Five Lasting Effects of the Steroid Era

One of the biggest issues surrounding baseball over the last two decades has been the use of performance enhancing drugs, particularly steroids. Steroids were most prevalent in Major League Baseball from the late 1990s into the 2000s. While PED use has significantly decreased since this time, effects of the "Steroid Era" can still be seen in baseball today.

5. Public perception.

(Getty Images)

Major League Baseball players are considered some of the best athletes in the world, and for good reason. They play a sport at the highest level that demands such impeccable coordination and skill. It is one thing to play well, but standing out among fellow players is one of the hardest things to do. 

The Steroid Era allowed power hitters to stand out, captivating audiences with astronomical home run and RBI numbers. When the dust had seemingly settled from the Steroid Era though, fans began to question whether steroids in baseball had truly been wiped away. Fifteen years ago, fifty-home run seasons were a regular thing. Now, a player hits forty and the rumors begin to swirl.

Don’t get me wrong; sometimes the case is still true. But for players who have naturally developed themselves into superior hitters, it is unfair when fans assume they cheated simply because they put together a great offensive season. 

Fans have every right to be skeptical because steroids, along with other PED’s, were so rampant throughout the 1990’s into the 2000’s. This perception may never be able to leave completely, but with new rules and regulations the league is doing its best to rid itself of any negative effects.

4. For many, baseball is not as exciting.

Fans have every right to feel this way. Why shouldn’t they? I was much younger but I still remember how awesome it was to see Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds launch 460-foot home runs on a regular basis.

No one really criticized what was happening during this time, and often turned a blind eye to the fact that hitters were cheating their way to ridiculous moonshots. It was a spectacle. 

Those days are obviously over now and so are the home run races.  Sure, there’s still some competition but we will never see anyone reach sixty home runs in a season again. To the pure fan, baseball is still the great game it once was. To the average fan, the excitement is just not there because teams are finding ways to score runs without the assistance of players who have the ability to consistently hit fifty home runs per season.

3. Increased spending on drug testing.

(NYU Sports & Society Program)

In my opinion this is an issue that is not discussed enough because it is in fact a problem that may have been able to be avoided.

Drug testing typically runs the league about $400 per person, which I certainly wouldn’t consider to be cheap. In terms of the league’s annual budget, this may not seem that much. However, when the league increases its number of tests by nearly three thousand in just two years, it starts to significantly add up.

Major League Baseball spent approximately $3,263,200 on drug testing in 2015.

While it is crucial to the MLB’s identity for it to remain focused on removing steroids from the picture, a steady increase in testing may start to have serious financial effects. Unfortunately the steroid era and its implications have caused the league to take such action, but it is a necessary step to ensure its players do not use drugs.

2. Improbable records.

(barrybonds.com)

Sorry everyone, but I don’t think you’ll see anyone hit 74 home runs in a single season or finish their career with 763 home runs.  It just doesn’t seem possible. The way the game has evolved over the last decade has prevented anyone from making any sort of run without the assistance of performance enhancing drugs. 

Alex Rodriguez had the best chance, and we all know how his story turned out.

Still, the records are there which gives fans benchmarks to measure current players against while hoping to see them broken. Pitching is also much better today, but without the common thread of PED’s offensive production in terms of power is much lower than twenty years ago.

1. Major League Baseball still exists today.

(Redlegs Review)

The Steroid Era saved baseball. While there are obviously two sides to this claim, I personally believe that without it, we would not be enjoying America’s pastime in 2016.

Take 1994, when Major League Baseball was tested to its extreme limit. The players went on strike in the wake of a new collective bargaining agreement that would have severely altered their benefits as employees. The strike left many fans in the dark, wondering if they’d ever be able to enjoy baseball again.

While the league recovered from the strike, it took years filled with steroids and exciting home runs to recapture the loyalty and interest that was eradicated after 1994. Perhaps the most defining moment of baseball’s return was the famous 1998 home run race, where Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battled each other for the single season home run record.

