Analytical Interpretation of a Political Cartoon Most Americans work hard for what they have, yet, it is baseball, America’s pastime, where the players cheat their way to the top of the game. The evolution of steroids in baseball has evolved rapidly in the past two decades. The lack of routine drug tests in baseball, combined with the less than harsh suspensions has created a league unlike that of the previous century. This juiced up league has created new records as players become stronger and don’t fatigue as quickly. Specifically, “The legitimacy of home run records has received particularly close scrutiny, in part because home runs have a special glamour for baseball fans, but also because the performances between 1995 and 2003 were so
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From Ruth to Maris to McGuire and everyone in between, statistical analysis suggests that the style and strategies change as the nature of the game does. For example, Honus Wagner, an incredible talent during the early 1900s, averaged less than 10 home runs a year. That is, until Babe Ruth and the evolution of the long ball came along and Honus hit 40 in a single season (DeVany, 2011, p. 502). One could certainly infer that as the competition changes, the approach of the batters change as well. During the 90s, home run hitters were starting to dominate the game. The top players, McGuire, Giambi, Sosa, and Bonds, pushed each other to swing for the fences more often which resulted in more home runs per season (DeVany, 2011, p. 502). As the competition rises, those who couldn’t quite keep up had to find an alternative way to produce at the plate. These players turned to performance enhancing drugs. Mark McGuire smacked 70 home runs and then a few years later, Barry Bonds hit 73 in the 2001 …show more content…
An investigation began and it put BALCO and Barry Bonds at the forefront. Bonds, along with many other players, had been receiving illegal performance enhancing drugs through a company that was believed to be an elite athletic training company. Greg Anderson, a popular personal trainer, had distributed two main drugs to his MLB players: the cream and the clear. “According to his leaked testimony, Bonds believed that the cream was a balm for arthritis and the clear was flaxseed oil, a nutritional supplement” (Dohrmann, 2004, ¶ 4). These drugs allowed the players to fatigue much slower and recover from injuries quicker (Dohrmann, 2004, ¶ 4). These drugs had transformed him from a skinny man who thrived on his quickness and ability to run around the base paths into a bulky man in his mid-30s whose strength had hindered his ability to move with that same quickness. This change in size was obvious to the casual baseball fan. Being the conceited man that he is, most people saw this and immediately wanted him taken out of the game of baseball. He was well on his way to breaking the all-time home run record and many people didn’t want this man to stand atop the
From Ruth to Maris to McGuire and everyone in between, statistical analysis suggests that the style and strategies change as the nature of the game does. For example, Honus Wagner, an incredible talent during the early 1900s, averaged less than 10 home runs a year. That is, until Babe Ruth and the evolution of the long ball came along and Honus hit 40 in a single season (DeVany, 2011, p. 502). One could certainly infer that as the competition changes, the approach of the batters change as well. During the 90s, home run hitters were starting to dominate the game. The top players, McGuire, Giambi, Sosa, and Bonds, pushed each other to swing for the fences more often which resulted in more home runs per season (DeVany, 2011, p. 502). As the competition rises, those who couldn’t quite keep up had to find an alternative way to produce at the plate. These players turned to performance enhancing drugs. Mark McGuire smacked 70 home runs and then a few years later, Barry Bonds hit 73 in the 2001 …show more content…
An investigation began and it put BALCO and Barry Bonds at the forefront. Bonds, along with many other players, had been receiving illegal performance enhancing drugs through a company that was believed to be an elite athletic training company. Greg Anderson, a popular personal trainer, had distributed two main drugs to his MLB players: the cream and the clear. “According to his leaked testimony, Bonds believed that the cream was a balm for arthritis and the clear was flaxseed oil, a nutritional supplement” (Dohrmann, 2004, ¶ 4). These drugs allowed the players to fatigue much slower and recover from injuries quicker (Dohrmann, 2004, ¶ 4). These drugs had transformed him from a skinny man who thrived on his quickness and ability to run around the base paths into a bulky man in his mid-30s whose strength had hindered his ability to move with that same quickness. This change in size was obvious to the casual baseball fan. Being the conceited man that he is, most people saw this and immediately wanted him taken out of the game of baseball. He was well on his way to breaking the all-time home run record and many people didn’t want this man to stand atop the