Performance Enhancing Drugs such as steroids, Human Growth Hormones, and many others have been present in professional sports for as long as I can remember.  As a child growing up, like many others, my favorite sport at the time was baseball.  I played it, watched it, went to countless Red Sox games with my father, bought baseball cards, bought autographed baseballs, and even participated in fantasy baseball leagues.  I grew up during the height of the steroid era in baseball.   Sure players were probably using PED’s before I was even alive, however it wasn’t until I started watching and loving baseball that players began getting caught for cheating.

For example, in 1998, when I was just five years old, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were caught up in the famous “Home Run Record Race.”  At the time I thought it was great, here were two of the greatest players of the time, hitting monster home runs game after game, each trying to set the record for themselves.  The “Record Race” came down to the final games of the season, however it didn’t take long for each of them to be called out for steroid usage.

At the time it didn’t seem like a big deal to me, because to be honest, the race was one of the most exciting things I had ever witnessed, so I thought, “Let them all use steroids, it makes the game more exciting.”  Years passed and then the BALCO investigations began in 2003.

In 2004 the Red Sox won the World Series, which sort of sparked my interest in baseball again, however the following years would change my perception, along with many others, of baseball.

From 2003-2007, Barry Bonds stole the Major League Baseball spotlight.  When Bonds came into the league, he was small and fast, known for his speed, fielding abilities, and base stealing abilities.  By 2003, he was hitting home runs reminiscent of McGwire and Sosa.  Sure it was fun watching Bonds chase the all time homerun record, but it was wrong.

I watched baseball during those years, but as we got closer to 2007, more and more players were being accused of using PED’s, and the news on SportsCenter began to revolve more around PED’s than on the sport of baseball itself.  Soon, it began hard to watch a player hit a home run and not say “Hey, maybe he’s juicing too.”  Finally at the height of it all, in 2007 the Mitchell Report was released which contained the names of 89 MLB players who had allegedly used PED’s, some were superstars others were no-names at the time.  To this day, it is hard to watch a baseball game and not think about the fact that everyone is using PED’s.

The league can test their athletes all they want, and they have been.  Most recently they’ve suspended players such as Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, but will “America’s Greatest Past Time” ever be able to rid itself of PED’s and steroids?  Or have they become a part of the game that is here to stay?  No other issue in sports today has completely tainted a professional sport’s reputation like PED’s and steroids have tainted the MLB’s.

The MLB has lost fans, credibility, players lost the trust of their fans, and simply suspending players doesn’t seem like the long-term solution that will bring baseball back to its previous level of prominence.  In my opinion, steroids and PED’s are too deeply rooted in baseball culture now to ever fully rid the game of them.