Kritik und Lob » The punishment for steroid us

After the MLB labor dispute in the mid-1990?s Wholesale New Balance Shoes , major league baseball has been in the ?Steroids Era?, a term coined by Bob Costas. Several well-known and respected MLB players have been accused of steroid use and a few, like Jose Canseco, even admitted it openly, crediting the use of steroids for his entire career. Pitcher David Wells said that "25 to 40 percent of all Major Leaguers are juiced".

According to Canseco, up to 85% of MLB players currently in the MLB are using performance-enhancing drugs. Conseco?s book titled ?Juiced: Wild Times Wholesale New Balance Mens , Rampant ?Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big? names players who have used steroids.

Another player, Ken Caminiti, admitted his steroid use and detailed the damage done to his body. Caminiti said his testicles had shrunk and his body had virtually stopped producing testosterone. As a matter of fact, his body only had 20% of the normal level of the hormone. Before Caminiti tragically died in 2004 as a direct result of his substance abuse, he said if he had it to do over Wholesale New Balance Womens , he wouldn?t have changed a thing. (Wikipedia)

Several beloved MLB players have stood accused of using these performance-boosting drugs. Names like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Jason Giambi have been tarnished by the claims. Their records and awards have all come under question being that they were not achieved naturally, but with chemical assistance banned by MLB commissioner Bud Selig.

A company known as BALCO, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative has been cited as a central source of steroids to athletes in all sports. BALCO was an American based nutritional supplements company run by Victor Conte.

BALCO made and marketed a steroid dubbed ?The Clear?, also known as THG Wholesale New Balance China , or tetrahydrogestrinone, which was created by a BALCO chemist named Patrick Arnold (Washington Post)

In 2003, the company's role in a drug sports scandal was investigated by two journalists; Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada. The scandal was referred to as the BALCO Affair and focused on the distribution of the Clear to several high profile athletes in the USA as well as Europe over a period of several years by Conte, Greg Anderson (weight trainer) and Remi Korchemni (coach).

The investigation was aided by a tip from US Olympic sprint coach Trevor Graham in 2003. Graham supplied a syringe containing traces of a substance known as ?the Clear?. A test to detect the Clear was developed and some 20 Olympic class athletes tested positive for the drug. Of course baseball has not been the only sport that has had steroids controversy. Marion Jones, an Olympic track star, just admitted to using steroids after years of public denial. She said she used them to prepare for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the Olympics committee has now taken away all her medals. (Washington Post)

To make matter worse Wholesale New Balance , BALCO was later searched and a client list was found. Among the names on this list were Jeremy Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi.

Arizona D-Backs pitcher Jason Grimsley's home was searched in 2006 by U.S. federal agents and Grimsley admitted that he had used amphetamines, steroids and human growth hormones. He was asked to wear a wire in order to incriminate Barry Bonds while talking with him in ?private?. In the end, Grimsley was released from his contract with the Diamondbacks and suspended for fifty games by the MLB.

After all this time, steroid use is still a big issue in the MLB. And since Barry Bonds has been mixed up in it and he broke the home run record this year Cheap New Balance Shoes , the story just won?t go away. Perhaps the MLB should institute stiffer penalties for steroid use. For example, give out suspensions when catching any player during regulated unannounced testing. If the player tests dirty again, his contract is void and he is banned from the MLB forever.

The punishment for steroid use in the MLB has to be tough enough to seriously discourage players from cheating. Indeed, baseball has been criticized for being so lackadaisical about steroid use and appropriate sanctions. But it is not just the players and their families who get hurt. It?s the fans and children who look up to these players as role models.

All the players in the farm leagues and minors are hurt as well. In their drive to achieve that dream of a multi-million dollar major league contract, they have to perform above and beyond the athletes presently playing. That creates huge pressure to use performance enhancing drugs that can be hard to resist. Some say that amphetamine use is widespread among player in the minor leagues and that steroids is also used a lot.