Steroid Use in Baseball: a Social Injustice?
Steroid Use in Baseball: A Social Injustice?
In the year of 1998 the sport of baseball ruled the landscape of the sports world as people all over the country were watching Mark Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa race towards the single-season home run record. Major League Baseball, the ruling body of professional baseball in the United States, was all too thrilled with their newfound popularity and growing revenues. The game of baseball had long been considered “the” American pastime, but entering the 98’ season the league was still searching for ways to reopen the enthusiasm, and wallets, of baseball fans that had lost interest in the sport, largely due to the strike-shortened campaign in 1994. The home run race between McGwire and Sosa that took place that year would solve the league’s problems, but it would later more notoriously come to mark what is known as the “Steroid Era” in baseball. Steroids and the use of various other performance-enhancing drugs in the sport of baseball would become such a prevalent social issue that the United States Congress would eventually conduct its’ own official investigation into the matter.
The entire country began to tune in on television or buy tickets to the game just to catch a glimpse or, if you’re really lucky, the record-breaking home run ball off of Sosa or McGwire’s bat. The game appeared to have recaptured the interest of America, and Major League Baseball was flourishing. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both went on to break Roger Maris’ long-standing record of 61 home runs that year, with totals of seventy and sixty-six home runs respectively. A few years later McGwire’s record of seventy was surpassed by one Barry Bonds who smacked 73 home runs in 2001. Players and teams throughout the league were shattering all kinds of records. Interest from the fans and offensive output by the players, in the historically numbers-driven game of baseball (baseball has a statistic for nearly everything), had never been higher. This would all
In the year of 1998 the sport of baseball ruled the landscape of the sports world as people all over the country were watching Mark Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa race towards the single-season home run record. Major League Baseball, the ruling body of professional baseball in the United States, was all too thrilled with their newfound popularity and growing revenues. The game of baseball had long been considered “the” American pastime, but entering the 98’ season the league was still searching for ways to reopen the enthusiasm, and wallets, of baseball fans that had lost interest in the sport, largely due to the strike-shortened campaign in 1994. The home run race between McGwire and Sosa that took place that year would solve the league’s problems, but it would later more notoriously come to mark what is known as the “Steroid Era” in baseball. Steroids and the use of various other performance-enhancing drugs in the sport of baseball would become such a prevalent social issue that the United States Congress would eventually conduct its’ own official investigation into the matter.
The entire country began to tune in on television or buy tickets to the game just to catch a glimpse or, if you’re really lucky, the record-breaking home run ball off of Sosa or McGwire’s bat. The game appeared to have recaptured the interest of America, and Major League Baseball was flourishing. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both went on to break Roger Maris’ long-standing record of 61 home runs that year, with totals of seventy and sixty-six home runs respectively. A few years later McGwire’s record of seventy was surpassed by one Barry Bonds who smacked 73 home runs in 2001. Players and teams throughout the league were shattering all kinds of records. Interest from the fans and offensive output by the players, in the historically numbers-driven game of baseball (baseball has a statistic for nearly everything), had never been higher. This would all
Cited: Massaro, Thomas, S.J., Living Justice: Catholic Social Teaching in Action. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Mitchell, George J., REPORT TO THE COMMISSIONER OF BASEBALL OF AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION INTO THE ILLEGAL USE OF STEROIDS AND OTHER PERFORMANCE ENHANCING SUBSTANCES BY PLAYERS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. December 13, 2007. “Timeline of Baseball’s Steroid Scandal” Associated Press, 2010. NBC Sports, <http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/22247395.>