Zachary Falconer

Professor Dagher
UWRT 1102
April 6, 2015

Performance Enhancing Substances in Sports

Over the past couple years I have wondered why are performance enhancing drugs such a
huge problem. It is not only steroids they are banning but for instance, pine tar in baseball, there
are so many regulations that it is making it hard to play the game like they used to. So over the
past semester I have looked further into the situation of PEDs and how they are being used or
regulated in professional sports. I for one think regulations should be cut down but not
disregarded all together. I think this is what the sports world is trying to do but they just are not
accomplishing it.
One of my biggest issues with the regulations is they do not cover all types of drugs.
When you have grown men in baseball playing upwards of 160 games a season sometimes 4 in
one week they need something to help. If they get injured for a month they miss so much so a lot
of them turn to using certain types of steroids they dont do anything more than help with
recovery time. It does not give them a boost in performance nor does it give them an upper hand.
It only lets them get healthy quicker and makes the health more sustainable (Sabini,
Monterosso). In almost every sport they test for the same drugs but in every sport the drugs
needed to improve performance are different. A golfer is not going to use the same type of

steroid as a football player is because they both need two different results. Golf is one of the only
sports left untouched by drug regulations and they dont have a problem with validity of certain
wins being questioned. Many players in the PGA are known to use drugs but without a ban on
them they dont have the problem of people overusing or constantly trying new drugs and
harming themselves further. Football seems to have less of a problem with drugs, I think that
falls down on the ones in charge of enforcing it. Baseball they are very strict but in football we
all know they are all doping but it seems they arent that worried about it. Something that needs
to be improved is if they keep the ban on drugs, they need to be more consistent and not only test
the guys that are over performing. It seems like they are punishing the guys who are playing well
by assuming they are doping.
Many amazing athletes names have been tarnished due to accusations whether proven
true or not about drug use. One of the biggest names is Barry Bonds. He holds the record for
most career homeruns but people want it taken away because at the end of his career he needed a
little help. I do not agree, yes the steroids helped him sustain a health high enough to play but he
still hit 762 homeruns in his career. Even before steroids he was an amazing player but now no
one even thinks of him like that because of the accusations. This has been done to so many great
athletes, not just Bonds. Even some athletes that did use steroids purely for performance are
shunned from the sport, while I feel they should have taken initiative they may go too far
sometimes.
One of the biggest controversies in sports is the use of Pine Tar in baseball. Pine tar is a
sticky substance a lot of players put on the handle of the bat to increase grip but some use on the
face of the bat to increase the surface texture that the ball comes in contact with. Where the MLB
steps in is when it used by a pitcher. In 2014, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, Michael

Pineda was caught with pine tar on his neck (Hoch). Before throwing certain pitches he would
wipe his fingers a crossed it and add it to the ball. This adds texture to the ball and changes the
flight path as well as lets the pitcher hold the ball firmly and release for solid breaking balls. The
Major League Baseball officials went in an uproar against him and wanted him banned from
baseball as well as stripped of any accolades he had received. This sent a lot of players beating
down the doors of the MLB. Even notorious hitters confessed to not caring about pine tar. In
their eyes, the ball still has to cross the plate and they get the chance to hit it. It has come out that
this is how most hitters feel so why not release the ban?
Some people bring up the argument of player safety. They are harming themselves by
doping. I would agree. Doping can have very serious side effects if not done correctly. You are
essentially overloading your body with some of the natural things inside of you. Testosterone is
made naturally but a lot of steroids are full of testosterone and adding that to your body can
cause problems. When men do aggressive things such as lift weights, play sports, we burn
testosterone, when you fill your body if you dont use it all it can turn into estrogen. Estrogen in
the male body causes a lot of issues. This is a risk they take just like anyone else does when
making decisions with consequences. At the end of the day, they chose to dope and that is on
them. If they know what they are doing they will be fine but if young men get a hold of them and
just start taking them it can lead to a lot of down the road issues.

Works Cited
Hoch, Bryan. "Pineda Ejected for Having Pine Tar on Neck." MLB News 24 Apr. 2014.
Mlb.com. Web. 6 Apr. 2015. <http://m.mlb.com/news/article/73145346/yankees-right-handermichael-pineda-ejected-for-having-pine-tar-on-neck>.

Sabini, John, and John Monterosso. "Judgments of the Fairness of Using Performance
Enhancing Drugs." Ethics & Behavior 15 (2005): 81-94. Ebsco Host Uncc LIbrary. Web.
<http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=85717a21768a-48c2-88e0-059da4ffb410@sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=120>.