Alexander Marcinko
The Steroid Epidemic: Who’s to Blame?
I Introduction
During the nineteen nineties, steroids completely consumed major league baseball (MLB). In his book, David Wells claims that 25-40% (Assael) of all big leaguers use steroids. Known steroid dealers were often spotted hanging around the clubhouses of many of the MLB teams. It was well known throughout baseball that players were using steroids. The game shifted into a game of big power hits and lots of homeruns. After the MLB players union went on strike in 1994 the league needed a new way to draw the fans back in and this new upsurge of hitting was just the attraction that the league needed. Many players who had been known as smaller non-power hitters seemed to instantly bulk up and begin to hit 400 and 500 foot home runs with ease.
No one acted like they even noticed; everyone seemed to be in awe of the incredible hitting ability that these players now possessed. No one even questioned it. Though it was obvious to the general public, steroids ripped through major league baseball. How was this allowed to happen? How did the nineties become known as the steroid era? Who do we blame?
II Effects of Steroids
Steroids can have multiple effects upon a human being: some good, some bad. They can increase speed, strength and endurance. They can also lead to many health problems, both physical and mental. Steroids can also have an effect on the game of baseball and society as a whole.
Steroids gave a distinct change to the game during the nineteen nineties. The helped to make it possible for there to be a shift in the style of play of the game, making it a game of power hitting. This caused more and more players to use steroids than before to keep up with the change in the pace of the game. This has also effected America’s youth. More high school athletes are beginning to use steroids every day. To become better at their respective sport faster than with conventional practice and exercise. This is an incredible problem because these young athletes as well as the professional athletes that they idolize are only thinking about how the steroids will help them now. What these young athletes and pros are forgetting is the long term effects that steroids have upon the body.
In the immediate steroids appear to be very positive. Get stronger in far less time than normal. Become faster than before. Insulin is commonly used to increase stamina. Another steroid known as the human growth hormone (hGH) (Assael) can even increase hand-eye coordination making the user into an even better athlete. Some of the immediate effects of steroids can also be negative. Users often suffer from a significant increase in acne and hair growth on the body, particularly the back. Users also become very moody. They go into what are called “Roid Rages” where they become violently and uncontrollably angry over seemingly nothing. Male users often experience a shrinking of the testes because the body begins to produce lees testosterone than before (Madea).
In the long run steroid users can experience a wide range of physical effects. Steroid use has been proven to increase liver and cardiovascular problems. Androstenedione (andro), the anabolic steroid that mark
McGuire used during the 1998 homerun race, has been linked to causing serious heart damage. Steroids have also been shown to cause severe joint damage (King) to the extent causing knee injuries, such as torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), torn medial cruciate ligament (MCL), and torn menisci. During the “Steroid Era” team doctors were also said to report an increase in torn hamstrings (Assael) because the muscles grew too much for them to hold to the bone. When steroid users do go off of steroids they also experience an intense loss of muscle and become very “flabby.”
Steroids though they have some benefits, they bring with them far too great of risks and can cause far too much damage to the human body. The use of them in professional sports also does harm no just to those who use it. It also does damage to Americas youth by making them want to use it to use to cause them to improve in athletics. Steroid use can only be seen as a bad thing regardless of what positive things it can do to the body.
III Bringing Down a Juicer
One major problem with stopping the spread was that it was incredibly hard to catch someone who was using steroids. The drug policy that was instituted in the MLB during the nineties was incredibly weak and did not provide for random drug testing. This makes catching someone who is clearly on steroids very difficult. Bringing down a “juicer” was very similar to trying to bring down a mafia figure.
Everyone was able to point out a guy who was on steroids just like everyone knew guys who were the heads of mobs. The players on steroids were always hitting unusually long homeruns and were spending a lot more time on the disabled list for injuries that were not very common in the pre steroid era. The guys who were on steroids were also growing in muscle size rapidly. Mobsters were also well known. Anyone in a neighborhood which was controlled by the mob could easily point out who was the head of the local mob. During the prohibition everyone also knew the big mobsters like Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, were known nation wide as mobsters, but bringing them down was a different story.
