Should performance enhancing drugs be legal in baseball
yes
Baseball became relevant again due to the steroid fueled home run race
Butterworth, M. L. (2007). Race in “The Race”: Mark
McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Heroic Constructions of Whiteness. Critical
Studies In Media Communication, 228-244. doi:10.1080/07393180701520926 In their pursuit of Major League Baseball's single-season home run record, McGwire and Sosa together energized the sporting public and contributed to the rehabilitation of the “national pastime,” which was still suffering the repercussions of the 1994 work stoppage that had forced the cancellation of the World Series. The 1998 “home run race” affirmed the virtues and principles of American character that historically have been assigned to baseball. Baseball has long been the “American game,” and the Race uniquely reflected its mythology. Reilly (1998b) claimed, “The home run race was as American as a Corvette".
Hitting a home run is difficult, even to a above average playerDe Vany, A. (2010). Steroids an Home Runs. Economic Inquiry, 489-511. doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.2009.00257.x "The first thing we must do is face up to the over arching fact about hitting home runs; few do it well, even among the best players in the world. It is a difficult task to hit home runs in the major leagues. To hit many home runs in a year is an extraordinarily difficult task. Over 60% of players hit fewer than 10 home runs a year. Less than 20% hit more than 20 home runs a year. The number who hit more than 30 is a select group, hitting 40 or more home runs is a task accomplished by the elite hitters. In many years, 31–40 home runs led MLB. In only 13 of the past 45 yr did the MLB leading home run hitter hit 50 or more home runs. Only five players in the history of MLB hit 60 or more home runs in a single season, just four of them accomplished this feat seven times in over 46,000 player seasons since 1959 through 2004."
It will benefit both hitters and pitchers Piquero, A. R. (2009). Do Gun Laws Affect Crime the Way Steroids Affect Homeruns in Baseball? American Journal of Criminal Justice : AJCJ, 30-36. Retrieved February 24, 2014, from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203547417 First, steroid use should, in theory, impact both sides of the baseball. That is, if there are benefits to be garnered from steroid use, both pitchers and hitters will reap them. Recent drug testing has found alleged steroid use among hitters and pitchers alike.
no
Steroid benefits are inconsistent McBride, A., & Williamson, K. (1993). Anabolic Steroids In Sport. BMJ, 204. Retrieved February 23, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1678376/?tool=pmcentrez&report=abstract "Haupt and Rovere reviewed published studies examining the effects of anabolic steroids. They concluded that they showed no improvement in aerobic performance and were inconsistent with regard to the effects on strength; strength did increase if there was intensive training before and throughout periods when anabolic steroids were used. The efficacy and dangers of high dose anabolic steroids are now ethically justified. The doses used by bodybuilders and others in Britain probably greatly exceed those needed for optimum benefit (if there is any benefit)."
Steroids are dangerous to your health Amsterman, J., Opperhuizun, A., & Hartgens, F. (2010, June). Adverse health effects of anabolic–androgenic steroids. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 57(1), 117-123. Retrieved February 24 , 2014, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027323001000019X "Severe side effects on the liver and lipoproteins mainly result from alkylated AAS at high dose (Ishak and Zimmerman, 1987), whereas parenteral AAS appear to damage heart muscles which may become clinically prominent after several years. Fortunately most of the serious life-threatening effects appear relatively infrequent. Health consequences associated with anabolic steroid abuse include urogenital problems, acne, and cardiovascular and hepatic disease . Changes in males that can be reversed include reduced sperm production, impotence, difficulty or pain in urinating and shrinking of the testicles (testicular atrophy). In one study of male bodybuilders, more than half had testicular atrophy and/or either reversible or irreversible breast development (gynecomastia)."
It is cheating and immoral Reeves, J. (2002, June 2). Steroid abusers cheating game. Houston Chronicle, p. 1. Retrieved from http://zc9gn3am3j.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Steroid+abusers+cheating+game&rft.jtitle= "There should be a place, a different league really, for those baseball players who have stuck needles into their bodies to turn themselves into muscle-bound, lantern-jawed, Tank McNamara clones. At the very least they should all be wearing a scarlet "S" on the front of their uniforms, and that doesn't stand for Seattle or Superman. It stands for steroid user. It stands for sucker. It stands for stupid. They're cheaters, and no amount of rationalizations or explanations will ever change that. It also happens to be against the law, as if that seems to matter to anyone these days."