Steroids project

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Ramirez Suspended

At the start of the 2009 Major League Baseball season, Manny Ramirez, a member of the five hundred home run club, got suspended for fifty games during the regular season. He tested positive for a female fertility drug that steroid users use to restore testosterone production to normal levels. Getting suspended forced him to give up $7.7 million of $25 million dollar salary. "He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me," Manny said. Most users that get caught won’t admit it like Manny does here. Manny is another one of the great players in the game to get caught using steroids to enhance his performance.
I think that Manny would have been a great player all along without using steroids in the first place. Any player that has hit five hundred home runs obviously has a natural ability to hit the baseball hard. But now that Manny has tested positive, people will always call him a cheater, which is a shame because of how good of a player he really is. Manny will not be the last great player to test positive. I think there are many more to come.

Hernandez, Dylan. "Manny Ramirez suspended 50 games for positive drug test." 8 May 2009: 1-3. Web. 20 Apr 2010. .

Juiced

I read the book Juiced by Jose Canseco, who played Major League Baseball from 1985-2001. In the book he talks about how he took steroids to become a better athlete and a better baseball player. Canseco was born in Cuba, but his family came to America when he was young. They lived in Miami with a lot of other Cuban people. Jose says he was always an average athlete in high school, and that he didn’t even play on the varsity baseball team until he was a senior in high school. He took steroids for the first time in 1984, when he was playing in the minor leagues for the Oakland Athletics and he instantly became addicted to them. After he started to learn about them, he started injecting some teammates with steroids, including Mark Mcgwire and Ivan Rodriguez. He admits that steroids helped him be a better baseball player. But he also says, “If I had it all to do over again, would I live a steroid-enriched life? Yes, I would” (2). He doesn’t regret taking steroids one bit, even if people do call him a cheater.
I respect Jose Canseco for admitting that he took steroids. He almost sounds proud to say that he took them. He claims that he was the “Godfather” of bringing steroids into baseball, and I believe him. Before the late 1980’s no one ever mentioned people using steroids in baseball. Throughout the book Jose did tend to brag about his accomplishments and how he was such a great baseball player, and a big time ladies man. It is great that he hit lots of home runs, and even talked to Madonna a lot, but he could mention those things a little less. If a person knows anything about Major League Baseball, they will know that Jose Canseco was a great baseball player without him mentioning it so much throughout the book.
The thing about the book that I found most interesting is when he talked about all the players that he injected with steroids, or told them a person about who could sell them steroids. He mentioned players that I would have never even thought about taking steroids before the famous Mitchell Report came out. Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, and Roger Clemens are among the many that he talks about. I sure would be mad if I were one of the players that Jose called out, but in my opinion, they should have never taken the steroids in the first place.

Steroids Interview

I interviewed Terry Jones, who played in the Major Leagues from 1996-2001. He played his rookie year for the Colorado Rockies, and then played the rest of his career for the Montreal Expos. He says he suspected of some of his teammates doing steroids, but never actually saw anyone inject themselves. I asked him if he thought doing steroids was right, and his answer was, “No. If you can’t do it naturally, don’t do it at all.” He thinks that the main reason players take steroids are because of the pressure they feel to produce. Every player wants that big contract, and they feel that steroids can help them get it. However, he does think that players who hold MLB records that have been caught doing steroids should be able to still claim that record. “We all make mistakes. There are players now that haven’t got caught and will go down as some of the best players of all time” said Terry. But the answer he gave me to the question, “Could players still break records without steroids?” caught me off guard the most. He says, “Yes. If you get in shape and work hard, the sky is the limit.”

Terry was a great guy to listen to. I could’ve sat and listened to him talk for hours if I had the time. Terry got me thinking that a baseball player can do anything that he sets his mind to if he works hard. Terry believes that if a person can’t play naturally, then don’t play at all. I think that is a good way to put it. If you love and respect the game of baseball, then you will play it to the best of your ability by working hard and playing with your natural body. After talking with Terry for a little while, I will always remember, “If you get in shape and work hard, the sky is the limit.” There is no need for steroids.



Terry’s number is 205-706-9045



Jake Fagan. Interview with Terry Jones. Trussville. 3 May. 2010.