Major League Baseball Case Study

WARNING: May Cause Severe Realization

Major League Baseball (MLB) was in a prosperous state in the early 90’s, attendance was growing; the Oakland Athletics, the Atlanta Braves, and the Toronto Blue Jays seemed to be in the World Series almost every year. The baseball world was as happy as could be, until the one fateful day in August of 1994. On August 12, 1994, The Major League Baseball Player

Association (MLBPA), decided enough was enough and that they would stop playing. The main issue the MLBPA had was that the owners wanted a salary cap and shared television revenue amongst the league, which would help the small market teams be able to compete in a fairer manor. More importantly, the owners wanted to achieve a higher profit. This walk-out

On top of that, painkiller addiction is a very kept under the rug issue that most people don’t talk too much about. With new information about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) which is described by the sports legacy institute, “Is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes

(and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma.” And the side effects being, “The brain degeneration is associated with memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, paranoia, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia” (What is

CTE?). These are the symptoms that are associated with what people call the dangerous side effect of anabolic steroids, “roid-rage.” It all tends to make a somewhat of an obvious connection, yet the media and the general public insists on anabolic steroid use to be a killer when in fact it can save lives, just like it saved Jeff Taylor’s life.

Jeff was diagnosed with HIV several years ago and started using anabolic steroids as a treatment after many painful days in the hospital. He then explains that his health increased

The “God-Father” of steroids in baseball, Jose Canseco, wrote in his tell-all book

Juiced, “[Major League Baseball] wanted steroids in the game to make it more exciting, hoping they would be able to build popularity back up after the disastrous cancellation of the 1994

World Series. So when I taught other players how to use steroids, no one lifter a finger to stop me” (Canseco, 4). It makes sense that the owners wouldn’t want to say anything about any suspicions they had, considering the owners were reaping the benefits. According to an article published on Forbes, “annual baseball revenues have soared from $3.6 billion in 2003 to over

$8 billion in 2013 (revenues were $1.9 billion in 1993). Forecasts put revenues as high as $9 billion in 2014” (Rein). To go from $1.9 billion just before the strike to $3.6 billion toward the end of the steroid era is fantastic and for it to continue to increase after the steroid era is even better for MLB. With the numbers in place, it is obvious that fans tend to appreciate and invest into a type of product in baseball that was more exciting than anyone had seen before, a game that was filled with home runs and larger than life athletes.

Anabolic steroids have had a huge impact on sports over the past couple of decades.