As red-blooded Americans we expect a decent amount of entertainment from watching professional baseball players playing the game that we love so much. As the demand for greater performance from the baseball players clashes with the new technology that is coming from drug companies to improve their athletic abilities, the debate over how far is to far raises it's ugly head. Over the past few years baseball players have become more outspoken about steroid use. One of the greatest problems faced by Major League Baseball today is what to do about steroid use and how they can put an end to it. As a result of this chaotic situation from steroid use in baseball, many people have become divided as to whether or not the players should have mandatory testing.
Before we get into the discussion about whether or not the players should be tested, we should discuss what steroids are. "Steroids are a critical component in almost all living organisms, including animals, plants, and even bacteria. Right around the time of the Second World War, scientists began to experiment with artificially created sex hormones called anabolic steroids (Weber 1)." There are other types of steroids that people take for medical reasons. Mostly these steroids are used to reduce inflammation and other disease symptoms. But then there are those steroids that aren't taken for medical purposes. Anabolic steroids are used to stimulate muscle growth. Those are the steroids that we are talking about. In the United States, anabolic steroids are illegal except if prescribed for medical reasons by a physician. Major League Baseball is no exception either. As of right now the MLB has no testing done that would confirm or deny whether or not a player was using steroids. Why don't they test for something if it is illegal to use? This question and many others like that will try to be answered throughout this paper. .
You might be thinking, well what's the big deal about using steroids, they can't be that bad for you.