Five BLISTERING Takes to Cap Off 2016

2016 was one of the best seasons of baseball I can remember.  So much happened, and it kept us on the edge of our seat right up to the very end.  To cap off the year, I wanted to deliver five incredibly strong takes that hold at least some level of merit in my opinion.  As always, these opinions are my own, but I welcome anyone to disagree with me! Here we go:

5. Rajai Davis hit one of the greatest home runs of all time.

And so many people will forget that.  Let’s look at the circumstances surrounding the moment:

-Cleveland was trailing by three runs at one point in the 8^th inning

-Aroldis Chapman, the hardest throwing pitcher in the MLB, on the mound

-Cleveland had not won a World Series since 1948

-Chicago was four outs away from winning its first since 1908

-Rajai Davis played a HORRIBLE game for the first seven innings

-Rajai Davis had 55 career homeruns in 11 seasons, including playoffs

-Aroldis Chapman had not allowed a home run since June

There’s probably more that I’m missing, but to tie the game with a two-run missile in the late innings under all of the above circumstances qualifies as one of the greatest home runs of all time in my opinion.

4. Mike Trout needs to get the hell out of Anaheim.

(Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)

Mike Trout is generally accepted as the best player in baseball.  We already know that.  But off the top of my head, I have no idea what his stats were this season.  To a diehard fan of the game like myself, that’s a bit of a problem.  Trout is clearly one of the worst marketed athletes in professional sports and there’s no real reason for me to believe that could change any time soon.  Let’s move away from his publicity though because that’s only part of the problem.

The meat of the issue centers around his team’s performance.  I said it in April and I’ll say it again, Mike Scioscia has been extremely disappointing for the Angels recently.  This isn’t entirely his fault but at the same time he’s had some serious talent to work with over the last few years and barely anything to show for it.  The Angels are not going anywhere, especially since Seattle has now joined Houston and Texas as another contender in the division.  Additionally, their farm system is empty and their starting rotation is a disaster.

The way I see it, Trout may be perfectly okay with his situation in Anaheim.  But if he wants to be able to help his team make a postseason run, it certainly doesn’t look like staying in Anaheim is the solution.  As amazing as it is, Trout may not have even reached his prime yet.  A trade could also be mutually beneficial to both teams involved.

3. The Red Sox keeping Clay Buchholz was the right move.

(Ron Schwane/AP)

If you told me back in May that I would be typing out that sentence I wouldn’t have believed it for a second. But here we are. Clay Buchholz’s 2017 option has been picked up by the Red Sox and, God help me, I’m fine with it.

He had a good second half.  No, he had a great second half, posting the second lowest ERA for a Red Sox starter and going 4-1 from August to October.  He wasn’t even half bad as a reliever for the most part.  These might seem like mediocre numbers but when you consider where he was in the first half, there’s not much more he could have done. 

Moving away from that, let’s take a look at notable starting pitchers on the market this offseason:

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Look, Buchholz is a figure that the Sox are extremely familiar with.  He has a huge amount of talent when he’s on, and we’ve all seen what he’s capable of. Now that he has a job next season the mental aspect may be able to be worked out.  The team could not have done much better on the market, and the farm system isn’t exactly a breeding ground for pitching.  If worse comes to worst, he may be able to be a solid trade piece should the Sox need another pickup at the deadline.

One final note on Buchholz: he has never had a losing record in back-to-back seasons.

2. David Ortiz should not be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

 

(John Angelillo/UPI)

Yes, you read that correctly.  Look, David Ortiz has done more for the Red Sox in his career than many others combined.  He pretty much delivered two of the last three World Series championships to the city of Boston himself.  He is the greatest clutch hitter of all time.  And he should be in the Hall of Fame.

Just not yet.

Now I’m sure there are others out there who feel this way as well but ever since Ortiz began to sniff Hall of Fame numbers I’ve said he shouldn’t be in on a first ballot.  For two reasons.

Reason #1: performance-enhancing drugs.  SHUT UP GEOFF THE RESULTS WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO BE RELEASED.  Yes, I’m aware of that.  But I also know that everyone who is linked AT ALL to PED’s has the asterisk hanging above their head because we group them all together.  Nothing good or bad about that, it’s just what we as fans do. Whether Ortiz is guilty or not is irrelevant, his name still surfaces just as Bonds and Clemens do. The writers association has ruled with an iron fist when it comes to association with PED’s in the Hall of Fame, and it doesn’t look like Bonds and Clemens will be in any time soon.  The way I see it, Ortiz should not be allowed into the Hall of Fame until Bonds and Clemens are allowed in. Once one gets in, it opens up the door for everyone.

Reason #2: Edgar Martinez.  There should already be a designated hitter in the Hall of Fame, and he played in Seattle for nearly 18 seasons.  Edgar Martinez is not only one of the best designated hitters of all time, but one of the best hitters.  If you go down the list of comparisons between Martinez and Ortiz on a 162 game average, you’ll find that Martinez has more hits, runs, and a much higher batting average.  Many of the other stats are fairly similar with Ortiz gaining some ground in power numbers given the nature of his hitting style.  Bottom line, Martinez put together a Hall of Fame career in the eyes of many including myself, and for Ortiz to get in on a first ballot over Martinez would be wrong.

