Have you noticed the size of Barry Bonds’ entire body over the past couple years? His muscles grew big, and his endurance increased over time which allowed him to play baseball for as long as he had. Barry Bonds was a baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Francisco Giants for 21 years. He had to overcome some huge injuries, including a huge knee problem at the end of his career. The only way that he was able to lift so much while he still was recovering is a topic that has been discussed for a long time. Steroids are the only possible explanation. His era of play included such players as Sammy Sosa, who was caught using a doctored bat during a game and also Mark McGuwire, who has admitted to using steroids and performance enhancing drugs. Barry Bonds shares one characteristic between these players; he cheated the game. Although he has not been caught, Barry Bonds should be convicted of using Human Growth Hormones and Performance Enhancing Drugs such as steroids.
Barry Bonds should be convicted of using steroids because of the evidence that has been discovered. The urine samples that Major League Baseball took from Bonds have shown evidence that indicate he has used performance enhancing drugs. “A person who has reviewed the evidence said that the authorities detected anabolic steroids in urine samples linked to Bonds that the authorities gathered in connection with their investigation” (Schmidt). This fact indicates that Major League Baseball knows that he used the steroids, but the officials are too languid to make Bonds come out and tell the truth instead of lying like he has in the past. Congress also has taken urine samples from Bonds, but has listed them and marked them as confidential evidence. Also, Barr...
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...ar fans point of view, Bonds has ruined the modern era of baseball for fans in America. Barry Bonds should be extremely ashamed of himself and embarrassed for all of the hurt that he has caused to the game of baseball.
Works Cited
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Fainaru-Wada, Mark, and Lance Williams. Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and
the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports. New York: Gotham, 2006. Print.
Schmidt, Michael S. "Selig Says Steroid Era Is Basically Over - NYTimes.com." The
New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 11 Jan. 2010. Web. 19 May 2010.
Schmidt, Michael S. "The New York Times Log In." The New York Times – Breaking
News, World News & Multimedia. 28 Jan. 2009. Web. 6 May 2010.
To fully understand this book, people must go behind the book and find the true state of mind of the author. Unfortunately in this case, the author is the one and only Jose Canseco. Jose Canseco is what I like to call, “The black sheep in the family of baseball.” Canseco’s history can be related to such incidents of drug using, heavy drinking, numerous sexual encounters with hundreds of partners, and unreasonable acts of violence. This book goes into grave detail on how steroids have changed his life and how it is currently changing baseball.
Players since the beginning of baseball have used some type of drug to enhance their game such as in 1889 Pud Galvin ingested monkey testosterone and Grover Cleveland Alexander used banned alcohol to enhance his game (Chafets). This should prove that baseball will never fully stop the use of PEDs, they can only cover up the ones that have. As Zev Chafets puts it “Chemical enhancement won’t kill the game; it is the cover-up that could be fatal” (Chafets). This cover up will ultimately hurt the game of baseball so the league should give the players the opportunity to use the PEDs, and if they choose not to then that is their decision ...
Babe Ruth. Hank Aaron. Nolan Ryan. Cal Ripken Jr. These outstanding Major League Baseball players deservedly earned their spot in baseball’s Hall of Fame. Hank Aaron held the league’s home run record with 755 for 33 years, until it was broken by Barry Bonds at the height of the steroid era (Andy). Aaron has never been accused of steroid use; however, Bonds has. Nolan Ryan can be found at the top of the all-time strikeout list, but Roger Clemens is not far behind. Once again, the former has never been proven to have been on steroids, while the latter was found guilty. It is not fair to the players who achieved their greatness on their own merit to be surpassed, or even grouped alongside, those who cheated the game. The Hall of Fame needs to
Major League Baseball (MLB) has widely been regarded as America’s pastime for the longest time, however it is now becoming known as the sport tainted by one thing, anabolic steroids. An anabolic steroid is related to the natural steroid, testosterone. They are able to stimulate growth in the muscle tissue. They usually increase muscle mass and strength. The MLB has created some of the most historic American icons, such as Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Players like them showed us what it was like to play baseball the right way. They played with passion, heart, and above all they had fun playing. Players today in the MLB focus way too much on becoming the best player ever to play. They see what the greats did before them and they want to match them, so they turn to anabolic steroids. An example of this is Alex Rodriguez. In 2003 he tested positive for anabolic steroids because he was “naïve” and couldn’t take the pressure of his expectations of being called the best. He felt the pressure from the game and he turned to steroids. Anabolic steroids are ruining the game of baseball. They are tainting the records and the changing the game for the worse.
Steroids in baseball, particularly in Major League Baseball (MLB), have become a major issue. Two specific athletes have affected Major league Baseball dramatically; these players are Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. It is hard to catch a steroid user. Don Catlin, a former director at the UCLA Olympic testing lab says time after time they try to find the users and test them method, after they have evidence, however, this method does not work (Quinn). Mark McGwire’s and Barry Bonds’ use of steroids affected baseball in terms of trust issues, record holders, drug policies, and the future of baseball.
