Juiced

      The days of all stars and hall of famers being judged on pure talent are long gone. Today’s athlete is analyzed based on performance, stats and dosage. As funny as this may sound it is true in the world of sports as performance enhancing drugs have played a big role in the current special moments in sports.             

      Performance enhancing drugs that are not approved by leagues have been banned for years and yet we still have controversies. Many critics say the steroids scandals began with the home run boom of the 1998 Major League Baseball season as numerous players hit over 50 home runs which was before un heard of in the league. The race during that season between Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa is what many people would say brought the fans back to the games. McGuire who broke the record hitting 70 home runs years later was accused along with several major leaguers for taking steroids thus leading him to still be left out of the Hall Of Fame.               

          Since the controversy with McGuire many people have began to speculate athletes that dominate their sports are using performance enhancing drugs. Athletes as prominent as seven time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong have been accused of doping but was never proven to have used any band supplements. The most notorious of the accused athletes is baseball home run king Barry Bonds or should I say Barry (asterisk) Bonds. Bonds has broken more records then anyone since his 73 home run season in 2001 and has been linked to steroids through his suppliers from the company BALCO. Bonds continues to claim his innocence but as every record he breaks down a new speculation builds up.                

          As recent as the sudden confession from gold medal track star Marion Jones has steroids ruled the back pages of newspapers and led most sports broadcasts. The confession from Jones after years of denial is very surprising in deed not the fact that she took the steroids but that she was willing to admit to it to the media. Could it be guilt? A sudden change of heart? Or maybe fear of being exploited by black mail the list can go on and on. It was noble to relinquish the medals she won but still in my opinion not enough if you’re the athlete that trained all your life for the Olympics only to be defeated by someone who could take a needle without flinching