Hey everyone,
Well since it is almost baseball season for the MLB, and I'm a crazy Minnesota Twins fan, it's gotten me thinking a bit more about baseball lately. So I figured I would write about something baseball related, it is not really a positive aspect of the game, but in secrecy has unfortunately become a part of the game. I am talking about steroid usage. We tend to hear more and more about the use of the performance enhancing drugs as the years go on.
I have found an article back from November of 2003. In this article it says "Steroid use in baseball is no longer a rumor. It's a fact." So to me it seems that steroid use was sort of unheard of. They had heard rumors of big league players using steroids but no one believed it. So in the 2003 season they gave a drug test to all the players, 1,200 players were tested and 84 players tested positive. This was the MLB's first "slap in the face" that players were using illegal performance enhancing drugs. Cheating. The fine for it now is a 15 day unpaid suspension or a $10,000 fine. It doesn't seem like enough of a punishment to me. $10,000 isn't that big of a deal for an MLB player, and a 15 day unpaid suspension isn't really going to hurt them financially!
It really isn't enough of a punishment because look at all the little kids that look up to them. There are not only influencing the kids into thinking that steriods are alright, but they may be letting the kids down. Kids do not want to see their role models do wrong. Just look at the role models that are out there now who have done steroids. Three major ones are Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa. Among these players there are more, I have found a list of a handful of players who have used steriods.
In my opinion, the players should be suspended and fined but for more than the punishment they get now. And, I really don't think that they should tell the public who is doing steriods, just no make it so public. Kids and others could look at that and maybe think it's alright, because they never really hear about the negative things that happen to the players who are doing the drugs. All that really gets shown in the media is that they were using and then they show the player, maybe at a press conference, apoligizing. That isn't enough!!
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Ashley, I most definitely, 100%, agree with this post. One of my biggest pet peeves in the MLB is steroid use and such. The consequences for these players is just like paying a speeding ticket (In the States anyways, they are much more expensive in Canada) Most of the players could probably pay the fine straight out of pocket money. I hate how the players go on for years saying they never did such a thing... Stop accusing them... Then 5 years later they have a press conference explaining and apologizing for their substance abuse. Let's get real.
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