The Steroid Game

Essay by chriswake22College, UndergraduateA, December 2007

download word file, 5 pages 5.0

There is no argument against the fact that steroid use has been prevalent in Major League Baseball over the last two decades. The amount of money being paid to these professional athletes, along with other causes, has caused them to use the drugs with little worry about health and legal damage. It is best to just call it what it is: cheating. It is no different than business executives running their fortune five-hundred companies who will break every rule to gain an extra buck. Take a moment to look at the possible causes for the extensive steroid use. Is it the desire to be the best, overcoming the desire to make it big, gaining extra years of playing time, quicker recovery time, or trying not to get out done by the competition? All these factors have caused the widespread steroid use in Major League Baseball, and here is why.

While playing Triple A ball in Columbus , Ohio , Andy Phillips was making a little over two thousand dollars a month, while also receiving full health insurance (Phillips).

While this is a decent amount of money for a young adult to make for around four month's work, Phillips knew what lay ahead at the next step. If only he could make it to the big leagues, his salary would raise to $330,000 a year. That it is a big jump, and a few years later, he found himself making that much playing first base for the New York Yankees (Phillips). I am not claiming that Andy Phillips took performance enhancing drugs, but what I am saying is that, for an athlete on the edge of making a big league roster, anything to get them there seems worth it. The "ends justify the means" is the accepted mentality. There is an...