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Did Steroids Make Baseball Better?

Steroids needle injecting a baseball

by Adam on May 25, 2009 · 16 comments

in Baseball, MLB

To follow up our recent posts about How to Spot Steroid Users and Manny Ramirez using Performance Enhancing Drugs, I wanted to ask everyone, did steroids make baseball better?

Remember, baseball was coming off a strike and we all fell back in love with it because of all the dingers being hit and records being broken. Right?

Or was it a temporary glitch and now baseball is returning to its roots and becoming a better game too?

Did Steroids Make Baseball Better?

  • No (54%, 19 Votes)
  • Yes (46%, 16 Votes)

Total Voters: 35

Vote in the poll (voting closes at the end of the month) and let us know how you feel in the comments below.

Thanks to Ricky Rhodes for the picture.

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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }

1 jason007thomas May 25, 2009 at 12:25 pm

I’m not ready to say it made the sport better but i think it definatley caried it out of a slump and made it more relevent to none baseball fans. ( you gotta admit) Even the negetive steroid press made it increasingly more press obsorbing.

Reply

2 Adam May 25, 2009 at 1:49 pm

I’ll agree that it mode it more exciting and buzz worthy, but it was also a departure from the core of what makes baseball unique. Getting runs is tough and some of the best baseball games are pitcher’s duels where you really have to fight and scrap for each run.

For the record, I voted no. Personally, after a while all the home-runs become boring and almost expected. It also made one aspect of the game way, way more dominant than the others.

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3 Chuck Hanf May 29, 2009 at 1:39 pm

some nice banter back and forth here.. as far as the steroids thing, no, it didn’t make the game better it made it more buzz worthy for the pink hats of the world, with all the dingers..

As far as the Pats cameragate– I can’t lie. It bothered me. I hate cheating so much in sports and just wished the Pats hadn’t done it, but the fact is most teams do it. Jimmy Johnson was the funniest when he said he used to send up interns into the coordinators box (visiting team) at Texas stadium to steal any left over playbook material that they might’ve left up there.

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4 Josh Gans May 29, 2009 at 5:39 pm

Exactly Chuck, that’s why I say “spygate” wasn’t cheating. Every team does it, the league just frowns upon it. Collectively, all teams understand it gets done, that’s why they change their signs and signals every game, half, quarter, set of downs.

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5 Kay P May 31, 2009 at 1:04 pm

Thinking about this from another angle; baseball is just a profitable game. So what difference does it make what players do to their bodies? If people knew exactly what went on in locker rooms & doctor’s offices & etc, would they suddenly stop going to watch baseball games? Or stop buying team merchandise? And if yes, would the players care enough about the loss of revenue (which pays their salaries) to scale back on the use of chemical advantage? Or are they playing for themselves, for the feeling of winning, and pushing themselves beyond their own limits?

Personally, I enjoy the excitement of watching a competition unfold — everything else is just noise. As far as racking up home runs, it seems to me that lower scoring games are more exciting. Not being able to predict who will win keeps everyone (players, fans) emotionally involved and focused on the game until the very last.

Lastly, I really enjoy this blog, and this is a great question! So I hope my comments are not too misguided.

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6 Adam May 31, 2009 at 2:25 pm

Great point Kay about how baseball, in the end, is a business. And let’s not forget, they’re in the entertainment industry. Often times we hype sports to something they are not. I think it’s clear that performance enhancing drugs did not cause fans to stop watching the game. If anything, it drew new fans to the game who got caught up in the home run race(s).

As for whether the players do it so they can earn more money, or if it’s driven by pride or a desire to win. Well, I think it depends on the player. Some might use it purely to help recover so they can get back in the game sooner, while others might do it just to boost their stats so they can get a fatter paycheck. And I’m sure there’s some players who do it for both reasons.

And I certainly agree with you Kay that the lower scoring games are more exciting because each pitch, each swing of the bat becomes that much more crucial. It is insanely tense watching a post season score-less or one run game knowing that it might be near impossible to score one run.

Thanks for the great comment Kay, please do keep them coming! You brought some excellent insight into this discussion.

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7 Josh Gans June 1, 2009 at 9:32 am

I don’t think it would result in people not watching the game Kay, but playing baseball for a number of my younger years as well, I think the whole cheating with steroids thing is absolutely disgusting. When I played the game, I played to win and I played because I loved to, not to have the highest amount of home runs in the league.

I understand some of the people who use PED’s are doing it to win, but if you can’t rely on your own play to begin with, maybe they shouldn’t have been playing at that level.

And you are 100% spot on with the fact that the closer games are better than the blowouts that could confuse a viewer for the score of a football game. I’d much rather watch a game coming down to the wire where both teams are pushing with all they’ve got to come out on top.

Thanks alot Kay, glad you gave your opinion, you have great points of view when you comment!

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