MLB Steroids Era: Was It Really the Players Fault?

There’s a new era in baseball, the “steroids era”. This era is unlike any other era. This era is where our childhood stars abandoned the “practise makes perfect” principle made their own: “injecting makes perfect”. The steroids era has been very critical of players, and while there is deserved blame, that’s only one part of the story. There’s definitely more blame to go around.

To clarify, this article is not about why PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) should be allowed. I have already put on my devil’s advocate cap and wrote an article about that and it can be found here: http://sportales.com/sports/why-steroids-and-peds-should-not-be-banned-from-sports/.

Performance enhancing drugs are nothing new. They have been used in the Olympics at least as early as the 1904 games when Thomas Hicks received frequent strychnine injections from his trainer. This was not against the rules and was not discouraged in any way, shape or form. Over the years, the PEDs were banned from official major competitions such as the Olympics. The IOC officially issued the ban in 1967 and the 1968 Olympics were the first games with drug testing. The MLB, with deep care for integrity and health of its athletes followed suit with banning the drugs in 2004… almost 40 years late.

The first drug testing organised by the MLB was in 2003. A whopping of 104 players tested positive. The names on the list there never publically disclosed, but some big names (such as Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz) have been leaked and apparently there is more to come. But for now, let’s do the math. There are 30 teams, 40 players on the active lists on each team, so 1200 active players in the MLB at one time.  104 of 1200 is almost 9%. This 9% doesn’t include all the players who didn’t get caught, whether because they weren’t tested, or they stopped doing these drugs on time.

Is it right to blame the athletes for taking these PEDs. I guess it was their choice, but wait a second, PEDs weren’t banned from use in the MLB until 2004. They were totally legit. Nobody even spoke about them. Let’s compare this to “betting on the game”, the same reason why Pete Rose isn’t in the Hall of Fame. It’s tradition for managers, coaches… to tell their players not to bet on the game, it’s even written on pretty much every clubhouse wall at all levels. It’s like a golden rule. Well, why haven’t managers, coaches, MLB… been telling the players with such emphasis that taking PEDs is just as wrong if not worse? The Problem is that athletes were never educated about PEDs, and considering everyone is doing it, it’s monkey see monkey do.

Not only were the players not educated, but the rules were never made nor enforced and this is why the biggest blame should go to the MLB and the MLBPA. The MLB and the MLBPA did not protect their players. PEDs got so common in the game that even some of the educated and self-conscious athletes might have been taking these drugs to compensate for the use and rapid success of others.

Even when the PEDs were banned, the sanctions were a total joke. There would be a 10 game suspension for a first offense. I thought the Olympics would ban you for 2 years for a first offense.

The sad this is that all the statistics in the MLB before 2004 are compromised. How long do you think players have been doping in the MLB? PEDs are nothing new. I feel bad for the recent batch of players because people will find out the truth about them, but not about the guys who introduced them to PEDs when they were rookies, or the guys before them, and the guys before them. I also feel bad for some of these athletes because they ended up damaging their health and shortening their lives for what, a couple exciting home run races that the MLB heavily profited from.

I don’t believe MLB players are genuine cheaters or low class players. It’s just in the favour of MLB and MLBPA to shift the blame on somebody else. With the proper education, proper rules and rule enforcement, we wouldn’t have any of this in the first place.

So, now that you’ve read this, are we really in the “steroids era”. Perhaps we should be calling the “ignorance era” or the “I-don’t-care-about-anything-for-forty-years-as-long-my-teams-are-making-me-money era”. Whatever it is, it’s at least 40 years old (nothing new) and the players are not the only ones to be blamed.