The major problem with stopping both juicers and mobsters was that there was never enough proof. In baseball even though it may have been obvious that a guy was using steroids, until they failed a drug test, nothing could be done. And because there were not any random drug tests it was almost impossible to be caught. Very similarly the problem with bringing down the large mobsters was that it was almost impossible to connect them to the crimes that they committed. One of the best examples of that is Al Capone. The police were never able to convict Capone on any counts of murder, robbery, or violating prohibition. The only thing that he was ever convicted of was tax evasion.
Another similarity between players using steroids and mobsters is that they both benefited from a crooked system. Mobsters would often pay off police officers and judges to get themselves “off the hook” for a crime. Steroid users basically did the same thing. Because the of the increase in homeruns being hit, more fans were being attracted back to baseball and this was making the baseball officials money, which was just like paying them off. All a player had to do was stop using a few weeks before the test and they would not be caught.
At first the comparison of a steroid user and a mobster may seem a bit absurd; they do have some distinctive similarities. They both are able to operate through a flawed and corrupt system. Both juicers and mobsters are well known yet can almost never be brought down because of a lack of proof.
IV Steroids Spread Through the Major Leagues
In the late nineteen eighties and earlier part of the nineties, steroid usage was isolated to a few members of the league. By the end of the decade steroid s had spread through the league like wildfire. By that point most of the leagues premier players were using steroids to enhance their level of play. How was the use of something as illegal as steroids able to spread so quickly?
On August 12, 1994, Major League baseball went on strike. The strike would last for 232 days finally ending on April 2, 1995. After the strike baseball had lost a lot of its previous popularity. On opening day many fans showed their disgust with the players and owners through various ways. At opening day for the New York Mets, three men with T-shirts that had the word “Greed” written on them, leaped onto the field and proceeded to toss more than $150 worth of one dollar bills at the players. In Cincinnati, one fan had a plane fly over the stadium dragging a sign that read “Players and Owners – To Hell With You!” Others showed their anger by just not showing up. Many teams reported opening day attendance numbers that were well below their normal levels. Baseball had clearly lost a hold on its fan base (Assael).
After this, baseball needed to find a way to win back its fans. When baseball officials noticed that fans were being attracted to baseball once again by the steroid fueled power hitting that was beginning to take over the game, they began to take advantage. They did not push for a stricter substance abuse plan, they did not try institute random drug testing, and they did not even allow team doctors to educate the players about the dangers of steroid use. The owners also did not push for a stricter drug policy for fear of another strike by the players. But the reality was that the owners wanted to make money and as more players used steroids to enhance their game the more money the owners made.
In the late nineteen eighties steroids were just starting to be used in baseball. They weren’t even added to the MLB’s 1991. But by then many guys were already abusing steroid use. The number of users would climb steadily over the next few years. By 1994 Padres general manager Randy Smith told the
LA Times “We all know there’s steroid use, and it is definitely becoming more prevalent.” He estimated that at the time 10-20% of the MLB players were using steroids. After the 1994 strike many players tried to “jump start” themselves back into play. By this point so many were juicing that others who had not before had a desire to use steroids founded themselves using just to keep up with the competition. So many more steroids were being developed that were tougher to detect. It became commonplace for guys who were known steroid dealers to hang around MLB clubhouses even at the knowledge of the owners. One such dealer, Curtis Wenzlaff, sat in the Oakland A’s owners box behind home plate during the 1988 World Series. When he was the manger of the Cincinnati Reds, Pete Rose encouraged his players to work out in a suburban Cincinnati Gold’s Gym with a trainer who was known to be a strong advocate of steroid use (Assael).
