When you think of baseball players like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds, two things should cross your mind.
First, you might recognize that these players are some of the best to play of all time, given their incredible statistics and longevity.
The second and probably more notable fact about these players is that all have been tested positive for taking performance-enhancing drugs.
But you cannot take away the accomplishments and the consistency of these players. Although A-Rod has had a couple recent injury-plagued seasons, he has hit more than 600 home runs in his career and used to average more than 30 a year.
Bonds and McGuire were some of the greatest home run hitters of all time, and Clemens pitched well into his 40s and still posted great numbers each season.
Should these players be punished for taking performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs)? Absolutely.
PEDs are a form of cheating and the drugs give them an advantage.
Should they be banned from baseball? Absolutely not.
Out of all professional baseball players who have used PEDs, well under ten percent of them have made it to the big leagues and found success. It is true that taking steroids or HGH can help you swing the bat a little bit harder or throw a few more pitches in a game, but it doesn't make it any easier to hit a 95 mph fastball or hit your spot on the low outside corner with a change-up.
You can't doubt the fact that these players still have tremendous skill and are doing what they can to make themselves better players.
Other players, like Ryan Braun, claim to have taken PEDs to recover from an injury more quickly. Whether this is a fact or an excuse, if you are the star player on your team, wouldn't you want to do whatever you can to recover from an injury to help as fast as you can?
In my experience as a baseball player, I would do just about anything to give myself a competitive edge. Taking steroids has never crossed my mind.
However, I have played against other players who have taken steroids. These players don't go 4-4 in every game, or hit balls to the warning track in every at bat. Rather, they tend to play with the same ability as everyone else on their team. They just look bigger and might be a little bit stronger.
If you think players who take steroids should be banned from the game, it would be hard for me to not argue against it.
Taking steroids might give you a competitive advantage in the weight room, but once you step on the field, that all goes out the window. The best players in the game get struck out seven out of ten times at bats; steroids don't guarantee that you will do any better or worse than that.
Sure, they make you swing a little bit harder, but unless you hit the ball squarely, you won't get a positive result. S
Steroids might be ruining the view of the game from outside reports, but it is not ruining the game itself.
--Quinn is a freshman from St. Louis, Mo. whose major is undecided.