James BellMarch 13, 2012Research Writing

Steroids Bad for SportsSteroids in sports have been around the game for many years. Steroids have been

around in sports for nearly five decades. So what are Steroids? “Steroids are any of a

large group of fat-soluble organic compounds, as the sterols, bile acids, and sex

hormones, most which have specifically had physiological actions and damages to the

body.” (Dictionary). So I bring up the question are Steroids good or bad for sports. There

are flaws when using steroids for Athletes in the long run after with medical issues.

Players can be suspended for number of games as well. There are strong points in which

steroids can make the game better. Many players were seeing an increase in their

numbers in every aspect of the game. Fan were tuning into baseball games to see what

was going to happen next. In my opinion I believe steroids in sports are a negative. They

are harmful for sports in favor of the few reasons given. Those reasons include; players

were being dishonest, health reasons, and ruining reputations of actual teams.

In baseball there are notable players who used the drug as a performance enhancer

to get an edge in the game. For an example some players in the Major League Baseball

(MLB) who used the enhancer include; Jose Canseco, Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez,

Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmerio, and Mark McGwire. (A) All these baseball players were

elite in the game and have all achieved something amazing in the game such as home-

runs or big plays. Home- runs are hits that going into the stands. Big plays can be

anything that has a huge impact on the game like a clutch hit or a crazy catch to save a

game. In the long haul most of these players were caught and suspended by MLB.

Mainly suspensions were in between ten to one hundred games depending on the

circumstances of the player. Some of those circumstances include if someone is a one

time offense, two time offense, and etc. Also with these athletes and their respected

careers it tarnished themselves by using the drug. They were trying to get ahead of the

pack and be the best they can be, but all they were doing was cheating.

The most known players who used steroids are Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Barry Bonds was a Pittsburgh Pirate before signing to San Francisco Giants in the 90s.

Early in his career he wasn’t known for his power in home runs than he went to the

Giants when his home run numbers sky rocketed. This was when he was first speculated

of using steroids. The year 2001 Bonds broke a three year record that was held by ex

steroid user Mark McGwire in home-runs in a season with 73. Years past Bonds was

breaking records left and right. (Almanac) Some other records he broke include; most

walks, most homeruns in a career, and even most consecutive most valuable player

awards (MVP) from 2001 to 2004.

So in 2003 the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (Balco) scandal appeared for

one of the best players in the game. Barry Bonds had to testify in a Grand-Jury too pleads

his case that he didn’t receive or take steroids from his personal trainer Greg Anderson.

(Williams) Four years later the Grand Jury indicted Bonds on lied under oath during the

Balco trial. They found out he lied based on the 2006 non-fiction book Game of

Shadows. The book showed interviews with Bonds and his trainer that he had used

steroids. Also has other proof of other baseball players using steroids in the book.

(Fainaru, Williams page 2) Bonds was charged with four counts of perjury and one count

of obstruction of Justice. Perjury is the willful act of swearing false act or oath. (Law

Library) Count of obstruction of justice is when someone lies about what they did too

higher authorities. (Law)

The trial lasted many years for Barry Bonds. In fact it lasted all the way to 2011.

After the trial he was sentenced to just community service and be placed on house arrest

because he was only charged with obstruction of justice at the end of the trial. (Now) In

my eyes he was guilty of all the charges and shouldn’t have been let off so easy. This was

bad for sports because it gave baseball a bad name by letting its poster child use steroids

and making the grand jury to find out his lies and not baseball. It damaged the sport just

because it was a huge legal fight and it took a very long time to figure out. As a fan of the

game what Barry Bonds did was ridiculous and was a complete disgrace because he

cheated by injecting himself with the performance enhancing drug. All the records he

broke in baseball are a shame and none of the records he broke should even count

because he broke the rules of the game. An interview I conducted with a good friend of

mine Japneet Dhillion views the same opinion as mine that all the records he broke

shouldn’t even count because he cheated. (Dhillion)

The next player who most is known for using steroids is Roger Clemens. Roger

Clemens is a seven time Cy-Young winner which is a high honor for a pitcher. Clemens

also has 300 plus wins as a pitcher. Roger Clemens also had over 4,000 strikeouts as a

pitcher. He was brought up in steroids by the Mitchell report. The Mitchell report is a

paper of the number of players who used and when they used steroids. (Mitchell) Roger

Clemens was one of the best pitchers of all time. When I heard the news of him using

steroids it was truly shocking.

