Steroids Term Paper

Steroids In Sports- Thesis
By Jordan Brickman

One of the most controversial athletes in sports history is baseball player Barry Bonds. Bonds has been linked to performance enhancing drugs on numerous occasions, and some people believe that just being linked to the drugs (no test has proven that he is guilty of knowingly using steroids) ruins Bond’s chances of making the Baseball Hall of Fame, located in Cooperstown, New York. Big black balls Contrary to popular belief, Bonds, and other players, who have been linked to performance enhancing drugs, should be voted into the hall of fame, assuming their statistics validate such a distinction.
Barry Bonds was born into a baseball family. His father, Bobby Bonds, was known for his outstanding combination of power hitting and speed, he was the first player to have more than two seasons of 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, doing so a record five times, and was the first to accomplish the feat in both leagues; he became the second player to hit 300 career home runs and steal 300 bases, joining the great Willie Mays. Growing up around the game Bonds was truly a natural athlete. With his father’s genes he was able to earn a scholarship to Arizona State University, and become a first round selection (6th overall) by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1985. It took Bonds only one year in the minor leagues to finally reach the promise land, at the ripe age of 21. Clearly, Bonds’ natural baseball talent surpassed that of a normal individual.
It took Bonds only 4 years to make a significant name for himself. In 1990, eight years before he was rumored to use performance enhancing drugs, Bonds won his first Most Valuable Player award. He had a .301 BA (batting average), with 33 HR (Home Run), 114 RBI (Runs Batted In), 52 SB (Stolen Bases), and a .406 OBP (On Base Percentage). Normal consideration for a Hall of Fame player’s statistics are roughly: .300 BA, 30 HR, 100 RBI, and a .400 OBP, with the stolen base total being an added bonus. Clearly, Bonds, in only his fourth season, fit the diagram of a hall of fame player. Normally, a player needs to have at least ten seasons of dominance, although the mold has been broken for exceptions. From 1990-1998 Bonds had nine consecutive dominant seasons. During those nine seasons Bonds won three MVP awards, in 1990, 1992, 1993, eight gold glove awards (from 1990-1998 excluding 1995), six gold gloves (1990-1998 excluding 1995 and 1998), seven all-star appearances (1990-1998 excluding 1991), and two batting titles (1992 and 1993). Even the average fan can see that Bonds was well deserving of a Hall of Fame bid, before the performance enhancing drugs.
Bonds was rumored to start using performance-enhancing drugs in 1998, by that time Bonds had already established himself as one of the best hitters, and athletes, in all of baseball. As aforementioned, Bonds received numerous prestigious awards well before he even thought about injecting himself with any unnatural substances. As a result, Bonds’ success before he enhanced his abilities proves to me that he was a Hall of Fame player. Although, once he began to use the steroids he improved his abilities from a Hall of Fame talent, to a record-breaking talent.
From 1990-1998 Bonds averaged .305 BA, 36.3 HR, 110.3 RBI, 36.4 SB, and a .437 OBP. On the other hand, from 1999-2004 (2004 was Bonds last full season when he was fully healthy) Bonds averaged .341 BA, 48.7 HR, 125.4 RBI, 9.2 SB, and an otherworldly .535 OBP. Clearly his numbers improved greatly. With the exception of SB, which declined due to Bonds’ speed decreasing as he became older, and because he became significantly larger, Bonds supplanted himself as one of the all-time great talents to ever play baseball. While clearly Bonds’ overall statistics have been modified by his use of performance-enhancing drugs he still has the numbers to make it to the hall of fame, without his steroid-boosted seasons.
In addition, Bonds was not the only player who used drugs to increase his athletic abilities. According to Jose Canseco and his book, Juiced, released in 2005, Canseco claims that a majority of baseball in the 1990’s used steroids. Assuming what Canseco wrote is true, than Bonds was playing on a level playing field. After all, if everybody cheats than nobody cheats. When the topic of Hall of Fame voting is brought up the arguments normally swings in one of two different ways. First, the voters believe that if a person cheated in any form than they should not be allowed into the Hall of Fame. Second, people discount the rumors of alleged use and vote strictly on numbers, which is the philosophy that I follow. Even if Bonds, or any other player worthy of the Hall of Fame, fails a steroid test they should still not be penalized. Players from the 90’s, specifically,