Many of my fondest memories as a child have one common denominator -- baseball. The satisfaction of throwing the ball exactly where I had intended to, diving in the outfield and feeling the faint sting of the baseball against my palm as I made the catch, or the embrace of my teammates as they celebrate my game-winning hit.  The joy experienced in these moments is not unique to myself, nor is it unique to the mind of a child. "I would do anything to experience that moment again," is an often reflected upon sentiment baseball players have. What if that phrase wasn't merely dramatic hyperbole, but rather something said literally? This is the crossroads a player reaches when he decides to use performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in an effort to become a better/more consistent baseball player. PEDs have permeated almost every level of baseball from high school through Major League Baseball and they have a detrimental effect on many aspects of baseball and American culture. The use of PEDs gives a player an advantage over a player not using PEDs and this unfair advantage warrants the exclusion of PED users from Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame.

Baseball has long been hailed as "America's Pastime," and that is not a moniker to be thrown around lightly. Baseball holds its roots all the way back into the 19th century and because of this has been long steeped in tradition. No other American sport has held its fans captive in its majesty for as long as baseball has. The beauty of baseball ballpark tugs at our inner being, the inner being that longs to play in the grass, in the dirt, and to be outside enjoying the sun. There is nothing natural about a basketball court, or tennis rackets, but the smell of a rawhide leather baseball glove, the crack of wood bat, or joy of running around on freshly cut grass is a feeling many can connect with. Beauty is subjective but none can argue with the value-building and team-oriented game that is baseball. It takes a collective effort from every one of the players in order to succeed. A spectacular diving play by the shortstop on a ground ball up the middle is just that, a spectacular play, but it is not counted as an out until he throws the ball to the first baseman who must then catch the ball with his foot on first base for the play to be considered an out. Baseball is more than just a game to many people, it's a part of family. For almost every Major League team there are generations of families who have been cheering and bonding around that team. Take the Yankees for example. Fathers have been bringing their boys to Yankees games for over a hundred years, discussing the importance of hard work, dedication, perseverance, intelligence, and working together as a team to succeed. Many boys grew up having a favorite player. That favorite player stood to personify a boy's dream of who he wants to be when he "grows up." Baseball has for generations taught children that if they worked hard enough, they could have the success of the role models they grew up admiring. Not every kid can be a MLB player, but this message of hard work, dedication, and working as a team is one that transcends the game of baseball and assists our youth in all of their endeavors in life. What if this message is slowly losing its potency? What if our youth is losing respectable role models to emulate and dream of becoming? The inclusion of PEDs in the game of baseball is a poison and it has spread like a cancer in all levels of baseball. The steroid era of baseball in the 90's and 2000's taught our youth that it wasn't how hard you worked, it was what kind of supplement you were taking and with how much guile are you taking it. PEDs have been used and abused by many players over the years which tells us one thing: they work.

A landmark report was published in 2007 called the Mitchell Report. The report got its name after George J. Mitchell, a former Senator who collaborated with Major League Baseball and investigators in order to unveil the shady underworld of cheaters who were currently or had been using PEDs while in the Major Leagues. The 409-page report names 89 players who have violated MLB's drug policy. Many of these players were megastars like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Gary Sheffield. The substances abused included amphetamines, steroids, and growth hormones. Amphetamines are most likely the longest abused class of drug and they are the original "performance enhancer." Amphetamines are a stimulant; a drug that increases competitiveness, increases reaction time, and increases awareness (MacAuley 1996). These have taken many forms over the years but perhaps none as ubiquitous as "greenies," a little green pill that was widely circulated around Major League clubhouses from the 1960's-1980's (Chass 2006). As the 80's went on a noticeable change was beginning to take place with the average Major League baseball player, they were getting bigger, a lot bigger. Thanks to the Mitchell Report and confessions from former players like Jose Canseco, we now know the reason for this and it wasn't all natural -- it was steroids. 

Steroids hormones stimulate the receptor molecules in muscle cells, which activates specific protein synthesis processes and the anabolic process of tissue growth is underway. Another effect of steroids on the body is its ability to inhibit catabolic metabolism (Fahey 1998). Anabolic processes build tissue, and catabolic break down food or tissue in order to release energy and provide the body with its needs. By inhibiting catabolism, an athlete can work harder, longer, and therefore make even more progress with his weight training program. Anabolic steroids have been showed through scientific research to increase lean body mass. As steroids have gained notoriety in the public eye, it has also become a target for Major League baseball's drug enforcement department. Because of the scrutiny on steroids, players have developed an affinity for a new PED, growth hormone and growth hormone factors.

Authors Mary Pilon and Gina Kolata in their New York Times article titled, "New to Most Fans, IGF-1 Has Long Been Banned as a Performance Enhancer," aim to shed light on a very popular PED of choice, IGF-1. IGF-1 or, Insulin Growth Factor 1, has been around for quite some time, but only recently has MLB added it to their banned list of substances. Animals injected with IGF-1 showed an increase in lean muscle mass, and if injured, recovered much quicker than their non-injected counterparts. Athletes use this supplement for similar purposes: increase lean muscle mass and quicker recovery from injury. Dr. Trevor Stitt and his colleagues began looking into the unknown relationship between anabolic and catabolic processes and the factors that catalyze or inhibit each one. IGF-1 is linked with molecular mediators PI3K and Akt in a pathway that is crucial to intracellular signaling, in particular, the signaling that prevents the onset of catabolic processes. The significance of these findings is the implication that athletes taking IGF-1 supplements have an enhanced ability to grow new tissue and prevent tissue breakdown. Research by Dr. Jacques Menetrey and Dr. Hau Liu has lead to similar findings. Young fit men given doses of human growth hormone or IGF-1 containing supplements compared with the control group were found to have significantly more lean muscle mass at the end of the test period. Dr. Menetrey's work on mice involved lacerating mice with soft tissue wounds, and measuring recovery time via different methods of supplementation. Mice given IGF-1 and other growth hormone factors healed at a significantly quicker rate. Whether it be an amphetamine, steroids, or growth hormone injections, PEDs of all kinds have a real and performance enhancing result on an athlete. That much is clear. But why do guys take these supplements? Besides amplifying athletic performance, what if these guys are taking these drugs simply to keep up with the competition or, perhaps, to get back on the field quicker after an injury? Conceivably, the reason for use may not be as nefarious and immoral as one might think when reading the latest headline involving a drug scandal.