With Clemens he faced similar charges like Barry Bonds because he lied to

congress when he got asked, “Did you use steroids”, and he answered with “no”. (Chron)

When the Mitchell report came out in 2009 saying Clemens used the drug. He got

charged with six felony counts involving perjury, false statements, and obstruction of

congress. (New York Times) The trial of Roger Clemens lasted over a year, but when it

was time for sentencing they just called it a mistrial because of prosecutorial misconduct

and the lack of evidence that was given. A mistrial if you don’t know is basically a trial

that’s invalid because of the lack of information given or fundamental errors. Most fans

didn’t really care if he was acquitted of the charges because once you are linked to

steroids you are linked for life making his career a joke. In my opinion I think he used the

steroids because most players who have been named in using have used to gain an edge

over the game. Roger Clemens had a competitive edge when playing pitcher for the

Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, and the Houston Astros. Most

of his wins while using steroids were in a New York Yankee uniform.

Using steroids can affect someone in the long run with health problems. There are

number of issues that evolve steroids. One of them is liver damage. This is bad because

your life is probably cut short and will need a liver transplant to stay alive if lucky.

Another issue is acne. With acne it’s everywhere when using steroids it’s in random

places basically. The places where it shows up include your face, back, chest, and even

your butt. I believe this is horrible because it affects your appearance with people and

makes people look at you in disgust. The next issue is it stunts an individual’s growth. No

one wants this in sports because height advantage is key to sports in playing baseball,

basketball, and football as well. Another issue is a person’s sterility. The problem this

causes is the man not be able to get an erection and has the lack of sperm. This is why I

would never use steroids because I want to satisfy a woman. Also that’s why you might

see baseball wives divorce their husbands. So a huge issue and most likely the number

one effect in steroids is roid rage. Roid rage is people who get very aggressive when

taking large amounts of steroids and begin to flip out on people for the oddest of reasons

and causing them to get violent with whoever is in their way. (Wedro)

A certain case comes to mind when talking about steroids and roid rage. The case

is the Chris Benoit story. (Press) Chris Benoit was a professional wrestler for World

Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Chris had a case of roid rage back in 2007 that turned

tragic. The incident happened on the night of June 27th 2007. The scene was like a horror

scene in a movie Chris Benoit killed his wife and son because he went crazy because he

had a high intake of steroids and other term he had roid rage. His roid rage was so bad he

killed two people he loved and also took his own life. Chris Benoit intake level was really

high when they did an autopsy on his body. They found multiple things in his system

including, different types of steroids, pain killers, testosterone. (Montgomery) The doctor

mostly found high intakes of steroids in his system. That’s why steroids can bad for

sports because certain cases like this can happen to people who use.

A team’s reputation can be changed just because a player has to use the drug for

their own personal gain. One of the changes is other teams in the league are going to look

at your team and say “You guys cheated when we played you guys because this

individual made you win this game” This individual who did use steroids had an impact

on the games that they won. For an example in 2002 World Series in baseball the San

Francisco Giants played the Anaheim Angels. This relates to how a player can have an

impact on games they won because one of the Giants players was Barry Bonds a steroid

user at the time. They wouldn’t even made the World Series without Barry Bonds having

a great season and post season.

Another way a team’s reputation can be changed based on someone using steroids

is the impact on free agency that they can have. A certain player can sign with any team

that they want to in the off-season when their contracts are up. With someone using

steroids on your team it can affect where someone goes to play in the off-season. A

certain player doesn’t want to play for a cheater and when that individual who did use has

an impact on where someone plays next season. For my own personal experiences while

watching sports and sportscenter on TV I see that a team who has a steroid user on their

team a certain player will not sign with that team. That player will not sign with that team

because they don’t problems going to that new team.

