Steroid Use in Baseball

The professional sports industry, since its arise in the late 19th century, has allowed athletes that performed exceptionally well and above average to take it a step further and get paid for what they love to do and let other people watch them excel at it.

Many people, not just children, may choose to look at a particular sports figure or team and admire them for the qualities and achievements they have. Athletes today are treated like celebrities, which allow us, the average American citizen, to closely follow their progress, achievements, and mistakes through the media. This often makes any heated debate in the sports industry, whether it is ethical or fiscal, an open, public one. There have recently been a lot of ethical issues in various sports. For instance cheating in NASCAR, drug use in the MLB, treatment of concussions in the NFL, and fighting in the NHL. The most controversial topic is drug use, more specifically, steroid use, in the MLB. Steroid use in the MLB is wrong because it violates the Social Contract.

From the point of view of a Contractarian, it is wrong to use illegal, performance enhancing, drugs in the MLB. Contractarian believes that if we all follow a Social Contract and agree on certain restrictions then we would all be better off in the long run. If the MLB had no rules or laws governing the use of drugs everyone would be “out for themselves”. Professional athletes would only be motivated to beat out the next guy and use any type drug in order to achieve their own personal goals and fame. I see this as an act of insecurity. They are afraid of not being noticed or going down in the record books at the professional level. Every athlete wants to be admired and be a forever-remembered face in the Hall of Fame. This is man’s “The State of Nature” according to the Contractarian. (13-Mar-5 Page 4). If every athlete in the MLB agrees to an anti-drug use contract when they sign onto a team, which they do indeed do, then everybody will naturally abide by that contract. However, the Contractarian acknowledges the fact that if everyone is agreeing to follow this contract and there is nobody enforcing the rule, then it can be very easy to cheat the system and use it to one’s own personal advantage. This is why the Contractarian believes there needs to be “…enforcement to make it in people’s self-interest to keep the agreement” (Conversation II pg. 75).

The solution to the drug use problem in the MLB is easy and would come in the form of enforcement. It would come in the form of drug tests, suspensions and/or expulsions, or salary termination. In this case it would strip the athletes of what they love most, money and fame. Without a hefty salary, an athlete won’t be able to pay any bills or support his family. His team’s good reputation is now tarnished for this selfish act. The government steps in and cracks down on drug enforcement by fining the MLB which in turn has a trickle down effect onto everybody else’s salaries and then everybody is punished and now worse off all because off a selfish act. By striping away these luxuries, a now-post steroid user might think twice before he breaks the Social Contract and realizes that if he would have just agreed to it from the beginning, the athlete and everyone else would be better off.

We should punish any offenders that break the MLB’s drug use policy. Baseball should develop a solid contract that is strictly followed and enforced and only slightly forgiving. If a player is caught using steroids he should be out of baseball for a full year. If the player uses them again, he should be banned for life. Nobody uses performance-enhancing steroids by accident, it is very much intentional. In some case, a player may have a defense for their steroid use and, if so, some administrative board needs to be put in place and consider the case. We should have due process, but, I find it hard to imagine what such