...To a sports fan, it might seem as if with every news broadcast comes another suspension; some athlete, old or young, loses half of his or her season after failing a drug test. In professional sports, where job performance is the primary factor in an athlete’s salary and is practically the only aspect of the athlete that sports fans and owners care about, many professional athletes turn to performance enhancing drugs to gain a competitive edge. One sport in particular that has been overwhelmed with the use of performance enhancing drugs, commonly referred to as PEDs, is Major League Baseball, or the MLB. The issue of PEDs in the MLB has been a long-lasting one, and several of the most famous names in baseball, such as Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire,...
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...Tainted Idols In today’s society the use of drugs to enhance one’s performance is becoming a common trend in professional sports. These drugs help athletes to compete at a higher level. Not only do these professional athletes break many records and win trophies, they are making more money than ones who choose not to use performance enhancing drugs. Since salaries have increased in professional sports, so has the use of these drugs. While performance enhancing drugs were apparent in the past, they have become increasingly evident in the modern era, tainting the integrity of professional sports. The use of performance enhancing drugs has been around for many years. In World War II these drugs were given to German soldiers to increase their strength and aggressiveness (Edwards, 2006). However, these drugs became evident in the 1960 Olympic Games after a Dutch cyclist died. In 1963, a ban was placed on a list of prohibited drugs by the International Olympic Committee to prevent performance enhancing drugs from being used in sports. This list of prohibited drugs has grown substantially since (King, 2009). Even though there is growing evidence of serious health risk that come along with the use of performance enhancing drugs, they are still being produced and used at a rapid rate. Others would argue that use of performance enhancing drugs dates back thousands of years. There are stories of athletes ingesting ground horse hooves and sheep testicles for ancient Olympic Games to gain...
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...Performance Enhancement Drugs in Sports, the Ethical Choice In May 28, 2002, former Major League Baseball player Ken Caminiti admits to Sports Illustrated in the article “Caminiti Comes Clean” that he used steroids during his 1996 National League MVP (most valuable player) season with the San Diego Padres and he estimated that half of the players in the big leagues were also using steroids. He later died of a heart attack at age 40 where it was ruled by the New York Medical Examiner that drugs are a factor in his death. In October 5, 2007, track star Marion Jones admits to use steroids during the 2000 Olympic Games where she won three Gold Medals and two Bronze Medals. She was later sentenced to six months in prison for lying to the court and stripped off of all of her medals. Throughout history, there have been many stories of athletes using performance enhancing drugs, but none more than in the last 20 years. As technology advances in science as well as the media, more drugs has been engineer to enhance performance as well as the test to detect such drugs, as the results get to the hands of the media, the entire world would be at noticed in a manner of minutes. The fact is that performance enhancing drugs have existed since the time of the ancient Greek during the original Olympic Games from 776 BC – 393 BC. The question is why should we care? If most athletes are using it, is it a plain level field? And why is the government involved? Should the government be involved? ...
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...The use of performance-enhancing drugs by professional athletes also known as “doping” has been acknowledged a problem since the 1960’s. The issue has gained prominence in the last ten years according to Bay area laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) investigators. There are several types of performance-enhancing drugs including; anabolic steroids, stimulants, human growth hormone and supplements. Anabolic steroids are synthetic that help build fat into muscle faster to help an athlete become stronger and faster as a player to help dominate the sport they are staring in. Tetrahydrogestrinone, also called (THG) is the type of steroid purportedly used by many high-profile athletes, some athletes that caught using these drug; track star Marion Jones...
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...English 8 July 2014 The Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs Ryan Braun, a former Major League Baseball player was suspended for the rest of the baseball season for the use of performance enhancing drugs. Ryan Braun share with CNN News that “I am not perfect. I realize now that I have made some mistakes. And willing to accept the consequence of those actions.” The MLB’s commissioner points out that Braun had various unspecified breaches of the baseball’s drug program and violations labor of contract. For that reason, Ryan Braun will miss the total of 65 games without pay, the suspension will cause him to lose three million dollars out of his eight million salary. As an MLB spokesman shares with CNN that Braun is welcome to return after his suspension, as long as he’s making positive decisions that benefit Major League Baseball, whether it’s on field or off the field. Many professional athletes use PEDs to bulk up, build more muscles, and endurance; however, using PEDs nonstop can result in side effects like strokes, heart attacks, and death when used incorrectly. For the last couple of years, professional athletes from different sports have been caught for the use of PEDs or any other type of steroids, the players, usually a well-known person like Lance Armstrong and Alex Rodriguez. Although, the aid of performance enhancing drugs may provide entertainment to sports they also betray the values of sportsmanship; as well as give an unfair advantage over those who choose not to...
