Performance-Enhancing Drug Use In Baseball: The Impact Of Culture

Anthony Carby

Annotated Bibliography

Baseball is one of the oldest professional sports in the United States that is still heavily played and viewed by spectators. NBC sports conducted a survey to find out the number of people who watch baseball yearly. They found baseball is in second place behind football with 1.01 billion people watching MLB games annually. Baseball has always been my number one love in the sports world. In my lifetime, there have been many changes to the game. Today, one of the most drastic changes that’s occurring in baseball culture is the use of performance-enhancing drugs. How have these performance-enhancing drugs affected the game of baseball? Steroids, human growth hormones, and amphetamines have a large impact
Solberg explains the cultural change and why performance-enhancing drugs are becoming more popular. Solberg says, “Home run hitters have always enjoyed greater prominence in baseball than all other players; this distinction is best illustrated by the quote, “Home run hitters drive Cadillac’s. Singles hitters drive Fords.”” From this quote, you could perceive that hitting home runs has been and will always be important and beneficial for a professional’s personal stock. This creates the impression that home run hitters are more valuable and useful than single hitters. Solberg states that because of this pressure and change of the culture, more baseball players began to test things like steroids, HGH, and amphetamines. Players would take these drugs to increase their overall performance, which directly increased their leadership and allow them to become recognized throughout the league. Solberg discusses, “The home run chase between McGuire and Sosa was just another piece of evidence for baseball’s leadership that the popularity of the sport was driven by the prevalence of the home run.” This was a big focus point in baseball because Sosa and McGuire were the two best hitters in the league at the time. The battle between these two was close and intense, which backed up Solberg’s argument of the
If these drugs do increase far-free mass, muscle size, and strength, it would have a direct relationship with a player’s performance. The players in the professional baseball league already have good mechanics, so the stronger they can get, the more power they exert while hitting or throwing. The authors also states the affects an amphetamine has on an athlete’s performance. The article noted “One such study noted improvements in quadriceps strength and anaerobic capacity with Dexedrine administration.” This study shows us that amphetamines do have a positive effect on your performance. If a player’s quadriceps strength is increased, it will result in throwing harder and hitting the ball farther. A substance in these drugs is called Dexedrine, which allows runners to be at their fastest for a maximum period of time. Throughout this scholarly article, the author’s purpose is to help inform the audience of all the current information on performance enhancing drugs.
"MLB Extending Investigation of Performance-enhancing Drugs to Players ' Agents." NY