How eave these performance-enhancing drugs affected the game of baseball? Steroids, human growth hormones, and amphetamines have a large impact on a player’s performance during the season. Steroids and human growth hormones help the body get over the peak and push the muscles to their full potential. Amphetamines increase your focus, along with increasing your quadriceps strength. These drugs are changing the culture of the game by increasing the standards of play. Up until the mid asses the total amount of homeruns hit per year was steady, ranging between 2,000 and 3,500.
Since then, the totals have Jumped between 4,000 to 5,500 home nuns per year, changing the game completely and focusing all eyes on the impact of the increased use of performance-enhancing drugs. While doing research on this topic, I came across many different scholarly articles dating back to the asses. There are numerous sources relating to performance- enhancing drugs and players that have gotten caught by the league. I have come to realize how much this trend is affecting the league of baseball and the differences between how the game is played today compared to thirty years ago.
As I researched these drugs, I began to understand how they function. Due to the new appearance of Hess drugs in the ML, all scientific information about steroids, HIGH, and amphetamines has not been fully investigated. Currently, testing is being performed to help answer the unknown facts. Theme, Titled. Hammerheads, Peter. “History of Doping and Doping History’ Doping in sports. Book. April. 2010. In the book, “Doping in Sports,” it covers countless aspects of performance-enhancing drugs. The authors, Theme and Hammerheads, wrote the first chapter in this book called “History of Doping and Doping Control. This chapter focuses on when these drugs first were discovered. Throughout the chapter, Theme and Hammerheads gives a title background on the early history of amphetamines and anabolic steroids. Testosterone was crystallized into a pure substance in 1935 by E. Lacquer and coworkers. After it was crystallized, pharmaceutical companies used it as a natural hormone. Theme and Hammerheads writes about the lack of knowledge around these drugs in the late asses. People were informed that they would increase aggression and provide more strength.
This was the start of the performance- enhancing drug battle in professional sports. In that same chapter, Theme and Hammerheads continues to discuss the initial use f these drugs. Theme and Hammerheads states, “Testosterone was given to soldiers during World War II to increase their aggression, and Doll Hitler used testosterone just after it had been synthesized. ” This goes to show that these drugs weren’t used in sports right away, although they were used to enhance the soldier’s aggression and strength. This would in turn help them on the battle field and possibly save their lives.
One of the first anabolic steroid substances that was found to be performance- enhancing was Culbertson. “Culbertson – already known for its misuse in animal duration for enhanced muscle growth – was undoubtedly an anabolic, but certainly no steroid. ” Culbertson wasn’t considered a steroid in the ML but was attributed to muscle growth. This is considered illegal because players started to hit the ball harder and farther. This was the start of something the league knew wasn’t going to end without a fight. Slobber, Joe, and Richard Ringer. Performance-Enhancing Drug Use In Baseball: The Impact Of Culture. ” Ethics & Behavior 21. 2 (201 1): 91-102. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb.. 2014. In “Performance-Enhancing Drug Use In Baseball,” Joe Slobber tries to uncover the season why professional baseball players use performance-enhancing drugs. Slobber accomplishes this by looking at the past and present cultural impact players face over time. Sport researchers have seen the values and norms implanted in highly competitive sports change over time. These range from the social norms of sportsmanship to fair play.
Slobber states that no matter how the values and norms change within the league, it allows players to ignore normal societal restraints. As these changes are taking place, winning is a much higher priority than fair play. The author discusses how the leadership of professional baseball players is slowly coming alternated from the mid asses to present. Fame and wealth is becoming directly related to the number and explosiveness of home runs. In “Performance-Enhancing Drug Use In Baseball: The Impact Of Culture,” the author Joe Slobber looks at a different aspect of performance enhancing drugs in professional baseball.
Slobber explains the cultural change and why performance- enhancing drugs are becoming more popular. Slobber says, “Home run hitters have always enjoyed greater prominence in baseball than all other players; this distinction is best illustrated by the quote, “Home run hitters drive Cadillac’s. Singles hitters drive Fords” From this quote, you could perceive that hitting home runs has been and will always be important and beneficial for a professionals personal stock. This creates the impression that home run hitters are more valuable and useful than single hitters.