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...Editor: On August 8 in 2007 Barry Bonds broke the Major League Baseball (MLB) home run records by 31years. However, most major newspapers and magazines columns were indifferent and negative to his home run record. The expressions from them are very different from wild enthusiasms and cheers when he broke Mark McGwire’s single season home run record because Bonds is under suspicion for steroid use. Beside in these cases, major leaguers’ performance enhancing drugs stories rise out many different way such as Jose Canseco autobiography, Mark McGwire admits he uses the steroids and goes on to hit a then record 70 homers. According to the MLB official site, the investigation of MLB organization found that 5 percent to 7 percent of 1438 tests were positive about performance enhancing drugs during the 2003 season. The Major League player were used performance enhancing drug and even existence of the drug policy keep under suspicion about it nowadays . So, I think MLB need to improve current performance enhancing drugs policy. According to the MLB official site, Major League Baseball’s drug policy joint drug prevention and treatment program is established by agreement after the 2004 season between the MLB Players Association and the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball in order to ban baseball players’ performance enhancing drugs including anabolic steroids and other illegal drugs. There was one unannounced mandatory test for each player and random...
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...Baseball Players and Using Performance Enhancing Drugs In the recent years the use of steroids in professional sports has become widespread, and major league baseball is more than any other. This paper will discuss using performance enhancing drugs will not get players into the Hall of Fame. Players use performance enhancing drugs to gain a competitive advantage over other teams and players. The definition of cheating is violating rules or restrictions to gain an advantage. It’s plain and simple and is a form of cheating. Major league players who got in the hall of fame in the past used their pure natural talent. The purpose of the Hall of Fame is to recognize outstanding natural talent in the sport of Baseball. Look at our beloved long time baseball legends, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and many more. How would they feel to see professional baseball players cheat their way in and make it easy on themselves? Baseball meant so much to them and to see future players disrespect our baseball legends and allow them to go to Cooperstown, would be awful to past and present players. Baseball fans know players want to give it all and ultimately make it to the World Series and achieve other outstanding goals, but taking illegal drugs is taking it too far. This leads into the major league baseball punishments for using performance enhancing drugs. The major league baseball has punishments for players who use steroids and performance enhancing drugs. First...
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...Steroids and Baseball Many people have been questioning Major League Baseball (MLB) about its players using performance enhancing drugs such as steroids. This issue has become controversial because players are cheating to enhance their physical abilities of playing the sport. Many people believe it is immoral and isn’t fair to those who work hard every day through countless hours of practice, sweat, and extreme physical conditioning to get to where they are at; and others are cheating by taking steroids. A great example of performance enhancing drug abuse is the Barry Bonds era. We all believed that he was a man of unique strength and miraculous physical capabilities with his numerous homeruns, but then found out he was cheating by using steroids and made his accomplishments a disgrace to the sport and an embarrassment to its MLB fans. The MLB needs to enforce sterner random drug testing on its players, harsher fines, and repeated offenders should be banned from the sport so it may become a more moral sport. Steroids and other similar muscle building drugs are drugs that can actually increase your abilities instead of hindering them. Most organized sports associations setup a strict drug testing policy which allows very little room for mistakes. Despite the strict trends set by other associations, Major League Baseball still has an extremely lax drug testing policy and has been under heavy media scrutiny. The MLB should strengthen their drug abuse policy to eliminate...
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...Sports and Performance Enhancing Drugs John Alvarez Student #0588681 Essay 2 April 1, 2015 PHI – 010 Professor Andrea Yusim Words: 1,519 In a country that is obsessed with winning and competition, athletes, teams and even fans have tried to gain an advantage against their competition. As athletes become bigger, stronger and faster, the margin and window of opportunity to become the best athlete in their respective sports is surely becoming smaller and smaller. Many people will argue that performance enhancing drugs will help in promoting player health and recovery and that sports in general will benefit overall. In this paper, I will argue that the argument in favor of performance enhancement drug use is not valid because performance enhancing drugs are unethical, create unfair competitive advantages and do not promote the very essence of the value of sports which is hard work and team work. Team and individual sports in the United States is a very important part of culture. Athletes are revered for their prowess and mastery of their respective sports and are at times treated as demi-gods. Individual teams and entire leagues depend on these very athletes to compete at the highest level and with the utmost sense of integrity in order to show that their leagues are played ethically. So not only are athletes expected to be at their very best, they are also expected to do so without compromising the integrity of the sport such as cheating by using PEDs. In the article...
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...Does Steroids Provide An Unfair Advantage In Baseball or Does It Even The Playing Field? Baseball has been an American pastime for centuries and will be for centuries to come. Adults have been taking their children to baseball games since the Major Leagues first came about in the late 1800s. From the Philadelphia Phillies' great Astrodome to their current Citizens Bank Park or the Atlanta Braves' Fulton County Stadium to their more modern Turner Field baseball has been loved in America. Although the game is as old as it is, baseball has not changed even though the players continue to get better and better. Many fans first take is the use of steroids in baseball. But did steroids really help Barry Bonds become home run king? Because Hank Aaron had the record generations before and he reportedly never injected steroids. Every year it seems like a new player gets brought into the league that is going to be faster, stronger, and an overall better player; except the ones that have the records broken that is. Although steroids are supposed to make athletes bigger, faster, and stronger,; are steroids really making athlete's statistics better or simply bridging the gap between decent athletes and great ones? There are many aspects in hitting a baseball that coaches teach athletes at a young age. Seeing the ball well, swinging with your hips and not just your arms, being disciplined and not swinging at a ball out of the strike zone, these are all examples of what it takes to be a good...
