Performance Enhancing Drugs Will Not Make You a Major Leaguer

The hardest thing to do in sports is hitting major league pitching. Performance enhancing drugs, aka steroids will not help you do this. Steroids allow you to work out harder and longer, recover quicker from your workouts, and recover faster from injury. Major league baseball players are elite athletes, they are born with that ability; it did not come from a syringe.

Much has been made about the revelation that New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003. Mr. Rodriguez admitted to using performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003. His rationale was that he wanted to justify his 252 million dollar contract. Mr. Rodriguez earned that contract based on his prior play, not public perception of his ability. Mr. Rodriguez was in the majors for several years with the Seattle Mariners and signed with the Texas Rangers as a free agent for 252 million dollars over 10 years. The contract was based on his production as a baseball player making the most of his natural ability.

If the average person on the street were to take performance enhancing drugs, he would gain size and strength, but not the ability to hit major league pitching. Since this is the case, why do we call them performance enhancing drugs?