The 1998 homerun race between Sammy Sosa and Mark
McGuire became an exposition of what using steroid could do. Steve Wilstein was a reporter from the Associated Press who was assigned to cover the race. On July 12 while covering Mark
McGuire, he saw in
McGuire’s locker a bottle that was labeled “Androstenedione.” Wilstein researched the drug and found out that androstenedione (andro) is a substance which is one metabolic step down from testosterone, and is considered by most to be an anabolic steroid. At that time andro had already been banned from the NFL, NCAA, and the Olympics (Assael). It was proven to cause serious heart problems (King). This was only further proof of how MLB was almost encouraging steroid usage.
It became commonplace for guys who were known steroid dealers to hang around MLB clubhouses even at the knowledge of the owners. One such dealer, Curtis Wenzlaff, sat in the Oakland A’s owners box behind home plate during the 1988 World Series. When he was the manger of the Cincinnati Reds, Pete Rose encouraged his players to work out in a suburban Cincinnati Gold’s Gym with a trainer who was known to be a strong advocate of steroid use (Assael). Steroids were all around these players at all times. There was always a guy on the team who could hook another up with a steroid dealer. All they had to do was ask.
V So Who Do We Blame?
During the nineties there were many problems in Major League Baseball due to steroid use. Who is truly to blame for the wide spread use of steroids that infected the major leagues? On the surface it would appear that the players and the people who sold the steroids are the culprits. But as you begin to take a closer look at the situation many more guilty parties arise. All of whom contributed in some way or another to the steroid problem.
Obviously the players themselves are guilty. The players who used steroids knowing put a substance into their body which was illegal. Using steroids was against baseball rules since 1991. Any player who used steroids after that point broke the rules and is a cheater. But the players who did not use steroids but knew that their teammates were using them are guilty as well. They knew that other players were cheating and they said and did nothing about. Therefore they too are at fault.
The other obvious group which is guilty is the dealers. The sold an illegal substance to these players. Men like Victor Conte, of the Bay Area Laboratories Co. (BALCO), even went as far to try to develop new steroids that could not be detected by the drug tests. Other dealers were even supported by owners. Given full access to the players and given titles like “fitness trainers.”
The owners and managers also become at fault they knew that they had guys who were juicers and many of them even supported the use of steroids. It had become absurd. The people who were in charge of these teams, the people who are supposed to uphold the leagues rules had ignored them.
During the MLB winter meetings in 1998 several of the team doctors brought forth to league officials a suggestion that they send out information about the affects of steroids on their bodies. When told this, league officials told the doctors “We’ll think about it.” (Assael) That memo never got sent out. This negligence into the well being of the players is just further proof that the league was not concerned with controlling steroids. They had two reasons not to try to further regulate steroids: fear and greed. Steroids were bringing the fans back and making the league more money. So why should they stop steroids? They also had fear of another strike. After the 1994 strike, the players association had too much power. This caused league officials to worry that if they pushed for a stricter steroid policy there might be another strike, and they wanted to avoid that at any cost. Whichever the reason for their blatant disregard for steroid use, they did ignore the problem and they are a cause of the problem.
The final group and probably most powerful group were the fans and sports writers. At any point both could have put a stop to the steroid problem but chose not to. The writers just continued to report this remarkable increase in hitting and never questioning it. They just reported this with excitement. At anytime they had the power to expose it but they chose not to for whatever reason. As for us, the fans, we just watched in awe, spellbound by these seemingly miraculous homerun hitters. We never once openly questioned how these athletes were getting so big so fast or they had rapidly changed their style of play. We just sat back and enjoyed the show. I don’t know whether it was because we chose to ignore the signs because we, like the league officials, were afraid that if a stricter steroid policy was instituted that there could be another strike, leaving us without baseball. Or was it that we chose to be naďve because ignorance is bliss. We wanted to just believe in the purity of the game that we loved. We wanted to believe that we saw Mark
McGuire broke Roger Maris’ single season homerun record without the help of some chemical. But the reality of the situation is that he did use steroids and so did the rest of the league.
We are all to blame for the steroid explosion. Players, owners, dealers, managers, league officials, reporters, and fans we are all guilty. We all did nothing to stop steroids and for that we are all at fault.
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