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...Ethical issues regarding the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports In the history of 20th century sports, specifically in the post World War 2 era, there has been an ever increasing use of performance enhancing drugs in all avenues of sport. Sports have become money making machine for both athletes and big business and the “win at all costs” attitude which has permeated itself into all aspects of professional and college level athletics. Winners make money, losers don’t. The temptation of fame, notoriety and million dollar contracts in all venues of sport is a lure for many athletes. Elite professional athletes are worshiped in today’s society. This paper will elaborate on the use of performance enhancing drugs in the sporting world and the associated sports ethical issues. It is a majority belief in all sporting circles that the “true” spirit of sportsmanship does not allow any aspect of performance enhancing drugs. There are several arguments both in favor and against the use of performance enhancing drugs which will be presented and discussed in this paper. While addressing this ethical issue, we need to define the term ethics. Ethics can be defined as the socially accepted norms and values. These norms and values are varied from society to society and are based on culture and tradition. Ethics also could be defined as the unsaid, un-written and understood laws that prevail in a society. Ethics also cover what is right and what is wrong in society and teaches...
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...are most of the top athletes in the world risking their health just to get those big contracts that everyone in professional sports want? The first introduction to performance enhancing drugs was in the 1930’s, by a group of German scientists, where they created a form of testosterone. Now people use the drugs to help them become bigger, faster, and stronger. This then would lead to them either getting caught or getting the big contracts that Alex Rodriguez has, which neither A-Rod or any or the other athletes deserve to get. The use of steroids is putting a influence on the rest of the athletes and especially young athletes in high school. This is why the use of steroids has forever changed the face of professional sports, making it a world fueled by drug contacts instead of natural skill and talent. The introduction of steroids to the world was in the 1930’s, by a group of German scientists, trying to create a synthetic form of testosterone for men that weren’t able to produce enough hormones for growth, development, and the men who could not function correctly sexually (Anabolic). The scientists later decided to give the testosterone to the Soviet army, to become more powerful. This then led to the German Olympic coaches injecting most of their athletes with the testosterone to enhance their performances. Female athletes that they injected told people that they did not know what they were being injected with. People began to wonder why women...
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...of performance enhancing drugs, which is acceptable and encouraged by most fans. This day in age many professional athletes have evolved into “super human beings” taking sports into a new era; as history and statistics shows this could be due to the use of performance enhancing drugs. However, steroids have been known to cure certain illnesses but it can also cause many repercussions if used inappropriately. The History Steroids have been around for sometime time now, these days steroids have been widely known for its usage in professional sports. History shows that steroids were used as a medical treatment to assist in abnormal growth deficiencies. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy [ONDCP] (2008), steroids were developed in the late 1930’s primarily to treat hypogonadism, a condition in which the testes do not produce sufficient testosterone for normal growth, development, and sexual functioning. Thereafter, scientist discovered steroids enhanced the growth of skeletal muscle in laboratory test animals giving an appeal for humans to intake. By this discovery lead to an outbreak of athletic interest and abuse of steroids of several individuals, mainly bodybuilders, which started to experiment with steroids to get the same results as lab animals did. Eventually steroids were used by professional athletes of all sports. Steroids became a popular performance enhancing drug in sports due to its result of increasing an individual’s athletic performance. Through...
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...The steroid era created a great deal of change in baseball. Jayson Stark’s article “Bud Selig: 'Maybe I should have said more' about steroids” discusses Bud Selig’s feelings currently about the steroid era. Former Commissioner Selig said the result of the steroid era was that Major League Baseball ended up with the best drug testing in sports (Stark 1). The drug policy that is in place in Major League Baseball now didn’t get put in place overnight. There was no reason for steroid era players to be afraid of getting caught with steroids because the consequences would be minor at worst. Now there is a great deal of consequence if you are caught using performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball. The game is believed to be as “clean” as...
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...PED use in Athletics Performance enhancing drugs have been used by athletes for decades. In ancient Greece, some of the earliest Olympians used substances in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage. The drugs that they would use would either be plant seeds or extracts of mushrooms. Later in Rome, gladiators were known to have turned to drugs. The gladiators would dope for many different reasons, from dulling pain to creating a bloodier spectacle for viewers. In professional baseball, players like Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi were called in front of Congress to discuss steroid use in baseball for two weeks. Congress insisted that steroids were ruining the sport and needed to be banned when, in reality, reported revenues were vastly increased during the steroid era. Congress also preached about a level playing field, but the New York Yankees have a payroll three times that of average teams so how fair can the league really be without a salary cap. This research paper is not on the fairness of baseball though; it is about why a person would choose to do PEDs and how it affects society. Looking at some of the influences presented; it is shown that winning is a major force, a motive and drive; going deeper into winning we conclude that money is one of the major rewards for winning. These are seen as endorsements, contracts, and advertisement opportunities that are very profitable and also sponsor individual players and teams in sports. These revenues influence and encourage individuals...
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