February 9, 2017,  Baseball, Uncategorized  No comments

Performance Enhancing Drugs are becoming more of an issue in today’s sports, which have led to more suspensions and fines than ever.

According to an article written in 2011 titled History of Steroid Use on intheknowzone.com, types of PED’s have been used since the times of the ancient Greeks in competitions. Things such as the pituri plant or hallucinogenic mushrooms were used to improve performance. In the 1860’s, swimmers in Amsterdam were charged with taking illegal drugs to speed up their races which has led to many athletes attempting to cheat to gain an edge over opponents throughout history.

There are many different types of PED’s. There may be too many to mention but listed in a 2016 article on treatment4addiction.com titled Performance Enhancing Drugs it is stated that anabolic steroids, HGH, diuretics, creatine, and other stimulants are all considered PED’s.

In an article written by Dan Peterson in February of 2009 entitled How Do Steroids Work, he explains the tearing and rebuilding process of muscles which leads to muscle growth. When weights are lifted, microfibers in muscles are torn down and testosterone is used to rebuild these muscles by adding additional fibers which results in stronger muscles. Steroids aid in this process by giving additional proteins or extra testosterone to these muscles resulting in even greater muscle growth.

In present day sports, any performance enhancing drug not prescribed has been deemed illegal due to an unfair advantage to other athletes but also due to health related issues in the athletes that use them. Leigh Ann Anderson states in a 2014 article titled Anabolic Steroids- Abuse, Side Effects and Safety that the abuse of steroids can lead to drastic side effects. Some of these side effects include severe acne, hair loss, high blood pressure, or extreme changes in mood.

All professional sports have strict no-tolerance policies on substance abuse. Perhaps the sport with the strictest of these policies is the MLB. Maury Brown mentions in his 2015 article List of Every 2015 MLB and Minor League Drug Suspension that as of November 10, 2015 there had been 103 drug suspensions for a total of 6,310 games without pay in professional baseball that year. This number may not seem high to some but that means around 1.4% of all the players have had a drug related suspension just in one season!

Professional sports are doing all they can to eliminate this issue of drug abuse. The most controversial issue in recent times has been the voting of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens for the hall of fame. Bonds, the all-time homerun leader with 762 and Clemens a 7-time Cy Young winner have not been voted into the hall of fame after multiple years on the ballots.

I believe that any player that uses PED’s is a disgrace to the game and there is no place in the hall of fame for them. But the issue is that suspected PED users have already been inducted into Cooperstown. Four players rumored to be users are Ryne Sandberg, Cal Ripken Jr., Tony Gwynn, and Paul Molitor. There is no proof of these players using but I believe if they are found guilty, that they should be removed from the hall of fame. But if any players are investigated and found guilty and still remain in the hall, that Bonds and Clemens should be treated the same. The sad thing is that potential PED users are in the hall of fame but Pete Rose may never be voted in.

The MLB and other professional sports leagues need to crack down and go back and do extensive research on these players. If not, there will be no real order to the voting processes pertaining to these users.