in a single season. They are Babe Ruth, who hit 60 home runs in 1927 and Roger Maris who hit 61 home runs in 1961. Sportscity. com/MLB/500-Home-Run-Club (2007-2010) provides homerun statistics. Neither, Babe Ruth nor Roger Maris are suspected or confirmed steroid users. Steroid use is a key factor in perhaps the greatest pitcher of all-time’s success. Roger Clemens pitched 24 seasons in Major League Baseball. He compiled 354 wins, ninth most in history, 4672 strikeouts, third most all-time, seven Cy Young Awards, most all-time, while winning two World Series. Clemens allegedly began taking steroids in 1998. His accuser, Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens personal trainer from the year 1998 through the year 2007, testified to a senate judiciary committee, under oath that Roger Clemens began taking steroids not only to bulk up his aging body, but to help aid recovery time in between games. For athletes, the benefits from steroids come in the form of accelerated recovery from injury and from workouts, allowing them to exercise harder and more frequently. For a pitcher, especially aging pitchers, steroids help them bounce back between games† (Thompson, Vinto, O’Keeffe, & Red, 2009, p. 32). Roger Clemens denies these accusations and even fi led a defamation lawsuit again Brian McNamee that was eventually thrown out of court. If Roger Clemens used steroids, would he have won 354 games, or struck out 4672 hitters? Would Roger Clemens have won two World Series championships and seven Cy Young awards? Unfortunately, baseball fans may never know whether or not Roger Clemens took steroids; therefore these fans will never know the answer to these questions. However, just the question itself brings doubt to the legitimacy of Roger Clemens’ records and accomplishments. Broken records are not the only way rampant steroid use changed the face of Major League Baseball. In 1994 a labor dispute between the players and the owners resulted in a work stoppage. For the first time in the league’s 123 year history, a player’s strike resulted in the cancellation of Major League Baseball’s playoffs and World Series. Prior to the strike of 1994 Major League Baseball’s popularity was at an all-time high. Attendance reached a record high 70,257,938 in 1993. The previous record was set in 1991 at 56,813,760. Unfortunately for Major League Baseball, attendance figures dropped dramatically following the strike. Attendance figures from 1995 through 1997reached an average of 57,911,768 per year. Nineteen ninety-eight was a completely different story. Attendance figures hit a record high of 70,601,147 in large part because of the homerun race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Baseballchronology. om (n. d. ) provides statistical attendance facts. Television ratings reached an all-time high because of the large number of fans who wanted to watch every Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa at bat. Major League Baseball’s popularity was again at an all-time high. Owners and players benefitted greatly because of the substantial increase in revenue. Although there were many rumors concerning steroid use among players in Major League Baseball; neither the Major League Baseball’s Players Association or Major League Baseball’s Owners cared to implement a steroid testing program. Rampant steroid use among Major League Baseball Players was just a rumor in 1998. If the two sides agreed to test for steroids and those test turned up positive results in some of the game’s biggest names, attendance would fall once again. This was simply too much of a risk. Owners decided to look the other way, hoping rumors would fade. Rampant steroid use among players has changed the face of Major League Baseball negatively. First, steroid use among players changed the face of Major League Baseball’s record book. Second steroid use among players help drive attendance up by captivating fans from around America who had no idea players were shattering records because of the use of an illegal substance. Third, steroids use among players helped players and owners line their pockets with millions of dollars in revenue this attendance increase generated. Finally, any accomplishment a player has achieved in the last 15 years is in question from fans of Major League Baseball because these fans do not know every player who used steroids. This is an unfortunate reality for players who achieved greatness through hard work; without the aid of any