I Need To Get Better. Take Steriods! Sure McGwire, Sure
Earlier this month Mark McGwire came out to Major League Baseball that he took steriods for over a decade. He even admitted to taking steroids during that magical season in 1998 when he surpassed Roger Maris’ 61 home runs in a single season. When I heard the news I was not shocked, but I was forgiving. I gave the man credit for coming out at a time where he did not seem to benefit from anything, but I began to question, what his motives were? Why now? He took it to stay healthy? Why steroids? Many questions like these have been asked, but none will ever be truly answered.
The opinion of my own is, McGwire new he was coming back to the Majors as a hitting instructor for the St. Louis Cardinals and was faced with the dilemma of: either I talk about this now or when I get into the majors be a distraction to the Cardinal organization? Let’s just say he made the wise decision by stating it now.
Another issue that was stated on espn.com earlier today was his motive for taking steroids. According to Mark McGwire, he took them to make sure he would stay healthy. Throughout his early years he was plagued by injuries which is unfortunate for any player. At first this sounds like a logical response to heal your own body because you want to play the game you love, but in reality it could not be any further from the truth. The purpose of steroids is to increase protein synthesis within your cells aka “building muscles” in its simplest form. But, guess what steroids does help? It improves hand-eye coordination and in baseball hand coordination is almost everything to hitter, according to a former steroid (drug) dealer to Mark McGwire, Curtis Wenzlaff. If you can’t see it, how will you hit it. The reasoning for steroids has nothing to do with healing and everything to do with improving and enhancing one’s body.
I believe he did it for:
Fame, to be known as one of the greatest hitters of all time.
Fortune, to make a lot of money playing a game that many would die for.
Greed, taking advantage of a flawed system (MLB steroid testing) to reach all the heights that many players have tried to reach but failed.
All of these themes may be over board and may be wrong, but McGwire, you haven’t convinced the baseball world as if you had to do it so you could play.
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