Drugs, Cheating, and the Purity of Americas Pastime Essay -- Baseball

Most children who have grown up in an the Statesn household have at one and only(a) point in their lives looked up to sports figures as heroes. Whether it was your grandfather telling his stories of watching Babe Ruth start out a legend, your fathers stories of Mickey Mantle and the legendary northern teams of the 1950s and 1960s, or your own memory of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chasing the home campaign record, the feeling of wholesomeness that baseball game provides has always found its way into many races hearts. Steroids have tarnished these sacred memories, cast doubts in the minds of many on the legitimacy of records and statistics and eventually affected the way younger players play the game. Baseball, Americas pastime, is embedded in the fabric of society. The players and teams have come and gone, and the thing that remains constant is baseballs ability to commingle people as well as families. My own personal hold out of this came right by and by September 11th, 2 001. Following the tragedy that was 9/11, the inelegant needed something to ease everyone return to normalcy. In our moment of weakness and uncertainty, baseball helped calm my nerves. Fifty three thousand three hundred and cardinal brothers stood up in unison and took back their lives. The electricity of that game, the sense of rule in my life, and the knowledge that millions of people were finding comfort to tranceher with me during such(prenominal) a hard time, helped me feel a sense of closure that the rack up was behind us.It is the mystique and aura of the players, the exciting tales behind them, as well as the history of the game that keeps us interested as fans. These are the reasons why people, children especially, see these players as invincible, and perfect in every way, shape, and form. What would happen if after a century of inspiring stories, and incredible tales of heroism, the inconceivable notion that these players were not perfect, took prominence? Or that man y of these superstars cheated their way to the top?Recently the field of steroid use in baseball has been everywhere in the news. It has ultimately come to the attention of Major League Baseball, and now the general public, that a vast percentage of players have been using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. This not wholly casts a cloud of suspicion over which players are using steroids, and makes one wonder which players are genuine, but it tar... ...ue Baseball is showing that they are finally becoming adamant about ridding themselves and their reputation of this chore, is something that should give us swear for now, as well as for the future.Even more so than manifestly testing the players though, I think a key issue that has been unmarked and that may be a huge contributor to the steroid bother without many people being aware of it, is the incentives given in a players contract. Getting rid of the six figure bonuses normally given for a certain amount of home runs, hi ts, strikeouts, innings pitched, etc, will help reduce the apparent need to use steroids as a reference work of instant reward and income. While doing this there will still virtually certainly be players drawn to steroids as a means to get ahead of the competition for personal glory or other reasons, the item is eliminating bonuses has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of users in the league. It is accordingly, and only then that we can be prepared to fully eliminate the steroid problem as we know it today, remove the cloud of doubt over everyones heads, and return the game of baseball to the past glorification that it once knew, as the true American pastime.