Baseball: Canseco and Bryant
In the game of baseball, dreaming big, working hard and showing individual effort in an atmosphere of teamwork and fair play are all American ideals. These ideals hide the realities of drug abuse, and fixed games, just like these dreams hide the ugly reality in America that not everyone who dreams and works hard succeeds. In Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, major leager Jose Canseco chronicles his experience as a professional player for Major League Baseball. An unapologetic user of steroids to enhance his sport, Canseco claims that drug use can be managed by a physician to improve players' game and raise the bar of the sport itself. To Canseco, steroid use is not the problem when all players have access to safe steroids and doctor-managed regimes of performance-enhancing drugs. In Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball, Howard Bryant offers a more critical perspective of the steroid crisis in Major League Baseball (MLB). Writing as a member of the sports media rather than as an athlete, Bryant's perspective is far different from that of Canseco but no less compelling. Baseball is big business; more than just a game, the sport is financed at least i
A level playing field does not demand all players be willing to use juice. If allowed, then all athletes would have access to the same set of substances that can boost their body's ability to excel on and off the playing field. In the 1990s, a player's strike forced the MLB to make changes in its approach. A top athlete in top form who competes at the highest levels of his or her sport cannot hope to win against players who are juiced up on 'roids. Calling on fans, the media, players, and MLB management to cease tolerating drug use, Bryant's views contrast with those of Canseco. Before steroid abuse was as widespread as it became after players like Canseco were busted, Major League Baseball was plagued by problems. No matter what lengths the professional organization like the MLB is willing to go to administer drug testing or to suspend players who use the drugs, athletes will continually turn to substances that enhance their performance and ensure a competitive advantage. Canseco himself testifies to the effects of steroids on his brain and body in his book Juiced. The way that MLB Commissioner Bud Selig dealt with the steroid abuse problem raging in American ballparks was to capitalize on it. Working hard is no longer enough to help a person fulfill the American Dream either. As Bryant points out, MLB regulations regarding steroid use are so lax as to practically condone performance enhancers. Both Canseco and Bryant value the American Dream and equal access to it. In the competitive environment of professional sports, athletes have to do all they can to stay on top of their sport. Looking the other way while players from Canseco to Bonds loaded up on steroids did help save MLB from further revenue losses after the strike but the poor ethics have indelibly marred MLB. Those changes included needing the offensive edge that performance-enhancing drugs offered players.
Common topics in this essay:
American Dream,
League Baseball,
Canseco Bryant,
Fame Cooperstown,
Canseco Bonds,
Bud Selig,
Bryant MLB,
Selig MLB,
,
Jose Canseco,
performance-enhancing drugs,
major league baseball,
major league,
league baseball,
professional sports,
american dream,
playing field,
players canseco,
canseco bryant,
steroid abuse,
level playing,
level playing field,
commissioner bud selig,
league baseball mlb,
|
Acceptance Essays