In HBO's "Real Sports with Byrant Gumble," a man gives a remarkably candid interview on the prevalence of steroid and PED use in professional baseball. This man speaks under the cover of darkness and is utilizing vocal distortions to hide his identity. This man is under the opinion that the percentage of players using PEDs is so high, that if a player even wants to have a chance at making a team and making an impact, he has to take these drugs in order to stay relevant. Having played professional baseball for many years, he informs us that the fans would be shocked to know how many of their favorite players are PED users, albeit much better at not getting caught. This man also argues that PEDs do not make a poor athlete a great athlete, they simply enhance performance. There has to be innate athletic ability. He also argues that the drugs will not enhance a player's ability to make decisions on which pitches to swing at or what pitches to throw, nor will they enhance one's hand-eye coordination. Jay Hoffman, a PhD holding professor of exercise physiology, reveals a similar sentiment while he is interviewed by Adam of Hadhazy of the Scientific American. Dr. Hoffman believes that the value in steroids is simply the ability to train longer, recover from injury quicker, possibly react quicker, but he firmly believes they do not give you the skill required to be great at a specific sport. With the kind of money these players have the chance to make (the average MLB salary is $4 million dollars), Barry Petchesky of Deadspin asks the question, "why don't we let injured athletes use PEDs?" Barry points out that with science clearly showing the expedited-recovery that some PEDs offer, athletes should have legal access to them, considering the relatively short amount of time they have to capitalize on the copious amounts of money able to be made. The simple response to this question would be, performance enhancing drugs are ILLEGAL and therefore using them is CHEATING. It really is as simple as that.

The response by a surprisingly large amount of athletes follows the logic made common by adolescents and goes a little something like this -- everyone's doin' it. That is not to say that peer pressure is a culprit for widespread PED use in Major League baseball, but it does mean that a player feels indirect pressure to use when he sees his teammates and opposition performing with better results and he knows that they're taking drugs. He knows that he will soon become obsolete and pushed out of the game if he does not keep up with the competition. Whether using to keep up with the competition, or to get back on the playing field quicker after injury, or simply to try to elevate your personal abilities, players seem to be negating one very important factor, perhaps the only real factor, that PED use is not legal. It's cheating. It's wrong. The biggest issue with this complete negation of the rules and regulations that govern baseball is the message this deliberate break in the rules sends to our youth. Players who do not possessive enough talent to become a bona fide Major League baseball simply take some PEDs, start hitting more home runs or throwing the ball harder and then they find themselves in the middle of a lucrative contract and success. Take this other scenario for example: a player spends his off days partying hard, doesn't eat well, sleep well, or take care of his body and his body breaks down while his teammate is in bed by 11 every night, constantly keeping his muscles strong and loose, and spends his spare time studying his opponents so that he can be a better player. The player who doesn't take care of his body gets injured, takes some PEDs, gets back on the field quick and takes the job of his hard working teammate who finds it immoral and illegal to take PEDs. Is it right to reward taking the easy way out? Do we want our youth understanding that it's not how hard you work but, rather, how much you're willing to spend on PEDs that is the difference between making a dream a reality and moving on with life? The answer should be a clear and unanimous no. The generation of our father's and grandfather's had role models to look up to on MLB teams and we need to same role models for our youth's generation to look up to. They need players who invigorate a hard working, persevering, respectful, and intense drive for success. They do not need to be reminded with every drug scandal that they can be millionaires and famous with as little as a willingness to put drugs into their bodies. Furthermore, it is inexplicable to imagine rewarding the career of a player of low integrity, low moral character, and high greed with an induction to arguably the greatest Hall of Fame in existence, Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame. An induction into the Hall of Fame to a former PED user would be culmination of what-never-should-have-been and to think a cheater would be rewarded with such an honor is disconcerting, to say the least. 

It is in human nature to find the easiest way to do something, and that in and of itself is not wrong. But when the easiest way is also an illegal way, and the person taking the easy way is someone with thousands of fans around the world, a change needs to take place. Those is the public eye of our youth need to be held at a higher standard of moral conduct. The Mitchell Report unearthed a small sliver of the underbelly of MLB baseball, the underbelly containing those of low integrity and character. Science has illustrated why these players use PEDs: they have the remarkable ability to develop greater physical beings. Sure, these enhanced beings can produce incredible numbers, numbers worthy of Hall of Fame inclusion, but the Hall of Fame wasn't meant to welcome to cheaters and abusers. It is a place of ideals, holding in it the names of seemingly super-humans who were truly remarkable in both their natural abilities and their work ethic and perseverance. We do not include the big wigs of the cartels on Forbes list of most successful businessmen, and nor should we include the men who partake in illegal activity in the hallowed Hall of Fame. The baseball writers who vote to induct players in the Hall of Fame have a responsibility to uphold the sanctity of its membership, and a responsibility to send a message to our nation's youth: a strong work ethic, determination, perseverance, and respect for the rules will always be rewarded. 