Throughout the history of America’s pastime, baseball has continually battled scandals and controversies. From the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal to the current steroid debate, baseball has lived in a century of turmoil. While many of these scandals affected multiple players and brought shame to teams, none have affected a single player more than the 1980’s Pete Rose betting scandal. Aside from the public humiliation he brought his family and the Cincinnati Reds, nothing has done more to hurt Pete Rose than his lifetime ban from baseball making him ineligible for hall of fame. While many are for and against putting Pete Rose in the hall of fame, the four ethical theories, Kantianism, Utilitarianism, Egoism, and Ethical Realism, each have their own unique answer to the question. Through Kantianism Pete Rose should be inducted into the hall of fame, while Egoism, Utilitarianism and Ethical Realism all support the lifetime ban.
Many baseball athletes believe steroids will give them an edge on the game by making themselves stronger. This is true in the respect that it makes the athlete stronger and more superior but they also cause more problems then they solve.
...sport continues to gain the reputation of a game of cheaters. Steroids are not fair to the players who worked hard everyday to achieve Hall of Fame status, without performance-enhancers. The MLB needs to eliminate drug use to regain the trust of the fans who love and respect the game. The game has seen a dirty past ten years and needs to reestablish their reputation as a fair league. Of course fans love watching their favorite player slug sixty plus homers in a season, but not if it is ultimately ruining the fairness of what was once a clean game. Selig needed to end the “Steroid Era” seven years earlier to save the reputations of Hall of Fame caliber players. Whose to know what steroid allegations will arise in the next few years to tarnish another all-star‘s shot at Cooperstown? Baseball will only regain its credibility when steroids are not present in any player.
Performance enhancing drugs have been a longstanding problem in sports. It not only deteriorates the honesty of the game, but also can have broader social affects that one may not even realize. The use of performance enhancing drugs is especially apparent in Major League Baseball. This problem can be traced back to the 1980’s when baseball was facing one of its first “dark periods”. During the 1980’s Major League Baseball was experiencing a home run drought. Home run totals were down as far as they had been since Babe Ruth, and fans were seemingly becoming bored with the sport. The lack of home runs was a growing concern for players whose salary relied on home run totals. Players needed to find a quick way to boost their power and performance in order to keep the sport alive and to keep bringing in their paychecks. This desire for fame and fortune introduced steroids into Major League Baseball in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Home run totals jumped tremendously during these decades and players were willing to risk being caught using illegal substances in order to shine above the rest. New idols and role models started to sprout up from these outstanding home run statistics and young children started to take notice. This all came tumbling down when these new idols and role models who were making the big bucks and hitting the ball out of the park tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Here lie the affects of a growing social problem in sports. These famed athletes become walking advertisements and promotions for the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports. The influence professional athletes have over aspiring young athletes is very powerful and these roles models make it seem acceptable to use performance ...
Steroids need to be allowed in baseball because it will bring more excitement back into the game. “Steroids will cause baseball players to build more muscle which means that they will most likely increase their offensive stats. The stat that it will mostly increase is the homerun” (Vass). People that watch baseball unless they are die-hard baseball fans do not want to watch baseball to see a team play a good defensive game. They do not want to see a low scoring game. They watch the game of baseball hoping a player will hit the ball four hundred and fifty feet out of the ballpark. They want to see a player come up clutch and hit a walk off homerun to win the game for their team and their ...
The New York Times, n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 04 Dec. 2013 Dwyer, Jim. A. Undercover Police, Just About Everywhere.
Since at least the 1980’s performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) have been a major challenge in the world of Major League Baseball, and past trends indicate they will continue to pose an ongoing problem. A number of the most prominent and accomplished professional baseball players, such as Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Roger Clemens, are also the most famous examples of baseball players who have broken longstanding records, attracted countless numbers of fans, and allegedly have taken performance-enhancing drugs. Athletes who have been caught using steroids in order to increase and better their performance rates have been suspended, fined and traded from the teams on which they once played. Despite the punitive actions taken against them by the League and lawmakers, players continue to use performance-enhancing drugs and likely will continue to do so, because the associated athletic effects will draw more fans and bring more money to the individual player and franchise.
The era in sports from the late 90s and into the 2000s has often been nicknamed “The Steroid Age” due to the raging use of anabolic steroids and other PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) by professional athletes. The usage of drugs in sports has never been more prevalent during this time, and many people are making it their goal to put an end to the abuse. Influential athletes such as Lance Armstrong, Alex Rodriguez, and Roger Clemens, who were once held as the highest role models to the American people, now watch as their legacies are tarnished by accusations of drug use. The American population, and lovers of sports everywhere, have followed in astonishment through recent years as many beloved athletes reveal their dark secrets. As organizations such as the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) and BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) attempt to halt the use of PEDs, both the drug users and their high-end suppliers work diligently to avoid detection. The use of performance enhancing drugs in recent years has proven to be cancerous to the honesty and competition of modern sports. Although some strides have been made over the past few decades, the use of steroids is in full swing in Major League Baseball, The dangerous side effects of the drugs are often overlooked and many do not realize the message this sends to the youth. The support for halting the usage of PEDs is in need of attention or professional sports will face the loss of all progress made through the past two decades in its war on steroids.
The most well-known scandal is the Barry Bonds case. Barry Bonds was arguably the greatest home run hitter to ever play the game. He holds the all-time home run record, and the single season home run record. When he tested positive for steroids, the records he held became tainted. “When ...
Selby, Hubert Jr. Why I Continue to Write. LA weekly. < http:// www. laweekly. com/ink/99/14/wls-jz..php> 1999. 27 October 2003