Slobber states that because of this pressure and change of the culture, more baseball players began to test things like steroids, HIGH, and amphetamines. Players would take these drugs to increase their overall performance, which directly increased their leadership and allow them to become recognized throughout the league. Slobber discusses, “The home run chase between McGuire and Soya was Just another piece of evidence for baseball’s leadership that the popularity of the sport was driven by the prevalence of the home run. This was a big focus point in baseball because Soya and McGuire were the two best hitters in the league at the time. The battle between these two was close and intense, which backed up Slobbers argument of the changes in professional baseball culture. Performance-enhancing drugs have become a necessity for a lot of players due to these cultural changes. This, John M. , Minder S. Ocher, and Richard J. Hawkins. “Recovering Aids: A Review Of Basic Science, Performance, Side Effects, And Status In Sports. ” American Journal Of Sports Medicine 32. 6 (2004): 1543-1553.
Academic In the article “Recovering Aids: A Review Of Basic Science, Performance, Side Effects, And Status In Sports” the authors This, John M. , Minder S. Ocher, and Richard Hawkins talk about all of the performance enhancing drugs out there. These authors inform us of the positive and negative affects of these performance-enhancing drugs. Different performance-enhancing drugs are available on the black market; some of Hess mentioned in the article are Anabolic steroid, Human growth hormone, Amphetamines, and Creating. This, John M. , Ocher, and Hawkins focus is to help inform coaches, players, and trainers about these drugs.
Due to the lack of research, most people don’t know the negative side effects of steroids but are only informed of the positive results. Through the many years of research, the authors state, “Some studies have shown minimal effects on body composition and strength, 24, 35 whereas others have shown that psychophysiology doses of testosterone or its derivatives can lead to an increase n fat-free mass and muscle size and strength in humans. ” The study of anabolic steroids and human growth hormones is fairly new, which leaves a lot of questions to still be answered.
If these drugs do increase far-free mass, muscle size, and strength, it would have a direct relationship with a player’s performance. The players in the professional baseball league already have good mechanics, so the stronger they can get, the more power they exert while hitting or throwing. The authors also states the affects an amphetamine has on an athlete’s performance. The article noted “One such study noted improvements in quadriceps strength and anaerobic capacity with Dexedrine administration. ” This study shows us that amphetamines do have a positive effect on your performance.
If a player’s quadriceps strength is increased, it will result in throwing harder and hitting the ball farther. A substance in these drugs is called Dexedrine, which allows runners to be at their fastest for a maximum period of time. Throughout this scholarly article, the author’s purpose is to help inform the audience of all the current information on performance enhancing drugs. “ML Extending Investigation of Performance-enhancing Drugs to Players’ Agents. ” NY Daily News. N. P. , n. D. Web. 26 Feb.. 2014. Performance-enhancing drugs are banned from the league but they are still consumed by a lot of players.
In “ML extending investigation of performance- enhancing drugs to players’ agents” the authors inform us about how some of these players get into the use of these substances. Many authors contributed to the article’s findings, quoting that players are willing to take the risk of getting tested for performance-enhancing drugs if it means they perform better and make a statement for their name. The NY Daily news talks about how there are also players out there that get influenced by their agents to take these drugs because it will increase performance, which will eventually increase salaries.
The article compiled information from the different situations that have occurred due to the upraise of performance-enhancing drugs. These different authors each gathered their own information from different players and agents. As they gathered this information and collaborated about their findings, some got different answers and results then others. One-author states, “l didn’t search for this. This was something that was presented to me. In 2011, (my) ex-agent Juan Nuke is the one who started telling me about this substance. This goes to show us that the culture of baseball is pushing some of these players to make these decisions. Players don’t Just make these decisions on their own, they are pressured by others that are affiliated with them. Now that there is a bigger investigation going on with players and their agents, the league states, only way to clean the game up is to go after the delivery system,” one source told The News. “And the delivery system includes agents” The professional baseball league is starting to take heavy action on these drugs being used because it’s changing the game.
