The game of baseball has been known throughout the ages as "America's National Past Time." The game was invented way back in 1869 by a man named Abner Doubleday and has grown and popularity since it's creation. Over the years, the game has seen many teams and players dominate the field of play and excel at their craft. It was well known from the 1910's through the 1920's that arguably, the greatest player of all time, named Babe Ruth drank beer and ate hot dogs to accumulate a staggering 714 homeruns with the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. All these homeruns were hit without the use of performance enhancing drugs, also known as steroids. Now, Major League Baseball is in an era known as "The Steroid Era". The question now is: Are taking steroids for the reward worth the risk of being banned from the game? Or worse, are they worth losing your life over?.
Over the past few years, performance enhancing drugs have become a huge issue in Major League Baseball. Many players have used steroids, and they've hurt them physically but have also helped them get the competitive edge in the sport. Most players do know the risks and rewards of taking these drugs. The rewards are tempting because steroids enhance body mass, hand-eye coordination, and quickness. All of these pluses are good for baseball players but, the pluses are always offset by negatives, such as liver cancer, elevated cholesterol, increased aggression, and heart attacks just to name a few. ("Anabolic Steroids").
As punishment for getting caught using 'the juice', players are being suspended from the game of baseball. The typical suspensions for getting caught are ten games, 25 games, 50 games, 80 games, and then finally, a lifetime ban from the game. However, no player has ever been suspended for life. Many of today's players are trying to convince the higher authorities in the MLB to go to the "three strikes, and you're out" policy.
