Today, the Philadelphia Phillie's catcher, Carlos Ruiz was suspended for the first 25 games of next season because he tested positive for an amphetamine that qualified as a performance enhancing drugs. He had one of the best batting averages in the league at .325 which is particularly impressive for a catcher. He publicly apologized for using the performance enhancing stimulant and also stated he looks forward to returning.
While this is major hit to the Phillie's line up, the use of performance enhancing drugs is nothing new to the sport of baseball, or any other sport for that matter. After our discussions in class I'm now realizing how many different things can impact the decision of whether to use them or not. Obviously there is an immense pressure placed on these athletes to perform at a certain level, steroids and other drugs make it much easier to meet these expectations. But that doesn't mean that these athletes automatically become the superman of there sport; they still need push themselves extremely hard and practice to the same extent, the steroids or other drugs just allow them to push their bodies harder and further than without them. Do you agree with the illegality of their use? I'm torn...
Brittney Adams
010230907
KIN332i (T/Th 9:30-10:45)
3 comments:
This was an interesting post because i really liked the segment in class where we were discussing the issue of performance enhancing drugs in sport. I was saddened to learn that now almost every athlete are on some sort of performance enhancing drugs... The part that i thought was funny is that fact that he was a catcher with a good hitting average. Its like how did this happen, thats not right... it also leaves me thinking whether or not Philadelphia knew he was taking the drugs. the issue with performance enhancing drugs is particularly popular with baseball athletes and why is it this more than any other sport. There aren't many football players being suspended because they are taking drugs, is it because they don't test as often, I'm not sure just food for thought i guess.
Krysta Alarcon
KIN332I T/TH 12:30-1:45pm
I believe that each sport is always going to be tainted with performance enhancing drugs, but at the same time i see no wrong because when we watched that film "Bigger, Faster, Stronger" the arguments that were made in the film really changed my opinion on performance enhancing drugs. Like it was said in the film there is no bad side effects if you take them correctly and no only reason they were considered bad was because people had dominated in a certain sport and someone got mad that they had to use something to achieve their full potential. It was also funny that even though they brought their case with facts people just ignored it and listened to other people's opinion on them. I believe that if used properly performance enhancing drugs can bring out some of the best athletes and hope one day that they will be accepted.
Eric Lopez
010557623
T/Th 2:00-3:15
Great post! As a big baseball fan myself, I find it very disturbing to hear these types of stories all the time. This is Carlos Ruiz's second positive test for the same matter and I find it even more annoying how these players still do not learn to stay away from banned substances! These are grown men we are talking about and after years of the MLB trying to "clean up" the sport and "implementing" against the use of banned substances and steroids; these players still do not learn until they are caught. That’s when they start apologizing to their fans and baseball fans in general, they knew what they were doing when they were doing it, just did not think they would be caught .It’s very disturbing how players who are caught once, still fall in the same mess again. And the League has a policy about steroids: one positive test results in 50 game suspensions, second failed test is a 100 suspension and a third failed test is permanent suspension from MLB. I believe after so many years of warning players; one failed test should be enough to permanently suspend that player/s from the league and without pay of the remaining money in their contracts!!
-Pedro Delgado
Kin 332i
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