Pete Rose: The Use Of Anabolic Steroids In Professional Sports
1538 Words7 Pages
The use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes has been acknowledged as a serious problem since at least the 1960s. There should certainly not be a debate whether or not the use of anabolic steroids in athletics is legal or not. “The professional athletes of the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) are prohibited from using steroids by their respective collective bargaining agreements (CBA).” There are certainly negative health effects that can be visible to the naked eye while some are not and will not be obvious for years to come; some are physical while others can be psychological. Professional athletes will do anything to win and obtain the sense of accomplishment and…show more content… He is one of the greatest baseball players to ever play the game and is the all-time leader in hits. Although, this is not what he is most known for. “Rose gambled on baseball. Then he lied about it for years, like a child too obstinate to admit the obvious.” Why would Pete Rose be punished for gambling? It did not affect his abilities to play the game, yet he is banned from Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame. There needs to be more consistency in the rules for professional baseball. Steroids are currently illegal because of the advantage that they give to the users. If they truly do give the consumer an unfair advantage, then it makes more sense to punish those who do not abide by the rules, but why punish someone who gambled? That does not have any effect on who Pete Rose was as a baseball player. The way baseball fans view Pete Rose has a bigger impact than gambling. I argue that the use of anabolic steroids should be allowed in Major League Baseball as well as other professional sports. By giving players greater abilities, each individual professional sport would receive more popularity and fans who enjoy the more exiting aspects of the particular sport. Doing so would take out any question of the pain killing medicines and injections right before the game. How is that any different than using anabolic steroids? If it was not for the painkillers, the player would have trouble performing at the necessary level. Removing all steroid and drug restrictions will leave out the debate of whether or not a player is “cheating.” Another extreme approach would be to ban anything that provides any sort of advantage to the user. Something as simple as eye black would have to be eliminated since it provides an advantage to the player. Babe Ruth is a baseball legend and he was a known alcoholic, but he did not have any of his records upheld like Pete Rose did. What if alcohol