The steroid era in Major League Baseball was one of the biggest “black eyes” for the sport to date because it caused numerous problems for the game and everyone surrounding the game. The steroid era opened a whole new world to the players in the league and it had a terrible effect on the game itself. The results of the “steroid era” were not good ones in the slightest and there is no getting around that.
Steroids or Performance enhancing drugs became very prevalent in the game of baseball between the 1990’s and early 2000’s and for a short time it made the league very exciting to watch. It was soon discovered that many of the MLB’s best players were the main culprits of this type of cheating. The “black eye” that was left behind in this scenario had to do with the legal problems that were brought to the league once the blatant cheating had become all too public. “The steroid use caused public outrage that extended beyond the sports world. Congress responded by launching at least two Congressional investigations into steroid use in baseball, using subpoena powers to haul top players—including Sosa and McGwire—to Capitol Hill,” (Broshuis 10). Having these two players of their caliber and popularity summoned to Congressional hearings should be a big alarm to all people that era they were playing in would be one that, later on, would be seen as dark time for the sport. These two were not the only high profile players that where questioned about their use of performance enhancing drugs but the light was much brighter on them because of the records they had both broken years earlier. Bud Selig, who was the commissioner of the MLB at the time, was also called in to Congressional hearings and was asked to implement harsher drug testing along with punishments that fitted the crime of cheating. This was all publicized and is one of the leading factors to why this time period in the MLB’s history is such a tragedy and “black eye”. The legal problems that steroid era caused the MLB are not the only reason as to why this was such a terrible time for the league. Health issues behind using performance enhancing drugs also arose and were highlighted much more because of the time period the stories were coming out.
“Ephedra was used by athletes before workouts to increase energy and exercise capacity… Steven Bechler, a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, collapsed during a spring training workout and died a short time later. His death was attributed to ephedra,” (Staudohar 142). This is clear evidence as to why steroids have no place in any sport. Not only do performance enhancing drugs constitute cheating...