1. The Cubs winning the World Series is bad for baseball.

(Getty Images)

Before you all jump down my throat for this one, because I know you will, stop and actually understand what I’m going to say here.

The Cubs 100% deserved to win the World Series this year.  Theo Epstein, being the mastermind that he is, brilliantly developed a five-year plan to turn a losing team into a powerhouse filled with young talent.  The Cubs are very, very good, and no one is discrediting their accomplishment this year.  It was their season, and they outplayed twenty-nine other teams to reach the top of the baseball world for the first time since 1908. I tip an infinite number of hats to the organization.

But...

Their World Series victory is bad for baseball.  Now what do I mean by that?  Does it hurt the other teams? Of course not.  Was it an awful event to watch? Definitely not, that was one of the greatest games I’ve ever witnessed.

The Cubs victory is bad for baseball because it wipes away the last bit of history that baseball has held onto for over a century.  The Cubs’ identity has completely changed, especially since the team may very well contend for years to come.  The Lovable Losers were a staple in the tradition that has enveloped this great game since its inception almost 200 years ago.  The Cubs were “that team that hasn’t won since 1908.”  Movies, books, songs, documentaries, poems, curses, characters, sports bars, comics, businesses, and so many other things have come to fruition all because the Chicago Cubs had not previously won the World Series since 1908.  I may be the only person that feels like this but that’s okay.  Again, the Cubs’ victory was nothing short of remarkable, and now it will be very interesting to see how long they can continue this run.

How Social Media Has Altered the Perception of Golf

For years golf has been considered a boring sport that hasn’t been able to remain current the way the four major sports have.  While golf has always seen its fair share of participation, it has not gathered a great following in terms of viewership until recently.  This increase is due, in large part, to the rise of social media.  Not only has the PGA Tour been marketing itself in new and improved ways through social media, but its players have also allowed fans to get an inside perspective into their lives both on and off the course.  After all, as Jason Peck writes, social media has the ability to “complement real life events.” I wanted to focus here on five social media outlets that have been extremely influential to shaping the modern public perception of golf:

1. Facebook

Not surprisingly Facebook is the most widely used social media network, and therefore has the ability to reach a massive amount of people.  The PGA Tour’s Facebook page acts as a dashboard for all of the Tour’s activity, and allows users to consume content that includes video highlights, upcoming schedules, and even a Google+ hangout that allows fans to interact directly with Tour players.  Through Facebook, fans are provided with everything Tour-related that they need in a single place.  This essentially reminds fans that golf cares about its viewership and wants to retain its fans in all ways possible.

2. Instagram

In the past, we had to wait for magazines or web articles to see cool photos from the world of golf.  With the rise of Instagram, everything comes together in a single place.  Instagram gives fans instant access to some of the most captivating photos of both courses and players from all levels of golf.  Suddenly people are able to see a slow motion swing from an amateur player overseas, or the seventh hole of a world-renowned links course.  Instagram visually connects golf fans around the world and establishes a stronger sense of community, which goes against much of the early perception of golf as an exclusive sport.

3. Snapchat

This social media outlet is perhaps the most influential for the game of golf, particularly through the PGA Tour.  Snapchat gives fans an up-close-and-personal perspective of golf from people that are actually on the course at an event.  Fans can see action from their favorite players through a quick picture or video.  Additionally, many professional golfers have their own Snapchat accounts so that fans can see what the life of a golfer is actually like.  Often times they are surprised because they see just how different of a life they live off the course, a life that is much more lively and fun than the stigma surrounding golf.

4. Twitter

The exclusivity of golf has been severely diminished in recent years, and Twitter has played a major role in that decrease.  Twitter has given golf fans the ability to follow along in real time with analysis and stats that they previously couldn’t obtain.  The site also allows fans to voice their opinions, both positive and negative, and hear reactions from the professionals they see on television.  Twitter eliminates barriers between fans and the game, and continues to provide one of the most direct ways to consume golf in a much more contemporary way.

5. YouTube

One of the biggest downsides for many golfers in the past has been the cost of lessons, which are too expensive in many people’s opinions.  However, YouTube has provided a platform for golfers to receive free lessons from anywhere they are.  YouTube has not only saved money for golfers everywhere, but has also given users a chance to share their own content and publicize their work.