Insights Into the Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Baseball

Insights Into the Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Baseball

Insights Into The Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Baseball

General Purpose: To Inform
Specific Purpose: To educate my audience on the ongoing use of performance enhancing drug use in professional baseball.

Thesis: The use of performance enhancing drugs is a widespread and controversial issue that has plagued America’s pastime since its conception.

Introduction
I. When I was a child, Mark McGwire was a household name in baseball.
II. I was only 6 years old when he shattered Roger Maris’ long standing single season home run record, but I can still remember watching that game between the Cardinals and Sammy Sosa’s Chicago Cubs, when McGuire’s 62nd homer barely made it over the wall in left field.
III. I used to get into trouble with my little league coach for trying to imitate his exaggerated “uppercut” home run swing.
IV. I was so disappointed when in 2005 I learned that McGwire and 10 other ballplayers were being called before Congress regarding their illegal use of steroids during their careers.
V. This culminated last month when, for the first time since the 1990’s, the panel of sportswriters entrusted with finding candidates for the National Baseball Hall of Fame failed to nominate a single player for induction this year.
VI. Since that inquiry, hundreds of ballplayers have been accused of taking so-called “performance enhancing drugs,” and the so-called “steroid era” of baseball has tainted the legacy of every great ballplayer in the last decade.

(Transition) Before I explain how this has happened, I’d like to give you some information and help you understand the events that lead up to it.

Body
I. Performance enhancing drugs, also known as PED’s, are defined as controlled substances used by athletes to improve their performance.
a. They can range from anabolic steroids and growth hormones to caffeine, vitamins and protein supplements.
b. The classification of substances as performance enhancing...

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