Saturday, May 23, 2009

Are Steriods Completely Bad for Baseball?

I went to the Red Sox game last night and had a great time, even though they lost. As always I got so lost in the experience of the game that I completely forgot all my school problems, to do list for tomorrow, and all my other worries outside the safe heaven of Fenway Park. The only thing that was bothering me this night was that David Ortiz, he doesn't deserve the name Big Papi right now, had strucken out three times when he should have been creating the offensive spark the team so needed so badly being down the entire game. I looked at him as he walked back to the dugout after he went for the last "k" that night. He looked tired, not as bulky, not even really like a baseball player. He probably took the roids, I thought to myself. This doesn't mean I'm positive that he did but if I had to guess, him with about 70% of the league has taken steroids at one point. And now look at all the supposedly great power hitters who are hitting around .200 and on a pace to hit 10 home runs the entire season like David Ortiz, Jason Giambi, and Adrian Beltran. So I made up a little scenario if David Ortiz had taken steroids the past few years.

2004 is when he first made a big name for himself in baseball. He carried the Red Sox on his shoulders most of the playoffs and developed the name "Big Papi". Then between and including the years of 2004 and 2006 he amassed 143 home runs. In 2006, a year the Sox didn't even make the playoffs, he was the one of the man reasons that Fenway was sold out every night, so that people could witness his historic run to breaking the Red Sox franchise record for most home runs. " Big Papi" didn't just make baseball interesting for Red Sox fans, but all of baseball loved him. He hit tons of walk off homeruns and RBI's with his powerful bat and huge smile. He made the MLB better, improved it. But say that this year or next year someone finds out that he took steroids. The very same steroids that allowed him to win over Boston, New England, and eventually the Nation. Does this mean that him making baseball more exciting, more entertaining, and him making more money for the MLB was bad because he took performance enhancers?

THE WAY I SEE IT- This is just one scenario, the same type of questions could be asked about Manny, A-Rod, Barry Bonds, the list goes on. And to tell you the truth I don't 100% know the answer. One thing that has been ingrained in my head from, I guess the media, is that any type of steroids are bad. And I do agree that they take away from the sport, but does this mean that everything associated with these drugs makes baseball worse? I don't know but you could argue they allow players to take baseball to new levels of ability and excitement. I'm not sure and no one else is who I’ve asked, so I guess only time will tell.

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