Steroids In Professional Baseball

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Professional baseball has gone through many different eras. There have been times when pitchers dominate, and times when the hitters dominate. No era has been more controversial than the Steroid Era in Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball in the 1990’s became big. This was when baseball became a hitter’s game. The players got bigger, but how? The home runs increased, but how? Steroids. There have been players that have used supplements to enhance their performance since 1889. They were legal in the MLB until 1991. There are many kinds of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) that the MLB players could have used, drugs such as anabolic steroids, Human Growth Hormone (HGH), and Amphetamines, and they all had different effects.

First of all, a more commonly used steroid is an Anabolic steroid. Anabolic steroids are synthetic versions of the male sex hormone, which is testosterone. This can be used to treat some different conditions, such as delayed puberty. It can also be used for conditions that cause muscle loss, such as AIDS or cancer. Anabolic steroids will make the bones stronger, and will make muscles bigger. It can lead to some short term side effects, like extreme/unreasonable jealousy, irritability, delusions or “impaired judgement”. Taking anabolic steroids can also lead to some long term health problems, such as high blood pressure or kidney problems (What are Anabolic steroids?, Author Unknown). Athletes would use this steroid because it allows them to train harder and have a faster recovery time. This would lead to increased muscle mass because of more higher intensity workouts. Other positive effects of the steroid are faster reaction time, and increased consistency. The increased muscle mass would help the player to put more power into their swing, or get more velocity on their pitches. Although the player gains muscle while taking the steroid, they cannot
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Amphetamines are drugs that help to increase alertness, awareness, and energy. This drug is illegal without a prescription, but would be used, as prescribed by a doctor, to treat things like ADD(Attention Deficit Disorder), which some MLB players actually suffer from. One MLB player, Chris Davis, was suspended for 25 games for using Amphetamines. Davis suffers from ADD, and this most likely helped him to focus on baseball when his mind would have otherwise been wandering. He said that he had a doctor's note for the supplement in the past, but did not have one then. Amphetamines are steroids that are hard to catch because it goes through the system in eight hours. Some players would use these steroids by putting them in with coffee. Day to day, these would help the players stay focused on baseball when they may want to go home, keep them focused and energized when on a weird schedule because of time change, or let players work out harder because they would recover faster. Amphetamines would help the players to stay focused, to have increased energy, and to help them recover from exhaustion (Doyel, “Adderall the New Drug of Choice for Many Major-Leaguers”).

In conclusion, Anabolic steroids, HGH, and Amphetamines are all steroids used by MLB players, and some have different effects. Some increase muscle mass, others will help focus. Some are harder to test than others. But they can all enhance the performance

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