Performance Enhancing Drugs in America's Pastime

Hodges, William A. (2014) Performance Enhancing Drugs in America's Pastime. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Dr. Charles Ross from History, The University of Mississippi.

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Abstract

Over the last couple of decades, steroids use has been a part of baseball. The goal of steroid users is to gain a physical advantage over other players in the league by taking these drugs. The drugs have a variety of different effects to benefit baseball players. Along with the benefits, steroids have many health risks. The history of steroids in baseball, although relatively recent, is still vast and is still being written. The MLB has worked hard to determine the proper action to deal with steroids. The first part of the thesis is to look into what steroids are and the effects they have on users, both positive and negative in determining if steroid use if worth the risk. The second part is to look into the history of steroid use in baseball, starting with Jose Canseco and going through the suspensions in 2013. The last part will look at the current policy on steroids and look at the future of the game and whether or not steroids should be legalized, and will show that steroids should remain illegal for the rest of baseball and those who used them should not be honored for their achievements. The primary resources for this include many articles from a variety of newspapers including the New York Times, USA Today, and many more. Another source of information includes the Mitchell Report to gain an understanding of the research MLB did to uncover the truth about steroid use. And finally Canseco’s books are used, as he is the one who started steroid use in baseball. Using these sources, the history of steroids in baseball is summarized here; ultimately concluding that steroid use has tainted baseball and should remain illegal.

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