My interest has been invested in this topic for a while. I have always played and watched baseball. Many players have been getting in trouble and suspended due to the controversial topic of steroids. Performance enhancers, which include things other than steroids, have become much more prominent in the past few years than they ever have been. More players are beginning to use them, and therefore more players are getting in trouble. Since this topic is becoming more important, I decided that it should be my research topic. The research that I did swayed the way that I thought about this topic. So far the research has directed me toward the argument that they should be allowed. Multiple sources have given great insight on why players should be able to use them. Each article gives a different idea on why they should be used and how it could be beneficial to the players and the league. Each author has talked about the health of the players, economical benefit, and their overall performance. All of the factors have added up to performance enhancers being a positive thing for the sport.

I am interested in this topic because of its personal impact. I have played baseball every year since I was eight years old. I not only played with the school, but also for travel teams that played in many different places. Playing on those different travel teams made it apparent that people are willing to do almost anything to get to the top. Some of the players that I played with were willing to cheat their way to the top, mostly just for the fame and popularity. I believe that they would have taken steroids or other kinds of performance enhancer if the opportunity was given to them. Players that are not performing, or are not as good as the competition can gain quick results by taking these drugs. Instead of putting in the work to get their results, they took the quick way there. No matter the level of play, people are willing to take drugs to reach their goals. Seeing the positive affect on these people have made me think that performance enhancers should be allowed. It would increase competition and the caliber of play. I have only witnessed the positive effects, so I cannot speak on the negatives ones.

Although I am a stakeholder, I am not a major one. The people that it affects directly are the major stakeholders; people like the players, their families, and the people they play for. Being a less important stakeholder is also important. The smaller stakeholder are where the views come from, and where the merchandise is sold. Without these people, the money would not come in and there would be much less support for the sport. Even the less important people are effected directly. The most important stakeholder, the players, are the main focus. They are the ones that will get the most benefits or disappointments from their decisions. The players must take responsibility for everything that they do.

I would not take steroids or other performance enhancers based on my personal values. However, I do believe that all sports can become more interesting if the players are stronger and better at what they do. Those views are contradicting, but it is the way I feel. These views will create less bias in my paper because I can see both sides of the argument. I am not strong in my views either way, so I will provide the facts for both sides of the argument and prove my point through those facts. The less bias I have, the more people will agree with my argument and believe what I have to say. That will make for a better all-around research paper.

Coming into this topic I knew a little bit about how performance enhancer were impacting the sports world. I knew that players have been getting into trouble regarding the use of steroids in the past few years. The biggest and most recent event was the suspension of Alex Rodriguez for an entire year. This is the first time that the MLB has really cracked down on a certain players for abusing steroids. I hope to discover why sports leagues are so against the use of steroids and what the major downfalls of it are. I believe that it would be fair as long as it is allowed for everybody to use. I also hope to find the benefits of using steroids, and how it would help not only the game of baseball, but all sports. The research of this topic could pose for a lot of changes in the world of sports. It could become much more competitive and more fun to watch. The more people that watch, the more money the sport makes. There are many major benefits surrounding this topic.

With my argument I hope to persuade readers to see that steroids can have a positive effect in sports. I would like to change people's views on steroids and show them that they can make sports like baseball more fun and interesting. An eight to ten page paper should be long enough to where I can fit many facts in, as well as a good argument for my topic. I can provide studies and experiments that will prove my point. A paper this long leaves enough space for thorough explanations of the main points of my paper. Even with explanations, agreements and disagreements arise with this issue. I have already seen that scientist do not all show the same results. Some will test the negative side of steroids and only show the bad, while others only show the good and test all of the positive aspect. Each article is going to provide information that proves the author's point, and not valid information that disproves it. Lastly, as I work towards a thesis for my paper I see that I will need to narrow down my research to some main points that I want to hit. As of now it is a very broad question that does not have a lot of direction. With a little more research I can narrow my topic and make a solid argument. A solid argument will lead to a more thoughtful and well-constructed paper.
