I have to do 3 papers... 1 on the Steroid Scandal, 1 on Mark McGwire's steroid discussion, and 1 on Mark McGwire's baseball career.
This one is on the Steroid Scandal, and below is the requirements that need to be met... Can you help me meet the requirements?
Must be 1-2 pages
1) Identification of the article
Includes: Subject, Article title, Author, Web site address, date and page number(s)
2) Summary of Article
In my own words, state the author's main point(s) use data and direct quotes from the article to support the points, and refer to the author by name, or in the third person point of view ("He, "She").
3) Application to my research study
How does this article apply to my research topic and Thesis statement. Refer to myself or group member in the first person point of view ("I" or "We").
4) Opinion
Do I agree or disagree with the author? How do I think my opinion may affect my research study? That is, what personal biases do I have regarding my research topic? How will this sway my research?
The Steroid Scandal
Baseball, the National Pastime, has entertained Americans since the 1800s, and, for perhaps just as long, been the center of controversy. From the Black Sox scandal in 1919, in which eight players were accused of throwing the World Series, to the Pete Rose betting scandal, to the Pittsburgh Drug Trials in 1985, to the steroid era, baseball and controversy have gone together for over 100 years. The debate shouldn’t be whether bad things happen in the game — because we know they have and will continue to happen — the debate should be how we handle the problem.
Major League Baseball and the Players Association botched the steroid era from the beginning. Years ago, when the first inkling of performance enhancing drugs hit the world of sports, the owners and players could have and should have worked out a blameless truce that would serve all interested parties and eliminated that form of cheating going forward.
A clean game, on the surface, may not seem to serve team owners who clearly benefit at the ticket office from higher scoring games with lots of homeruns. However, as we’ve learned from the Mitchell Report, there were numerous pitchers including potential Hall of Famer Roger Clemens who were also using these illegal enhancers. Although teams during the steroid era were producing more runs per game than ever, the higher-run production cannot be attributed to stronger hitters alone.
Factors like the tighter wound ball, smaller ballparks, the expansion of the league, uniformed strike zones, and state-of-the-art weight training all contributed to the rise in runs per game. Many owners reaped the rewards of their juiced hitters scoring more runs, the fact remains that the increased attendance during the steroid era could have occurred without the players breaking the law.
Owners should have seen that their investments — their players — were hurting themselves both literally and figuratively. They should have forced the player’s union to accept some sort of drug testing, monitoring, and educational program. More so than the owners, the players themselves bungled the steroid issue. The players who used were cheaters. And the players who didn’t were enablers. The players could have gone to their union representatives and argued that all suffer when a few use drugs.
When a few bad apples appear, the whole tree looks bad. Those honorable players who avoided performance enhancers should have united and demanded that the playing field be leveled by comprehensive drug testing. So here we are, 10 years or so into this mess, and still no real resolution. We cannot fix our past mistakes, but we can certainly use them to better ourselves. Major League Baseball must do the same.
They must hire an independent outside organization to develop and enforce the strictest drug policy in sports. Year-around random testing is only the beginning. New technology, better research, improved education, transparent testing, harsh consequences, and mandatory meetings with everyone involved will make the program more reliable and valid. Just like they recovered from the Black Sox scandal or the strike of 1994, baseball will recover from the steroid issue. The question remains though — how quickly and how well.
Sources:
ESPN.com: THE STEROID SCANDAL
Steroid scandal looms large for baseball - - NBCSports.com
MLB steroid scandal and MLB Congressional Steriod Hearing