There are other players in sports who have used steroids other than baseball as

well. Football players who have used steroids include; Lyla Alzado, William Thomas

Romanowki, and Shawn Merriman. (Steroid) All of these players were highly known and

were great players, but they used steroids to gain advantage on football, and we all know

that is cheating. Also mixed martial artists (MMA) have used steroids to get advantage on

their opponents and to win a specific fight. For an example in 2010 an Ultimate Fighter

Championship (UFC) fighter known as Chael Sonnen had steroids in his system after a

fight with probably the best fighter in the world Anderson Silva. (Cage Potato) They

found it in his system by a random drug test after the fight with Silva. I believe Sonnen

used steroids because he wanted to win his fight and thought there’s no way beating him

normally so he used steroids to make him think he would win.

In conclusion I truly believe that steroids are bad for sports. I believe steroids are

bad for sports for a few reasons. Those three reasons did include; players dishonesty to

the game that they are playing, health reasons, and a team’s reputation that is on the line.

A final remark that I would like to make is anyone who uses and plans on using don’t

because of the risks that can be brought upon from it.

Work Cited:

Press, Associated. "Cops Eye Roid Rage.”. MSNBC, Jan 27 2007. Web. 4 Mar 2012.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/19424899/

A, Mike. "Roid Rage.”. N.P., mar 10th 2010. Web. Mar 2nd 2012.

<http://bleacherreport.com/articles/360500-roid-rage-ranking-the-ten-best-baseball-

players-who-used-steroids>.

Now, L.A. "Barry Bonds Convicted." L.A. Now. N.p., April 13th. 2011. Web. mar. 2nd

2012. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/04/barry-bonds-verdict-.html

.

Williams, Lance. "Bonds Used Steroids." Sf gate. N.p., Oct 16 2004. Web. 4 Mar 2012.

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/16/MNG0D9B5K21.DTL&ao

=all>.

Wedro, BenJamin, ed. "Anabolic Steroids." medicine. Net. Steroids, n.d. Web. 4 Mar

2012. <http://www.medicinenet.com/anabolic_steroid_abuse

Dictionary , . "Steroid." . N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar 2012.

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/steroid>.

New York Times, . "Clemens Lied about doping." . New York Times, 19th Aug. 2010.

Web. 5 Mar 2012.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/sports/baseball/20clemens.html>.

Mitchell, George. "Mitchell." Baseball Almanac. N.p., 13th Dec 2007. Web. 5 Mar 2012.

<http://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/Mitchell_Report.shtml>.

Almanac, Baseball. "Barry Bonds 73 Home Runs." Baseball Almanac. N.p., n.d. Web. 5

Mar 2012. <http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats0.shtml>.

Fainaru-Wada, Mark, , and Williams, Lance. Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO,

and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports. New York, NY: Gotham

Publishing, 2006.

Law , Find. "US COde Chapter 73 Obstruction of Justice." . N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar 2012.

<http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/73>.

Law Library, The Electric. "legal Definition of Perjury." . N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar 2012.

<http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/p032.htm>.

Montgomery, James. "Chris Benoit had Steroids." . N.p., 17 July 2007. Web. 6 Mar 2012.

<http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1564953/chris-benoit-had-steroids-his-

system.jhtml>.

Steroid , E. "Steroids in Football." . N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar 2012. <http://www.e-

steroid.com/steroid-articles/steroids-in-football.html>.

Chron, . "Clemens Defense." . N.p., 13th July 2011. Web. 6 Mar 2012.

<http://blog.chron.com/clemens/2011/07/clemens-defense-counters-governments-claims-

in-opening-statements/>.

Dhillion, Japneet. Personal Interview. 01 MAR 2012.