Steroids In Baseball

A topic that is in almost every sports conversation is steroids in baseball. In the past couple years; questions about steroid use in Major League Baseball have become a major issue, so much so that the government has become involved in the investigation. This investigation mostly involves BALCO, which is a Supplement Company that supplied some players with steroids. Some of the bigger names that are connected to BALCO and the steroid investigation are Rafael Palmero, Jason Giambi, and Barry Bonds. With me being a big sports fan, I am very interested in knowing the whole story.

(reference 1)Anabolic steroids are the synthetic derivatives of the naturally occurring male anabolic hormone testosterone. Testosterone's natural effects trigger the maturing of the male reproductive system in puberty, including the growth of body hair and the deepening of the voice. The hormone's anabolic effect helps the body retain dietary protein, which aids in the development of muscles. (reference 4)"There can be a whole panoply of side effects, even with prescribed doses," says Dr. Wadler. "Some are visible to the naked eye and some are internal. Some are physical, other are psychological. With unsupervised steroid use, wanton Ð''megadosing' or stacking the effects can be irreversible or undetected until it's too late." Also, if anabolic steroids are injected, transmitting or contracting HIV and Hepatitis B through shared needle use is a very real concern. Additionally, Dr. Wadler stresses that "unlike almost all other drugs, all steroid based hormones have one unique characteristic; their dangers may not be manifest for months, years and even decades. Therefore, long after you gave them up you may develop side effects." Although anabolic steroids are derived from a male sex hormone, men who take them may actually experience a "feminization" effect along with a decrease in normal male sexual function. Some side effects include reduced sperm count, impotence, and development of breasts, shrinking of the testicles and difficulty or pain while urinating. For women, they often experience a "masculinization" effect from anabolic steroids, including facial hair growth, deepened voice, breast reduction and menstrual cycle changes. With continued use of anabolic steroids, both sexes can experience effects that range from the merely unsightly to the life endangering such as acne, clotting disorders, liver damage, premature heart attacks and strokes, elevated cholesterol levels and weakened tendons.

(reference 1) Steroids can be taken orally or they can be injected. Those that are injected are broken down into additional categories, those that are very long lasting and those that last a shorter time. In recent years, use has shifted to the latter category shorter lasting, water soluble injection. "The reason for that is that the side effects associated for the oral form were discovered to be especially worrisome for the liver," says Dr. Wadler. "But the injectable steroids are not free of side effects either. There is no free ride and there is a price to be paid with either form."

(reference 1)For adolescents, anabolic steroids can halt growth prematurely in adolescents. "What happens is that steroids close the growth centers in a kid's bones", says Dr. Wadler. "Once these growth plates are closed, they cannot reopen so adolescents that take too many steroids may end up shorter than they should have been."

Steroids have been around for a long time. There have probably been players who have used steroids back in the day and people either didn't notice or didn't care. When Mark Maguire was hitting seventy home runs in 1998, everyone was celebrating how great of player he was, no one even mentioned steroids. Not until 2001 when Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in a single season did people start talking about how Bonds got a lot bigger in muscle mass since he first came into the league, and how his head got bigger. All of a sudden people were speculating that Bonds took steroids and that's the only reason he hit 73 home runs. Then Jose Canseco, a former baseball player and known steroid user, came with a book called "Juiced." In it Jose stated that he say Barry use steroids and he accused other players of using as well. So with all this talk MLB began an investigation to find players who were using in the league. They later found out that a pharmaceutical company was supplying some trainers of players with steroids that were undetectable to tests, this company was called BALCO. BALCO was later investigated and convicted of supplying illegal steroids to trainers who then gave them to not just baseball players but to other athletes in different sports. Now that Bonds passed Babe Ruth for second in the all time homerun record, with 715 homeruns, Steroid talks about Barry using have come up again, not that they ever went away. People didn't want MLB to celebrate Bonds' 714th or 715th because everyone says that he cheated and that he doesn't deserve it, and MLB did not celebrate it, they said they only celebrate new record and bonds is only second behind Hank Aaron who has 744 homeruns.

Many players were being tested and many players were caught but some of the bigger names who were caught using steroids were Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmero, and Jason Giambi. Jason Giambi is the first basemen for the New York Yankees, one of the most popular baseball teams in the world if not the most popular team in the world, he was hitting homeruns like it was easy and he was an All-Star player. He told the federal grand jury that he injected himself with human growth hormone during the 2003 season and that he had started using steroids two years prior to that. Giambi had left the game of baseball for a little bit but then came back clean of any performance enhancing drugs and won the comeback player of the year for the 2005 season. Another big name that was used steroids was Rafael Palmero. Palmero was the first high profile player to fail MLB's drug test, he failed the test five months after he told congress that he had never used steroids in his life. (reference 3)Palmero was a hall of fame player, he had hit 500 homers and had 3,000 hits, and only 3 other players have ever done that in the history of the game. But unlike Giambi he did not come back. He was suspended or ten games after he failed the test but when he came back he was not the same player he once was and the Oriels sent him home for the rest of the season. Palmero never returned back to play baseball after the 2005 season.

Other Players failed drug tests and others admitted to using but none of them are as big as Barry Bonds. Bonds has the single season homerun record at 73, he is intentionally walked